Auguries of Innocence

Structured as a series of aphorisms or pithy assertions, William Blake’s 132-line-long poem uses narrative elements from both Biblical and religious sermons. Representative of Blake’s “prophetic” style, the speaker-persona delivers visions and epiphanies, as if from a pulpit. However, while Blake was a devout Christian, he was opposed to organized religion and the Church of England. In “Auguries of Innocence,” to be faithful means not to be faithful to the tenets of the church but faithful to Christian ideas of mercy, justice, and piety, as well as the Romantic ideals of prizing the imagination and childlike innocence.

The poem’s prophetic subject is clear from its title, which contains the word “auguries,” i.e., portents or signs. “Innocence” refers to a state of childlike wonder, in which the imagination is capable of faith, creativity, and the search for truth. In the Bible, Adam and Eve, the first humans, were innocent before eating the forbidden fruit of knowledge. After eating the fruit, they lost their innocence and were cast out of the Garden of Eden by God. In Blake’s philosophy, innocence is lost as people grow up and encounter the unjust institutions of the world, but can be regained through experience itself. The signs of innocence in the poem describe the view of both an innocent child and of the person who has regained innocence.

One of the key features of these signs is juxtaposition. The poem’s opening lines depict the paradoxical nature of existence: Infinity exists in minutiae. The speaker uses the metaphors of a world housed in a grain of sand and an entire heaven blooming in a flower. When one’s imagination and attentiveness are strong enough, infinity can exist in a moment. The poet also subtly introduces the idea that Christianity and the official church are not the same. Heaven—and by extension, salvation—is reflected in a single flower, rather than in organized religion.

Line 5 introduces the third key idea in the poem, which is that violence against animals is a crime against God. Such acts desecrate the natural order and the human spirit, and will be avenged by the heavens. The speaker uses a series of images of animals being punished or beaten for pleasure, from a “dog starv’d at his Master’s Gate” (Line 9) to the “Skylark wounded in the wing” (Line 15), to show the mutilation of innocence and imagination by the adult world of greed, violence, and covetousness. From the cage in which the robin is confined in Line 5, the speaker moves on to the starved dog predicting the ruin of the state or country in Line 10. Thus, not only does the abuse of animals symbolize the ruination of the human spirit, it also symbolizes a corrupt society—the personal and the political are an interwoven realm.

Animals represent innocence, such as the lone wing-shorn rooster “clipd & armd to fight” (Line 17) for the entertainment of a crowd. The fact that the sun is frightened by the spectacle of the victimized rooster shows a solidarity between nature and innocent victims. This victimized figure recurs in the image of the slaughtered lamb. The lamb in Christian iconography, as well as Blake’s poetics, represents Jesus. The sacrifice of the lamb—which the lamb forgives—is an injustice that rattles humanity. In orthodox Christianity, humans are made in God’s image, but the divine is distinct. In Blake’s theology, the divine exists in everything, as “Auguries of Innocence” reflects.

The animal imagery continues into the middle of the poem and expands its key ideas. In Lines 25-26, the speaker declares that “the Bat that flits at close of Eve / Has left the Brain that wont Believe.” This couplet introduces the theme of Faith Versus Doubt. The metaphor of the bat taking flight as night descends represents wisdom leaving the brains of doubters. When the bat of wisdom flies off, the metaphorical sky of the unbelieving brain is plunged into the darkness of ignorance. Similarly, the wise owl calling in the night in Line 27 heralds the “Unbeliever's fright” (Line 28) or the despair of doubters. Faith and doubt form the new set of contraries introduced in the poem. Like most of Blake’s ideas, these nouns cannot be wholly understood by traditional definitions of Christianity and atheism: The doubter is not just someone who does not believe in Christ, but also someone who does not believe in the imagination, magic, and wonder.

After associating certain animals with doubt, the speaker again switches to the motif of animal abuse. However, the idea is expanded to include the concept of divine justice. The person who harms animals and the innocence they represent will receive a punishment, as “He who torments the Chafers Sprite / Weaves a Bower in endless Night” (Lines 35-36). The “Chafers Sprite” refers to a scarab beetle, but the word “sprite” is also evocative of “spirit,” or soul. Thus, whoever tortures an animal tortures the universal soul. The punishment of such a person is weaving a nest in endless night, suggestive of someone performing a lonely task in endless emptiness. The emptiness is not just a literal Hell but also the mind’s hell of loneliness and spiritual death.

