Nurse's song. Please help

[Bluebiird]

Hi :wave: I'm studying William Blakes poetry for my A level english and I've found some of his poetry rather interesting. I have to do a presentation tomorrow (Friday, London time) on Nurse's song and I need to include comments about the poem from different people. I'd really appreciate it if you could give me your comments or opinions of this poem, or Blake in general.

For those of you that haven't read Nurse's Song from Songs of Experience, here it is;

When the voices of children, are heard on the green
And whisprings are in the dale;
The days of my youth rise fresh in my mind,
My face turns green and pale

Then come home my children, the sun is gone down
And the dews of night arise
Your spring and your day, are wasted in play
And your winter and night in disguise


Any comments, opinoins will be appreciated, good or bad.
Thank you for your help

[jakobin]

i love it, its so simple and yet it has so many little hidden parts to it.

"My face turns green and pale" is obviously referring to the ripeness of fruit, with unripe fruit being green and pale (not sure about the pale part but def the green).

the last two lines are def the most interesting, at least to me, because this is very similar to the way i write my poetry.

"your spring your day, are wasted in play
And your winder and night in disguise"

children cannot play at night, nor in the winter. they can play however during spring and during the day. these lines are condensing the whole year into a day with spring being daytime, and winter being night.

do you agree?

i hope i helped you for your presentation.

just a quick question: why is it called nurse's song? are the children talked about actually the children of the poet/character in the poem, or are they the children that are being looked after by a nurse? do you know whether this poem is written as a proper song that is meant to be sung?

good luck.

[Bluebiird]

just a quick question: why is it called nurse's song? are the children talked about actually the children of the poet/character in the poem, or are they the children that are being looked after by a nurse? do you know whether this poem is written as a proper song that is meant to be sung?

good luck.

It's called a nurse's song, because the nurse is the one singing it. It has a twin song in Songs of Innocence, which talks about the children playing.
I don't know who's children they are, but Blake used children in quite a few of the poem's we're looking at, in my class.
Yes, I believe the children are being looked after by the nurse, like a nanny perhaps.
And I don't know If the poem was meant to be sung or not. I think It's just meant to be read as a poem, but I really can't be certain of that.

Thank you so much for your views, it'll really help my presentation.
Oh, and I do agree with the Spring + winter, day + night thing. I hadn't thought of it like that before, actually, I didn't know what to think.
Thank you again, you have saved my life

[PeterL]

I believe that the nurse is the Earth, which nourishes all of us. The children are all people.
"Your spring and your day, are wasted in play
And your winter and night in disguise"
Spring and Day are used as metaphor for life, and winter and night a metaphor for death, when people return to the Earth, but are lost to other people. These lines suggest that he believed in reincarnation.

[Bluebiird]

I believe that the nurse is the Earth, which nourishes all of us. The children are all people.
"Your spring and your day, are wasted in play
And your winter and night in disguise"
Spring and Day are used as metaphor for life, and winter and night a metaphor for death, when people return to the Earth, but are lost to other people. These lines suggest that he believed in reincarnation.

I never thought of it like that before. Thank you for sharing your views on this poem, your comments have added a new slide to the presention.