Songs of Innocence and Experience Contents
- Social / political context
- Religious / philosophical context
- Literary context
- Textual history
- Songs of Innocence
- Introduction (I)
- The Shepherd
- The Ecchoing Green
- The Lamb
- The little black boy
- The Blossom
- The chimney sweeper (I)
- The little boy lost (I)
- The Little Boy Found
- Laughing song
- A Cradle Song
- The Divine Image
- Holy Thursday (I)
- Night
- Spring
- Nurse's Song (I)
- Infant Joy
- A Dream
- On Another's Sorrow
- Songs of Experience
- Introduction (E)
- Earth's Answer
- The Clod and the Pebble
- Holy Thursday (E)
- The Little Girl Lost
- The Little Girl Found
- The Chimney Sweeper (E)
- Nurse's Song (E)
- The Sick Rose
- The Fly
- The Angel
- The Tyger
- My Pretty Rose-tree
- Ah! Sun-flower
- The Lilly
- The Garden of Love
- The Little Vagabond
- London
- The Human Abstract
- Infant Sorrow
- A Poison Tree
- A Little Boy Lost (E)
- A Little Girl Lost
- To Tirzah
- The Schoolboy
- The Voice of the Ancient Bard
- A Divine Image
The Little Boy Found - Language, tone and structure
Language and tone
The alliterated L in the first two lines gives a flowing, open sound to the opening of the poem which works with the simplistic rhythm to suggest an easy optimism. This pulls against the meaning of the words which the alliteration highlights – ‘little', ‘lost', ‘lonely'.
God appears ‘like his father in white', suggesting something bright and pure, even angelic. The child's mother, by contrast is ‘pale'. She, too, is lacking in colour and is white. This term, however, evokes exhaustion, being drained of life and colour. Although this is appropriate to a mother of a lost child, it is also a disturbing idea. It is as though the child is handed over from a bright, life-filled power to one which is drained of life.
Investigating language and tone
- Re-write the alliterated lines, replacing the alliterative words with others e.g. ‘small' instead of ‘little'
- Do they have the same impact?
Structure and versification
The stanzas are quatrains rhyming ABCB, DEFE. The repeated ‘and's, plus the enjambement from lines 5-6, conveys the focussed action arising from God's intervention. However, the internal rhyme in the third line of each quatrain creates a predictable, simplistic rhythm. It is rather pat, too easy in its patterning. This reinforces the glib reassurance of the poem's overt message.
Investigating structure and versification
- Try replacing the internal rhyme-word with a similar, non-rhyming word
- What change in the effect of the rhythm does this produce?
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