Night (poem)

"Night" speaks about the coming of evil when darkness arrives, as angels protect and keep the sheep from the impending dangers.

Blake's aim for his Songs was to depict the two contrary states of human existence: innocence and experience.

Songs of Innocence is a lyric collection that depicts an idyllic world before adulthood, where the spirit of children is still religiously pure.

[2] In some of the poems in this work, such as "The Chimney Sweeper" and "The Little Black Boy", Blake uses irony and rhetoric to portray the corruption of innocence in youth.

Where flocks have took delight; Where lambs have nibbled, silent moves The feet of angels bright; Unseen they pour blessing, And joy without ceasing, On each bud and blossom, And each sleeping bosom.

... And there the lions ruddy eyes, Shall flow with tears of gold: And pitying the tender cries, And walking round the fold: Saying: wrath by his meekness And by his health, sickness, Is driven away, From our immortal day.

For wash'd in lifes river, My bright mane for ever, Shall shine like the gold, As I guard o'er the fold.

[3] Night is a poem that describes two contrasting places: Earth, where nature runs wild, and Heaven, where predation and violence are nonexistent.

It is influenced by a passage from the Old Testament: Isaiah 11:6-8 "The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.

In the poem, the first stanza describes a landscape with "the sun descending," when the world is settling quietly into night.

The ruddy and crying eyes of the lion depict heaven as "a place of tears," showing that the world need not be transcended to achieve innocence.

[9] Heather Glen's Vision and Disenchantment: Blake's Songs and Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads argues that "Night" is an exploration of social anxiety.

He claims that "Night" focuses on "illusory comfort," which is closely aligned with the "mutual reassurances" mentioned by Glen.

The end of "Night" shifts its focus to God, showing that true comfort and salvation can only come from the supernatural.

[11] The complexity of "Night" is addressed in Hazard Adams' William Blake: A Reading of the Shorter Poems.

The speaker's frustration creates a tone of melancholy in the poem as he attempts to attain a higher state of innocence.

This form is one illustration of the eternal struggle of art against education, of the literary artist against the continuous deterioration of language.