The Cost of Human Cruelty and Injustice is amplified in Lines 45-48:

The Gnat that sings his Summers Song

Poison gets from Slanders tongue

The poison of the Snake & Newt

Is the sweat of Envys Foot.

Here, human “venom” or negativity either stops the miraculous workings of nature—the gnat singing his happy song—or poisons their essence, as in the case of the snake and newt. Humans, being sentient and conscious creatures, have a great responsibility to the rest of creation. Their actions energetically influence the entire universe, which is why human beings must be thoughtful, caring, and compassionate. This theme, which in contemporary times is reflected in new-age spirituality, was a surprisingly modern idea for Blake’s time.

The realm of spirituality and religion is not distinct from social and political realities. In fact, the state of a people’s spirit and conscience is tied with the state of affairs in their country. In Lines 41-42, the poet deconstructs the puzzle of wealth. It is because princes wear expensive robes and misers hoard money that beggars are dressed in rags. In other words, wealth or a concentration of resources creates poverty: It is greed or miserliness that is breeding the “toadstools” or fungus of inequality and poverty.

From Line 51 onward, the speaker branches out from the animal imagery and metaphors that have so far predominated. The couplets are now axiomatic, that is, presented as universal and proverbial truths. For instance, in Lines 53-54, the speaker states that a truth told with malicious intent is worse than “all the Lies you can invent,” emphasizing that it is paramount to always act with kindness toward others. While the axiom is straightforward enough, its secondary meaning can be understood in the context of Blake’s Romantic ideals. Lies that are “invented” or created are not necessarily untruths but can be stories that ring true emotionally. Thus, the concept of truth is not limited to literal or sensory reality but reality that is intuitive, felt, imagined, and essential. This couplet yokes together the contrary ideas of reality and invention.

The contrary nature of existence now takes centerstage in the poem, with the speaker stating that “Joy & Woe” (Line 56) are both the lot of humans. One cannot exist without the other. A metaphor is used to describe the complex nature of existence in Lines 59-62, where joy and woe are threads weaving a “Clothing for the soul divine” (Line 60). The cloth is a metaphor for the body, which is the garment of the soul. The body is knitted by suffering and happiness. The speaker also introduces another set of opposites: matter and spirit. Not only are joy and grief inseparable and equally valid, so is the pairing of the earthly, suffering-riddled body and the divine soul. The baby is more than its swaddling cloth, which is to say that the human body is more than flesh—the body is also the soul.

In the next few lines, the speaker stresses that tools are born and hands are made. While at first glance, this is another instance of the yoking of contraries—manmade tools and nature-born hands are inseparable—there is a deeper meaning to the couplet. The explicit comparison between tools and hands is actually a metaphor for body and soul. The body is the soul’s tool, which the soul uses for its experience on earth. Once the tool’s use is done, the soul departs into a higher realm. Farmers know this fact intuitively, rather than intellectually, though it evades reason. As ever in the poem, figures like the baby, the child, the farmer, the wild animal, and the poet are all united in innocence against the world of those who pursue only dull reason.

Reason is dull because it obfuscates the imagination, invoking the theme of The Limits of Perception. For the poet, privileging only material reality denies the big picture of existence, which includes imagined and intuitive truths. In Lines 67-70, the speaker asserts that every tear shed becomes a baby in the spiritual world, and is eventually caught by a goddess and sent back to earth. The shed tear represents sympathy and compassion: Each compassionate thought creates a child, an image of perfect innocence, in the infinite realm. Here, Blake links the human impulse of kindness with genesis itself, expanding the poem’s previous idea that human actions have tremendous significance in the cosmos. In other words, the kindness and creativity of humans keep the wheels of the universe turning.

While the cry of a beaten child begets God’s vengeance (Lines 73-74), the torn rags of a beggar rend heaven’s heart itself. Here, the speaker uses apocalyptic imagery to signify the fruits of injustice. Note the dark phrase “realms of Death” (Line 74) used to describe the state in which child abusers will find themselves. The idea of divine retribution covers everything from individual acts of abuse to institutional violence. The soldier, representing the military, shoots not just a target, but the sun itself (Line 78). The sun is described as “Palsied” (Line 78) or sick, and represents nature diseased by human violence. The poem’s metaphors also reflect the environmental ravages of the Industrial Revolution (1760-1840), in which machine-made goods were, for the first time in history, beginning to dominate handcrafted wares (See: Background). The soldier’s sword and gun in Line 77 represent the implements of industry.

