Holy Thursday (Songs Of Innocence)
Holy Thursday is a poem by William Blake, from his 1789 book of poems Songs of Innocence. (There is also a Holy Thursday poem in Songs of Experience, which contrasts this song.)
The poem depicts Holy Thursday, in which rows of clean children dressed in cheerful clothes walk into Saint Paul's Cathedral in a procession, guided by beadles. Citizens of London town, including the aged man, sit and observe the ceremony while thousands of little boys and girls elevate their hands and a song is raised to Heaven.
The poem is a criticism of the Foundling Hospital. Orphans at the hospital would be cleaned and marched annually to the cathedral to sing. This was seen as a treat for the orphans. The bleak reality of their lives is depicted in Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience).
Read more about Holy Thursday (Songs Of Innocence): The Poem
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He has raised up a mighty savior for us
in the house of his servant David,
as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old...”
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 1:68-70.
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—Frank S. Nugent (1908–1965)