 The title of today's presentation is Unit 1 William Blake, Holy Thursday, Major Themes, Style and Language. The name of the course is Journal English, Semester 1, Block 1. I welcome you to this particular presentation. Starting with a table of contents, you'll find the learning objectives, major themes, style and language, letter sum up and a few questions to check your progress followed by the reference. Learning objectives. After going through this third and final video of Unit 1, the learner will be able to explore the relevant themes pertaining to the poem, grasp the style and language employed in the poem, appreciate the symbolism and significance of the poem, Holy Thursday. Now, let us come to the major themes. What are some of the major themes that emerge from this particular poem? One is orphan children. You will notice that a sharp poem, Holy Thursday, reflects the ideal world of children, which is filled with fantasy and imagination, innocence and joy of childhood years. In contrast, it also reflects the sad reality of little children who are abandoned by their own parents and are left the mercy of charity homes in England. William Blake, who resents of love and empathy for little children, as is reflected in his volumes of poetry. The poet felt that the ideal environment in which children must be brought up should be an ideal place where they are nurtured like little flowers so that they can blossom to the fullest. Children must be loved and secured, accepted and inspired to dream of a good future and in fact be the future of the nation. Is it not? It is not enough to keep them from starving in their charity homes or anywhere else for that matter. But their guardians, as you can see in the poem, Holy Thursday, their guardians had a moral obligation of nourishing their souls. Now, it is a different matter whether they really met up to them, they lived up to those expectations or met up to those expectations. This is why the poet wrote that there are plenty of poor children, particularly in England, whose worlds were quote unquote, eternal winter, that is without the promise of a secure future. What does eternal winter mean? That means if you have only one season without having all the rest of the season, suppose you have only winter without having spring, summer, autumn, then it would be planned without the promise of a secure future we cannot move ahead, can we? These impoverished children deserve a secure future and they must be restored from a life of neglect and denial to life that is free from hunger and from the hunger not just of, you know, as in the food, hunger of food, a hunger of love and hope as well. They stay hungry, they need love, this is what they require, you know, to feel loved and protected. The nation will only prosper and flourish by its children their soul, which is very true. Therefore, the elderly guardians and philanthropists have a large role to play rather than attending mere charity functions, which is what William Blake is trying to point out. That is the celebration of Holy Thursday calls for a meaningful celebration in the true Christian spirit. So, with reference to this particular poem, this is what the poet tries to reflect. Another emerging theme is innocence and experience, which is so obvious. Blake's sounds of innocence and sounds of experience bring out the two different human states of mind, like I said before, innocence and experiences. So, these two human states of being or condition can be compared to what? To two opposite sides of a coin. So, it is experience that molds and transforms the human mind from its innocent and inexperienced state to its mature and well-experienced state, making a great difference to the early, you know, perception of the world around, isn't it? It is through the gradual stages of life that a child figures out the real world in sharp contrast to his ideal and imagined world. It takes the weight of experience for the youthful mind to be seasoned into maturity and to gather worldly wisdom. Now, the sounds of innocence are given to ideal happiness of childhood untouched by the realities of life, while the sounds of experience, if you notice, reveals the real practicalities of life. So, I would suggest to our learners to try and have a look at these particular volumes so that they can get a hang of what I'm talking about. The world of innocence is symbolic of the childhood years, filled with happiness, freedom, and playfulness. Won't we all relate to our childhood years or innocent years in this particular way? A state where both innocence and ignorance are blissful as reflected in the present coin. Now, the world of experience is symbolic of the adulthood years, but not everybody has happy childhood. They are some who really struggle through their childhood and who don't even experience the beauty or the innocence of childhood because life is so tough for them. So, world of experience reflects, you know, it kind of represents the world which is about in sorrow, which is about in obstacles with obstacles which is there where there are lots of struggles and obstacles and realities of life as contained in the corresponding coin in volume the songs of experience. Here I must tell you that for almost every poem in songs of innocence, there is a corresponding poem in songs of experience. So, it reflects both these words, this is what William Blake tried to do. Coming to the silent language, in the economy of just a few words, the poem brings alive a vivid picture of little ages whose innocence and reiterating presence almost immediately captures our hearts. The poem is filled with several images and similes that, for an instance, enables us to associate the radiance of little children to heavenly ages or the ambience of the celebration at the church to one filled with music and the gates of heaven. So, it conjures up these particular images. The first image is that of, as I've highlighted, plain innocent faces of children in the rose. The second is their uniforms of red and green and blue, put on coat red and green and blue. The third is the multitudes of little children, quote, multitudes of little children at the worship service. And the fourth image is that of quote, unquote, gray-headed needles of the ceremonial officers, remember, that I talked about. And the fifth is that of the quote, unquote, aged men on the rich patrons of Chinese homes. Also, the use of similes in the poem, a similes is only like in some words to others. These add to the visual images of the poems. For example, phrases like quote, unquote, wells as white as snow, quote, unquote, they like Thames' water flow where the children are being compared to the water or the river Thames, like a mighty wind. You're comparing, okay? So, this is the use of similes that we find in the poem. Or like harmonious thundering, harmony and thundering. So, we hear at one end you have harmony and at the other end you have thundering. So, two contrasting things come together. So, the moment you're using words like as these form, you know, similes, which are also comparative images. So, as you will notice, there is a musical or a lyrical quality in the rhyme scheme of the poem with rhyming words such as clean, green, slow, plow, down, our own, lamp's, hands, song, amount, pour, door. So, these are rhyming words that have been maintained. So, that is this particular musical quality in the poem as well. The particular poet, William Blake, also employs a few metaphors for an example, quote, unquote, these flowers of London town or multitudes of lamps referring to little children. The phrase raising their innocent hands or the word angel in the closing line of the poem refers to a little child, okay? The learner will find that the poem highlights striking and contrasting colors again. For example, the red, blue, greenery forms of the children or the colorful flowers of London, gray heads of aged men or the white of the beetle's world. So, these are colors that have been contrasted or played with in the poem. The entire mood of the poem is lifted with hymns and the songs sung in the sweet voices of little children and the worship service in St. Paul's Ethedra. It brings forth the message of hope and optimism in the Lord who is the port of love and protection to all his children, for all his children, right? So, with this, we come to the end of this presentation that we sum it up for you. After having worked through this unit, you have received an insight into life and works of the poet, William Blake. After a thorough reading of Holy Thursday, which I trust you will do at your own leisure, along with a detailed explanation that is provided, it will enable you to discuss the content of the poem and the emerging themes as well. Also, a study of the sign and language of the poem will provide you with a better idea of the poetical techniques employed by the poet. Further, the learner will appreciate the core message that is hidden in the poem, the core message, the central message in the poem that is, which highlights the realities of offering children and the importance of reaching out to them in time. I would leave you with a few questions, as always. Question number one, what are the major themes that are evident in the poem Holy Thursday? Question number two, what does William Blake's song of innocence and song of experience bring out to the reader? Question number three, what is the function of similes in the poem Give examples? Question number four, make a note of the striking images that are presented in the poem Holy Thursday. And question number five, what is the core message in the poem Holy Thursday? So you can pause it and you can write it down, write these questions down and try to answer them at your own leisure. So with this, we come to the end of this presentation. Here are the references. You can use the graduate self-learning material journey English blog on unit one semester one of which I am the contributor. I have written this unit and I hope it will be helpful for you. As also I have also mentioned the references here in this particular slide. So I wish you all the best and hardly thank you dear