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Showing posts with the label Thank you anyway

Thank you anyway, darling

I remember picking up Blake's Auguries of Innocence and reading it to her last year, both of us hoping for a bit of comfort and enlightenment. It started very well "To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour." But mom was an atheist and a feminist, and so when we hit these lines: "The Bat that flits at close of Eve Has left the Brain that won't believe. The Owl that calls upon the Night Speaks the Unbeliever's fright." "He who mocks the Infant's Faith Shall be mock'd in Age & Death. He who shall teach the Child to Doubt The rotting Grave shall ne'er get out." He just sounds intolerant and aggressive. And then these lines: "The Harlot's cry from Street to Street Shall weave Old England's winding Sheet. The Winner's Shout, the Loser's Curse, Dance before dead England's Hearse." And by the end of the poem, we both end