Holy Thursday recounts the annual marching of approximately six thousand poor children to St. Paul’s Cathedral. These children hailed from the charity schools of the city and were taken to the Cathedral to demonstrate their reverence for God and their gratitude to their benefactors.

Blake against organised education and oppression – the innocence of children trumps the self serving nature of these wise guardians – they expect gratitude, but they are only oppressing these young children further.

On of Blake’s most thorny poems, especially in a modern context, concerns a young black boy who questions why he is treated like a second-class human being while his mother tries to comfort him. It is worth noting that Blake sided with Abolitionists, but the poem still poses a rather nuanced and difficult of race relations.

“London”, first published in 1794’s Songs of Experience, is usually seen as a poem of social protest. A less common view, espoused by Harold Bloom, is that the poem constitutes a response to the prophecies of the Bible.

From the Songs of Experience – the thuggish flipside to Songs of Innocence - Jesus the Tiger as opposed to the baby lamb. The Jesus of the Matthew 10 who said,

I came not to send peace, but a sword.

(Jesus the Warrior, Mosaic at Ravenna)

Blake saw his first tiger at the London Zoo in 1793, an experience that inspired this poem.

As the meme poem of Songs of Experience, “The Tyger” balances “The Lamb” (which is about Jesus, more or less…)

Here’s Blake’s original illustration of the poem:

One of Dizzee Rascals more conscious songs. Taken from his debut album, Boy In The Corner.

He talks about life growing up in London, friendships diminishing and the future (among other things).