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Holy Thursday by William Blake

Analysis

"Holy Thursday" is a poem written by William Blake. This poem is about attending church on Holy Thursday. The poem states that they walk into "the high dome of Paul's", meaning a church, and then sit and "hum" as "multitudes of lambs". Then they "raise to heaven the vocie of song' as if they were singing to God. The reference to the "aged men, wise guardians of the poor" is most likely the priests.

This poem is written as three stanzas with four lines in each. It has the rhyme scheme of AABB. Each line has fourteen syllables.

Poem

Holy Thursday
By 

'Twas on a holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,
The children walking two and two in red and blue and green:
Grey-headed beadles walked before, with wands as white as snow,
Till into the high dome of Paul's they like Thames waters flow.

O what a multitude they seemed, these flowers of London town!
Seated in companies they sit, with radiance all their own.
The hum of multitudes was there, but multitudes of lambs,
Thousands of little boys and girls raising their innocent hands.

Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song,
Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among:
Beneath them sit the aged men, wise guardians of the poor.
Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.

Next: Infant Sorrow

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Nationality
English

Literary Movement
Romanticism, 18th Century

Subjects
Religion, Christian, God