The shepherd by william blake6/28/2023 for the creation and continuation of this state of irresponsible gaiety" (92) it is listed as among "the more happy songs" (291). Robert Gleckner: "The Shepherd" is a "song of praise. Only the Songs of Innocence portrays the psyche ‘prior to the separation of things’" (172). Myra Glazer: "Most of Blake’s work concentrates on the struggles of the divided world and the task of reintegration. The same speaker, who naturally (if naively) believes that 'sweet is the Shepherd’s sweet lot' ('The Shepherd'), may echo Jesus’s trenchant metonymy ‘I am the good shepherd’ (John 10.11,14) and its eschatological adaptation in 1 Peter 5.4: ‘When the chief shepherd appears, you will be given the crown of unfading glory" (105). The shepherd persona of Innocence is enjoined (104). Philip Gallagher: "The first two Songs of Innocence (in Erdman’s ordering)-'Introduction' and 'The Shepherd'-transcend the secular tropes of conventional pastoral poetry that they clearly embody and point toward the Bible. Innocence Demonstrated by the Shepherd’s Protection and Spirit of Oneness It is pointless to object that such a world does not exist in what seems to be the world of common sense and ‘experience’: such an objection would be raised by a Bacon or by a similar advocate of ration perception" (74-75). project the innocent’s ability to recast his world imaginatively into one where we can not only be at home but also be cared for by a loving shepherd. For Blake, the shepherd-sheep relationship and the special world inhabited by shepherd and sheep become the way of representing the characteristic mode of perception in the state of innocence. In the Songs of Innocence, pastoralism is the controlling convention but Blake attains far more with his use of pastoralism than the simplification of relationships that the convention usually achieves. Experience is, on the other hand, the analytic state of mind that finds the limits of the world that our fallen perception gives us. The state of Innocence, possessed by each of us in childhood or in fantasy, is the proof that we possess the powerful, creative, and Divine Imagination. Paananen: "Attempts by critics to make the Songs of Innocence ironic, to suggest that Blake undercuts or even mocks the perspective and language of innocence, are based on an inadequate grasp of Blake’s thought. All is Arcadian peace and trustfulness" (133). The two stanzas express the relationship of the ewes and their lambs with their guardian, the shepherd. The shepherd has now put down his pipe and holds a crook instead, the sign of his calling. Sir Geoffrey Keynes: This second poem is a simple one and needs little comment. Ellis, who in a Facsimile of Songs of Innocence and of Experience (viii) "identifies the Shepherd with Tharmas." Damon brushes off this comparison of the innocent shepherd with a more complex figure by saying that Ellis had to "justify his statement that ‘there is no book of Blake’s so difficult to thoroughly understand’" (268). Foster Damon in William Blake: His Philosophy and Symbols: "To most of us this poem needs no comment." Damon quotes E. Criticism of "The Shepherd" generally falls into one of four categories: (1) The poem’s simplicity requiring little commentary (2) the vision of innocence demonstrated by the shepherd’s protection of and spirit of oneness with his flock (3) the more complicated undertones implied in the vision of innocence and (4) the poem’s pastoral elements.
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