A skylark wounded in the wing,
A cherubim does cease to sing.
The game-cock clipt and arm'd for fight
Does the rising sun affright.
Since the skylark is known for its song. It represents the song of freedom and hope. It represents our path of religious faith. The cherubim represents our innocence, sense of good and faith in all that is good or God-like. Our freedom, hope and innocence all go together. As the game-cock(soldier of evil and hatred) wounds our hope, it in turn wounds our innocence. Wounded innocence and wounded hope leads to wounded faith. The game-cock is always there to attack our faith.
Blake uses parallelism in this stanza to show that evil is there to attack good. He expresses the constant struggle between good and evil.
Nice work, M'Alyssa! What do you think flying (or the inability of the skylark to fly) signifies?
ReplyDeleteMaybe the inability of flight signifies the inability to express faith, absence of faith or absence of hope.
ReplyDelete