Nurse’s Song.

Nurse’s Song

==from Songs of Innocence== When the voices of children are heard on the green,
And laughing is heard on the hill,
My heart is at rest within my breast,
And everything else is still.”

Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down,
And the dews of night arise;
Come, come, leave off play, and let us away
Till the morning appears in the skies.”

“No, no, let us play, for it is yet day,
And we cannot go to sleep;
Besides, in the sky the little birds fly,
And the hills are all cover’d with sheep .”

“Well, well, go & play till the light fades away ,
And then go home to bed.”
The little ones leaped & shouted & laugh’d
And all the hills ecchoed.

Blake_Nurse's_Song.jpg
Photograph from Wikisource.

Nurse’s Song

==from Songs of Experience== When the voices of children are heard on the green
And whisp’rings are in the dale,
The days of my youth rise fresh in my mind ,
My face turns green and pale.

Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down,
And the dews of night arise;
Your spring & your day are wasted in play ,
And your winter and night in disguise.

nurses_song.jpg
Photograph from Hans Zimmermanns.

In the Nurse’s Song from The Songs of Innocence, the narrator sees the innocence in the young children. She sees how much fun they are having and how they do not want to go home to bed until the last possible light of day is gone. When the narrator does suggest coming in, the children make the point that the sheep are still out and the birds are still flying and it does the narrators heart good to know the children are outside playing. The children are in an innocent state of mind, and they do not see the harm in playing. The nurse allows them to play, and it makes her feel good to know that the children are having fun. In the Nurse’s Song in The Song’s of Experience, the narrator seems more experienced and grown up. Again, she sees the children are having fun, but instead of it warming her heart, she thinks it is a waste of a day. She is reminiscent of her childhood days when she would play outside. Looking back, though, she feels like this time spent playing was a waste of her time. As children, the time spent playing is all in innocent fun, but when the narrator becomes more experienced, she is aware of the other things that should be getting done, and also of the dangers that a child can come across while playing outside.

This is a link to a video on YouTube of William Blake’s, The Nurse’s Song, being shown through dance and being recited.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfierdlAPAA

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Photographs Borrowed from:

http://12koerbe.de/phosphoros/songs-ex.htm
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nurse’s_Song_(Blake,_1789)