The Clod and the Pebble - Synopsis and commentary
Synopsis of The Clod and the Pebble
A lump of clay sings that love is totally concerned with the good of others, and should be oblivious to its own needs. By acting in this way, it creates heaven in the midst of the despair of hell. The clod sings this while it is trodden upon by cattle. But a pebble in the brook sings another song. Love is totally directed towards itself. It is cruel and possessive, creating hell in the midst of heaven.
Commentary
This poem looks at two different forms of natural material – soft clay and hard stone – and the two different approaches to life which they represent, while they remain part of one reality. In this, it relates to the pastoral genre.
The opening stanza reads like the confident assertion that might be heard in a sermon. It echoes a well-known passage from the Bible about love, (1 Corinthians 13:4-7) and does not try to justify its self-evident ‘truth'. It, therefore, comes as a shock to learn the identity of its speaker. It may seem hard to associate this noble idea of love with something as unattractive as a clod of clay. If the reader agrees that love should be selfless, does that imply the acceptance of being trodden upon? The reader is thus faced with his / her own attraction to - and revulsion by - this notion of love and vision of heaven.
Expectations are further undermined by the pebble. The diction ‘warbled' and ‘metres meet (fitting or appropriate)' is characteristic 18th century language which might lead the reader to anticipate another improving and decorous ‘moral fable' (see Literary context > Enlightenment literature). Further, the pebble in the brook appears to have a more advantageous identity and situation:
- Which sounds more appealing, a clod or a pebble?
- Would you rather be in a fresh brook or under the feet of heavy cattle?
Readers might therefore anticipate an opinion to match the more appealing nature of the pebble. They are unprepared for the deeply cynical view of love which follows.
At the end of the poem, readers are left in a dilemma. The pebble does, indeed, seem better off than the clod, even though its view may be repellent. They may agree with the clod's sentiment but feel unable to embrace its fate. Blake makes his readers confront:
- A too easy, superficial acceptance of self less love which is unaware of the cost
- Human attraction to the fruits of selfish love.
In this way, he suggests that:
- Both heavenly and hellish attitudes are aspects of human experience
- It is the choices made by individuals that create heaven and hell in their present lives.
Investigating The Clod and the Pebble
- Do you think that the clod and the pebble represent the only choices available regarding behaviour?
- English Standard Version
- King James Version
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 4Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 8Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 11When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
In many religions, the place where God dwells, and to which believers aspire after their death. Sometimes known as Paradise.
Jesus describes hell as the place where Satan and his demons reside and the realm where unrepentant souls will go after the Last Judgement.
1. Associated with spiritual care
2. A literary work depicting sheperds or rural life.
A French word meaning type or class. A major division of type or style in an art-form. A sub-genre is a lesser division. The main literary genres are novel, short story, comedy, tragedy, epic and lyric.
The technical name for a verse, or a regular repeating unit of so many lines in a poem. Poetry can be stanzaic or non-stanzaic.
A talk which provides religious instruction and encouragement.
The Christian Bible consists of the Old Testament scriptures inherited from Judaism, together with the New Testament, drawn from writings produced from c.40-125CE, which describe the life of Jesus and the establishment of the Christian church.
