Songs of Innocence: By William Blake

“HOLY THURSDAY”

Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,

The children walking two and two, in red and blue and green,

Grey headed beadles walk’d before, with wands as white as snow,

Till into the high dome of Paul’s they like Thames’ waters flow.

Oh what a multitude they seem’d, 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.

“THE LITTLE BLACK BOY”

My mother bore me in the southern wild,

And I am black, but O! my soul is white;

White as an angel is the English child:

But I am black as if bereav’d of light.

My mother taught me underneath a tree

And sitting down before the heat of day,

She took me on her lap and kissed me,

And pointing to the east began to say.

Look on the rising sun: there God does live

And gives his light, and gives his heat away.

And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive

Comfort in morning joy in the noonday.

And we are put on earth a little space,

That we may learn to bear the beams of love,

And these black bodies and this sun-burnt face

Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.

For when our souls have learn’d the heat to bear

The cloud will vanish we shall hear his voice.

Saying: come out from the grove my love & care,

And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice.

Thus did my mother say and kissed me,

And thus I say to little English boy.

When I from black and he from white cloud free,

And round the tent of God like lambs we joy:

Ill shade him from the heat till he can bear,

To lean in joy upon our fathers knee.

And then I’ll stand and stroke his silver hair,

And be like him and he will then love me.

Reference:

Tate. (2017). William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience – Look Closer | Tate. Tate.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/william-blake-39/blakes-songs-innocence-experience

“Pride and Prejudice”

Key characters of the novel Pride and Prejudice:

Elizabeth Bennet

- The novel's protagonist, intelligent and witty, who forms a romantic bond with Mr. Darcy.

Fitzwilliam Darcy

- Wealthy, reserved gentleman whose initial arrogance is tempered through his love for
Elizabeth.

Jane Bennet

- Elizabeth's elder sister, known for her beauty and kindness, who falls in love with Mr. Bingley.

Mr. Bingley

- Mr. Darcy’s wealthy, amiable friend, who eventually marries Jane.

Mr. Bennet

- Elizabeth's sarcastic father.

Mrs. Bennet

- Their excitable mother focused on securing marriages for her daughters.

Reference:

https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/pride/section2/
 Pride and Prejudice: Full Book Summary

The news that a wealthy young gentleman named Charles Bingley has rented the manor of
Netherfield Park causes a great stir in the nearby village of Longbourn, especially in the Bennet
household. The Bennets have five unmarried daughters—from oldest to youngest, Jane, Elizabeth,
Mary, Kitty, and Lydia—and Mrs. Bennet is desperate to see them all married. After Mr. Bennet pays
a social visit to Mr. Bingley, the Bennets attend a ball at which Mr. Bingley is present. He is taken with
Jane and spends much of the evening dancing with her. His close friend, Mr. Darcy, is less pleased
with the evening and haughtily refuses to dance with Elizabeth, which makes everyone view him as
arrogant and obnoxious.

At social functions over subsequent weeks, however, Mr. Darcy finds himself increasingly attracted to
Elizabeth’s charm and intelligence. Jane’s friendship with Mr. Bingley also continues to burgeon, and
Jane pays a visit to the Bingley mansion. On her journey to the house she is caught in a downpour
and catches ill, forcing her to stay at Netherfield for several days. In order to tend to Jane, Elizabeth
hikes through muddy fields and arrives with a spattered dress, much to the disdain of the snobbish
Miss Bingley, Charles Bingley’s sister. Miss Bingley’s spite only increases when she notices that
Darcy, whom she is pursuing, pays quite a bit of attention to Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth and Jane return home, they find Mr. Collins visiting their household. Mr. Collins is a
young clergyman who stands to inherit Mr. Bennet’s property, which has been “entailed,” meaning
that it can only be passed down to male heirs. Mr. Collins is a pompous fool, though he is quite
enthralled by the Bennet girls. Shortly after his arrival, he makes a proposal of marriage to Elizabeth.
She turns him down, wounding his pride. Meanwhile, the Bennet girls have become friendly with
militia officers stationed in a nearby town. Among them is Wickham, a handsome young soldier who
is friendly toward Elizabeth and tells her how Darcy cruelly cheated him out of an inheritance.

