The Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday – Notes
Introduction
"Holy Thursday" is a poem by William Blake, first published in Songs of Innocence and Experience in 1794. This poem, unlike its companion poem in "Songs of Innocence" (1789), focuses more on society as a whole than the Holy Thursday ceremony. In "Holy Thursday" Blake expresses feelings towards the society around him; England in the 18th Century and the emotional, spiritual and moral poverty.
Summary
The poem begins with a series of questions. The poet asks how holy is the sight of children living in misery in a prosperous country? England was a rich country, yet children led a life of misery. They were fed by insensitive, unloving and callous people who give money to feed the children. Those are the people who want something in return. Blake believed wholeheartedly that charity was not needed and children should not be allowed to become so poor in the "rich and fruitful land" of England.
Blake seems to be stunned that despite their lives of ''misery'', the children are expected to sing 'songs of joy’, or hymns, in praise of God and their supposed privilege of education. Blake hears the cries of the children and asks the reader if it can be a song because there are so many children crying that it sounds like a song. He also asks if it can be a song of joy that the children are singing because of the state of poverty they are in. He says that the land is poor because it does not have enough to feed small children and therefore must be called ''land of poverty''.
The next stanza deals with the fact that the life of children is unloved and cold. Their life does not know the glory of sunshine and their fields are bleak and bare without any fertility. Thorns line the path that they trod on and their life is ‘eternal winter’ where they experience neither physical comfort nor the warmth of love.
He finishes the poem on a note that if the sun does shine and rain does fall in a country, the small orphaned children will never be hungry and uncared. There will also be no poverty that fills the mind with dismay.
Analysis
"Holy Thursday" consists of four quatrains. The first is a heroic quatrain (ABAB) but the remaining three vary. The second stanza strikes discord by having no rhyme (ABCD, although there may be an intended slant rhyme for "joy" and "poverty" in their spelling). The last two follow the ABCB pattern. This irregularity perhaps contributes to the poem's tone of decay and confusion as the subject matter, the exploitation and neglect of children, becomes clear to the reader.

In the poem from Songs of Innocence, Blake described the public appearance of charity school children in St. Paul’s Cathedral on Ascension Day in a bright and joyful tone. In this “experienced” version, however, he critiques rather than praises the charity of the institutions responsible for hapless children. The rhetorical technique of the poem poses a number of suspicious questions about the people who are powerful in England.
It is not only a song of experience but also a song of revolution. The tone of the poem is largely satirical as Blake brings out the hypocrisy of the benevolent and their righteousness in thinking that they have done a great service in opening charity schools. He is also highly critical of the rich people of England as they do not show the least care for the orphaned children of the country.
Introduction for annotation

These lines are taken from the poem “Holy Thursday” written by William Blake.
It is a part of the collection of poems of “Songs of Experience”. The poem is a sequel to the poem with the same title in “Songs of Innocence”. The poem is a song of revolution and Blake is bitter than satirical in the poem. He is indignant that inspite of all the prosperity in trade and commerce, England is unable to provide for the barest needs of the poor particularly the little children in charity schools. The poem exposes the hypocrisy of the benevolent and their righteousness in thinking that they have done a great service to the poor by opening charity schools.