Lost and Found and Lost and Found
I love poetry too much to attempt to generalize an entire book. I want to dive into Blake's "The Little Boy Lost" and "The Little Boy Found" from Songs of Innocence along with "The Little Girl Lost" and "The Little Girl Found" from Songs of Experience, though I must admit it's a lot to chew. Blake put these two collections together as a juxtaposition of innocence of childhood against the harshness of adulthood. This is not to say that he does not make arguments or point out the flaws of society in Innocence, because that is just not true. Blake's poems in Innocence are even more striking than those in Experience in some ways because the fallen nature of humanity is shown through the eyes of children. Let's slow down for a moment, though.
"The Little Boy Lost" (page 5). We see a boy calling out to his father who does not hear his son or ignores him, leaving the little boy behind. The little boy is left in the mud, crying. The sister poem is "The Little Boy Found" (page 5) and it would be wrong to read either without the other. "The Little Boy Found" can be summarized as such: God heard the little boy crying and came to lovingly lead him back to his mother. Simple, right? Let's dig deeper. The little boy is us, humans roaming the earth, as we seek after an earthly father, whether that be religion, rules, or idols. This earthly father will always return void and leave us more and more lost; like the little boy crying in the mud, we are sinners wallowing in our earthly desires. However, God steps in and saves us. He lovingly pulls us up and leads us in the way to walk. The mother in this poem is the comfort and hope we find in the gospel while we are yet on earth.
"The Little Girl Lost" (page 15) is a little bit darker and a bit longer. Just like the little boy, the girl Lyca is a portrait of the lost and wandering soul. Note that this poem has a much eerie-er and dream like feel than the little boy poems. Lyca is troubled and lost, yet cannot sleep because her mother and father are weeping for her. When Lyca sleeps, the lion (Jesus) came to protect her. We quickly see that Lyca has entered paradise. "The Little Girl Lost" (page 17) continues the story from her parents' point of view. They are searching for their lost daughter and after a week are met by the lion (Jesus) who shows them their daughter who is safe and fast asleep in paradise. This poet set clearly belongs in Experience just based on the tone. As eerie as it is, we see the pure suffering of this world, the weeping and searching, which is ended when Jesus comes and brings rest, along with entry into paradise.
So what separates the little girl poems from the little boy poems if they have such similar messages? I think the biggest difference is the little boy's story ends in life and the little girl's ends in death, even if the poem doesn't explicitly say that she died. In both poems we see the pain of the present world and a loss of innocence. The fact that the second little girl poem is written more geared towards the parents is also significant; it says that when a child suffers, the parents do too and even more than that, the child can feel the parents suffering which prolongs the child's own suffering (Lyca being unable to sleep as her parents wept). The deliverance is obvious in the little boy poems, when in the little girl ones it is just relief.
If you compare more of Blake's Innocence poems with their Experience counterparts, you'll find their messages aren't all that different.
I commented on Sophia and Abigail's posts.
"The Little Boy Lost" (page 5). We see a boy calling out to his father who does not hear his son or ignores him, leaving the little boy behind. The little boy is left in the mud, crying. The sister poem is "The Little Boy Found" (page 5) and it would be wrong to read either without the other. "The Little Boy Found" can be summarized as such: God heard the little boy crying and came to lovingly lead him back to his mother. Simple, right? Let's dig deeper. The little boy is us, humans roaming the earth, as we seek after an earthly father, whether that be religion, rules, or idols. This earthly father will always return void and leave us more and more lost; like the little boy crying in the mud, we are sinners wallowing in our earthly desires. However, God steps in and saves us. He lovingly pulls us up and leads us in the way to walk. The mother in this poem is the comfort and hope we find in the gospel while we are yet on earth.
"The Little Girl Lost" (page 15) is a little bit darker and a bit longer. Just like the little boy, the girl Lyca is a portrait of the lost and wandering soul. Note that this poem has a much eerie-er and dream like feel than the little boy poems. Lyca is troubled and lost, yet cannot sleep because her mother and father are weeping for her. When Lyca sleeps, the lion (Jesus) came to protect her. We quickly see that Lyca has entered paradise. "The Little Girl Lost" (page 17) continues the story from her parents' point of view. They are searching for their lost daughter and after a week are met by the lion (Jesus) who shows them their daughter who is safe and fast asleep in paradise. This poet set clearly belongs in Experience just based on the tone. As eerie as it is, we see the pure suffering of this world, the weeping and searching, which is ended when Jesus comes and brings rest, along with entry into paradise.
So what separates the little girl poems from the little boy poems if they have such similar messages? I think the biggest difference is the little boy's story ends in life and the little girl's ends in death, even if the poem doesn't explicitly say that she died. In both poems we see the pain of the present world and a loss of innocence. The fact that the second little girl poem is written more geared towards the parents is also significant; it says that when a child suffers, the parents do too and even more than that, the child can feel the parents suffering which prolongs the child's own suffering (Lyca being unable to sleep as her parents wept). The deliverance is obvious in the little boy poems, when in the little girl ones it is just relief.
If you compare more of Blake's Innocence poems with their Experience counterparts, you'll find their messages aren't all that different.
I commented on Sophia and Abigail's posts.
Now although Blake isn't one of my favorites, as I clearly made known, I did enjoy a few of his pieces; these included. I feel his language and attitude wasn't quite as bouncy in these poems as it was in the others, like it took the idea of death to tone down his "joy". This may sound bad but I'm glad the little girl didn't live in the second poem, and I say that because it shows things don't always work out the way we want them too. Her parents would have loved to find her, and find her alive at that, but it didn't happen that way. They found her thanks to the Lion but she was in heaven. We usually have our own plans and our own ideas about how we want something to work out but God's plan is always better. Yes its sad that she died but because of that, she ended up in the safest place anyone can be; somewhere much better than earth and her parents can rest well knowing she can never be hurt or lost again.
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