Understanding the Poem
1. How are these two matched poems related to each other in
content? How is the human being depicted in the Song of
Innocence and how is he/she depicted in the Song of Experience? Do we find both aspects working in an average human being?
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2. How would you explain the lines
For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.
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3. How do Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love get distorted in the human
brain?
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4. Blake’s poetry expresses one aspect of his multi-dimensional
view of human experience—of mankind once whole and happy,
now fallen into discord and tyranny, from which it must be
rescued. Explain with reference to these two poems.
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Language Work
1. Certain words in the poem have been capitalised. Can you think
of reasons for this?
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2. Count the syllables in the lines of ‘The Divine Image’. Do you
see a pattern? The first line has eight and the second line has six syllables.
Two syllables make a foot in poetry. Here the first syllable of
each foot is unstressed and the second syllable is stressed.
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