At the beginning of winter, the Bingleys and Darcy leave Netherfield and return to London, much to
Jane’s dismay. A further shock arrives with the news that Mr. Collins has become engaged to
Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth’s best friend and the poor daughter of a local knight. Charlotte explains to
Elizabeth that she is getting older and needs the match for financial reasons. Charlotte and Mr.
Collins get married and Elizabeth promises to visit them at their new home. As winter progresses,
Jane visits the city to see friends (hoping also that she might see Mr. Bingley). However, Miss Bingley
visits her and behaves rudely, while Mr. Bingley fails to visit her at all. The marriage prospects for the
Bennet girls appear bleak.
That spring, Elizabeth visits Charlotte, who now lives near the home of Mr. Collins’s patron, Lady
Catherine de Bourgh, who is also Darcy’s aunt. Darcy calls on Lady Catherine and encounters
Elizabeth, whose presence leads him to make a number of visits to the Collins’s home, where she is
staying. One day, he makes a shocking proposal of marriage, which Elizabeth quickly refuses. She
tells Darcy that she considers him arrogant and unpleasant, then scolds him for steering Bingley
away from Jane and disinheriting Wickham. Darcy leaves her but shortly thereafter delivers a letter to
her. In this letter, he admits that he urged Bingley to distance himself from Jane, but claims he did so
only because he thought their romance was not serious. As for Wickham, he informs Elizabeth that
the young officer is a liar and that the real cause of their disagreement was Wickham’s attempt to
elope with his young sister, Georgiana Darcy.

This letter causes Elizabeth to reevaluate her feelings about Darcy. She returns home and acts coldly
toward Wickham. The militia is leaving town, which makes the younger, rather man-crazy Bennet girls
distraught. Lydia manages to obtain permission from her father to spend the summer with an old
colonel in Brighton, where Wickham’s regiment will be stationed. With the arrival of June, Elizabeth
goes on another journey, this time with the Gardiners, who are relatives of the Bennets. The trip takes
her to the North and eventually to the neighborhood of Pemberley, Darcy’s estate. She visits
Pemberley, after making sure that Darcy is away, and delights in the building and grounds, while
hearing from Darcy’s servants that he is a wonderful, generous master. Suddenly, Darcy arrives and
behaves cordially toward her. Making no mention of his proposal, he entertains the Gardiners and
invites Elizabeth to meet his sister.

Shortly thereafter, however, a letter arrives from home, telling Elizabeth that Lydia has eloped with
Wickham and that the couple is nowhere to be found, which suggests that they may be living together
out of wedlock. Fearful of the disgrace such a situation would bring on her entire family, Elizabeth
hastens home. Mr. Gardiner and Mr. Bennet go off to search for Lydia, but Mr. Bennet eventually
returns home empty-handed. Just when all hope seems lost, a letter comes from Mr. Gardiner saying
that the couple has been found and that Wickham has agreed to marry Lydia in exchange for an
annual income. The Bennets are convinced that Mr. Gardiner has paid off Wickham, but Elizabeth
learns that the source of the money, and of her family’s salvation, was none other than Darcy.

Now married, Wickham and Lydia return to Longbourn briefly, where Mr. Bennet treats them coldly.
They then depart for Wickham’s new assignment in the North of England. Shortly thereafter, Bingley
returns to Netherfield and resumes his courtship of Jane. Darcy goes to stay with him and pays visits
to the Bennets but makes no mention of his desire to marry Elizabeth. Bingley, on the other hand,
presses his suit and proposes to Jane, to the delight of everyone but Bingley’s haughty sister. While
the family celebrates, Lady Catherine de Bourgh pays a visit to Longbourn. She corners Elizabeth
and says that she has heard that Darcy, her nephew, is planning to marry her. Since she considers a
Bennet an unsuitable match for a Darcy, Lady Catherine demands that Elizabeth promise to refuse
him. Elizabeth spiritedly refuses, saying she is not engaged to Darcy, but she will not promise
anything against her own happiness. A little later, Elizabeth and Darcy go out walking together and he
tells her that his feelings have not altered since the spring. She tenderly accepts his proposal, and
both Jane and Elizabeth are married.