He who respects the infant's faith Triumphs over hell and death. The child's toys and the old man's reasons Are the fruits of the two seasons.
1. The first two lines mean that those who do not temper with
infancy's innocence will be relieved from any pain and suffering
that could come their way. Meaning that if people gave children
the opportunity to explore and appreciate the world they were
"intended to live in" (the world of mother nature) without
obstructing it, in return they would be rewarded a life without
fear(death). The last two lines mean that the beginning and the
ending of a person's life is when the truth stares you right in
the face with nothing to hide. As an infant and an elder, the
truth is given and later restored to once again be the only
important thing that matters in life.
2. Blake uses parallelism as a literary device. He sets up the
first two lines as an equation: you do this(respect the infant's
faith) and you get that(triumph over hell and death). The last
two lines are the reasons as to why the equation works. Infants
are born with innocence and if people abide by it then in their
time of elderly they regain their innocence once more.
Nice work, Marisol!
ReplyDelete