The speaker next raises the question of value versus buying power. While the forces of wealth make one believe that an object’s value and buying power are indistinguishable, the speaker contests this notion. To a poor man, his one penny is dearer in value than all the gold on the shores of Africa (Lines 79-80), and the shilling a laborer makes with their hard work is so precious that it can buy the miser’s lands. The speaker is praising honest labor and simplicity while alluding to an idyllic state of truth that would exist if the forces of greed did not exist. If the laborer’s interest is “protected from on high” (Line 83) or protected by the government, such an ideal state could be achieved. Again, this set of couplets links the spiritual to the political in a single panorama, illustrating that for Blake, the personal, spiritual, social, and political realities are inextricably linked.

The speaker turns again from practical observation to the realm of faith and doubt from Line 85 onward. Those who question the faith of children and other innocent beings are condemned; these questioners are not just atheists but those who lack imagination. The mocker of children’s faith will never get out of “the rotting Grave” (Line 88) precisely because he rejects an afterlife. On the other hand, the person who believes in eternal life will naturally triumph over death. These lines testify to the power of faith and imagination. The couplets that follow switch thematically among Faith Versus Doubt, the corrupting nature of power and arms, and social inequality as a predictor of national malaise. The speaker cheekily offers suggestions on how to deal with pedants, or those who ask questions for the sake of questioning. They are best dealt a “Cricket’s Cry” (Line 103), signifying a silence so awkward one can hear crickets chirp. The image introduces a rare note of humor in an otherwise tonally somber poem.

In Lines 113-118, the speaker uses the image of the harlot and the gambler to signify England’s ruin. In the poem’s historical context, sex workers were particularly poor and exploited (like children forced into labor). Thus, the “Harlot’s cry” is a searing indictment of the state of affairs in England, where women are forced into prostitution. These lines use the metaphor of the corpse and the funeral procession to illustrate social decay. The harlot’s cry is implicitly compared to a burial shroud for England’s corpse, and the gamblers’ revelry (signifying greed) before the hearse carrying the nation’s dead body shows profiteers benefiting as England perishes. The reference to “Winners” and “Losers” (Line 117) describes an inequitable society, where someone must lose in order for others to win. This apocalyptic state of affairs is directly linked to the victimization of innocence.

From Line 119 onward, there is a shift in the poem’s structure. The rhyming AABB couplets now rush into repeated rhymes, as in Lines 121-24 where each line ends on the word “Night” or “delight.” Not only is the rhyme repeated, but so are entire lines, as when Lines 122-23 are exactly replicated: “Some are Born to sweet delight / Some are Born to sweet delight.” The repetition and repeated end rhymes shift the poem’s tone from prophetic and aphoristic to musical and incantatory. An eerie, song-like quality enters the poem, especially since what the speaker is establishing is that some people are born to “sweet delight” (Line 122), while others are to “Endless Night” (line 124). The phrase “Endless Night” loops back to the image of the person who tortures the beetle weaving a nest in endless night in Lines 35-36. The implication here is that some people choose the “Light” of truth and imagination, while others choose the “Night” of doubt and corruption.

The light-dark imagery dominates the poem in its concluding section. Light is associated with eternal life, God, the imagination, and the higher world beyond the senses. The dark signifies ignorance, doubt, and mortality. In Lines 125-28, the speaker says that seeing through the eyes (i.e., the five senses) does not reveal the whole truth. To learn the truth, one must see with the eye of the imagination. The metaphor of sight as knowledge and perceptiveness complements the light-dark imagery here. The eye “was Born in a Night to perish in a Night” (Line 127)—reality perceived by the senses is temporary. This line contains a Biblical allusion from the Book of Jonah in the Old Testament of the Bible, where God tells Jonah not to grieve the plant Jonah tended, as it was “which came up in a night, and perished in a night” (Jonah 4:10, King James Version).

While the eye and the material world it sees are born to die, the soul is eternal and “Slept in Beams of Light” (Line 128). Those who know this with the eyes of the imagination, faith, and poetry do not grieve the death of the material world. Lines 129-32 contain a corollary: If God appears as beams of light in the material world shrouded by dark, he logically must appear in his true form in the world of light or the eternal spiritual realm. The true form the poem describes is human. This description is in keeping with Christian and Biblical theology where the divine (Jesus) appears in human form. The poem takes a step further from Christian doctrine to suggest that the divine and the human are of similar essence. In the last four lines, the words “Light” and “Night” occur again, linking the end rhyme to preceding verses and strengthening the chant-like effect of the concluding section of the poem.