WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.620 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are taking 00:00:03.620 --> 00:00:06.379 a torch to the archives and pulling out a text 00:00:06.379 --> 00:00:08.259 that is actively trying to burn the house down. 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:10.960 We're looking at William Blake. And not the gentle 00:00:10.960 --> 00:00:13.919 pastoral Blake that people, you know, quote on 00:00:13.919 --> 00:00:16.280 greeting cards or needlepoint pillows. We are 00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:18.539 looking at a poem that serves as a blistering 00:00:18.539 --> 00:00:21.940 indictment of how institutions crush the human 00:00:21.940 --> 00:00:24.820 spirit. The poem is called A Little Boy Lost. 00:00:25.370 --> 00:00:27.829 And I have to say, if you just saw that title 00:00:27.829 --> 00:00:31.289 on a spine in a library or scrolled past it, 00:00:31.350 --> 00:00:33.530 you'd assume you were in for a bedtime story. 00:00:33.770 --> 00:00:37.009 Something like Peter Pan or maybe a cautionary 00:00:37.009 --> 00:00:39.070 fairy tale about not getting lost in the woods. 00:00:39.189 --> 00:00:41.469 That is exactly the bait. It sounds innocent. 00:00:41.609 --> 00:00:45.460 It sounds fragile. But the poem itself is, well, 00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:47.719 it's a horror story. It was published in 1794 00:00:47.719 --> 00:00:50.079 as part of Blake's Songs of Experience collection. 00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:52.200 Right. And that context is the first thing we 00:00:52.200 --> 00:00:53.960 really need to nail down to understand what we're 00:00:53.960 --> 00:00:56.359 reading. Right. Because Blake has these two famous 00:00:56.359 --> 00:00:58.939 contrary states in his work, Songs of Innocence 00:00:58.939 --> 00:01:00.979 and Songs of Experience. And they aren't just 00:01:00.979 --> 00:01:04.299 sequels. They're like mirror images. Right. Precisely. 00:01:04.299 --> 00:01:07.219 Songs of Innocence, which he published five years 00:01:07.219 --> 00:01:10.319 earlier in 1789. It presents the world as we 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:13.459 wish it were. OK. Full of wonder. protected childhood, 00:01:13.700 --> 00:01:16.459 benevolent god figures who actually watch over 00:01:16.459 --> 00:01:19.439 the lambs. But Songs of Experience, that's the 00:01:19.439 --> 00:01:22.859 hangover. It's the world as it actually is. Flawed, 00:01:22.859 --> 00:01:26.260 cynical, oppressive. So Innocence is the Disney 00:01:26.260 --> 00:01:29.299 movie. and experiences the gritty reboot where 00:01:29.299 --> 00:01:31.319 everything goes wrong. That is a surprisingly 00:01:31.319 --> 00:01:34.379 accurate way to put it. Yeah. Yeah. And before 00:01:34.379 --> 00:01:36.700 we open the text, there is a massive navigational 00:01:36.700 --> 00:01:38.819 hazard we need to flag for everyone listening. 00:01:39.060 --> 00:01:41.500 There is actually another poem called The Little 00:01:41.500 --> 00:01:44.260 Boy Lost in the Innocence collection. Oh, that 00:01:44.260 --> 00:01:46.000 is confusing. It is a common point of confusion. 00:01:46.239 --> 00:01:47.819 In The Little Boy Lost, the one from Innocence, 00:01:47.819 --> 00:01:50.159 a boy gets lost in a swamp, but God appears like 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:52.140 a father in white and leads him home. It's a 00:01:52.140 --> 00:01:55.420 rescue mission. But we are strictly focused on 00:01:55.420 --> 00:01:58.060 The Little Boy Lost. with an A from experience. 00:01:58.540 --> 00:02:01.239 Correct. The difference in the article versus 00:02:01.239 --> 00:02:04.379 A might seem minor, but the difference in content 00:02:04.379 --> 00:02:07.760 is the difference between getting lost in a mist 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:10.719 and getting murdered by a priest. Wow. Okay, 00:02:10.780 --> 00:02:12.900 so the stakes are significantly higher here. 00:02:13.099 --> 00:02:15.810 It really is that stark. Our mission here is 00:02:15.810 --> 00:02:18.770 to dissect how this specific poem functions as 00:02:18.770 --> 00:02:21.770 a critique of religious persecution. The source 00:02:21.770 --> 00:02:25.150 material highlights this as a clash between innocent 00:02:25.150 --> 00:02:30.650 candor and dogmatic authority. A case study in 00:02:30.650 --> 00:02:33.469 what happens when you try to apply logic to a 00:02:33.469 --> 00:02:36.150 system that relies on mystery. Exactly. So let's 00:02:36.150 --> 00:02:37.849 get into the structure. We're looking at six 00:02:37.849 --> 00:02:40.699 quatrains, four line stanzas. And Blake doesn't 00:02:40.699 --> 00:02:42.939 waste any time. He drops us right into the boy's 00:02:42.939 --> 00:02:47.419 internal monologue. Or, well, his argument. I'm 00:02:47.419 --> 00:02:49.319 going to read this first stanza because the language 00:02:49.319 --> 00:02:52.259 is deceptive. It sounds simple, but it's actually 00:02:52.259 --> 00:03:06.159 really dense. The boy says, Okay. I mean, that 00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:08.180 is a heavy philosophical opener for a child. 00:03:08.360 --> 00:03:10.060 It is. It sounds like he's describing psychological 00:03:10.060 --> 00:03:12.979 egoism. Like, I'm number one. Right. I can't 00:03:12.979 --> 00:03:15.259 love anyone else as much as me. But look at the 00:03:15.259 --> 00:03:17.620 mechanism of his argument. He isn't just saying, 00:03:17.699 --> 00:03:20.860 I am selfish. He's talking about capacity. He 00:03:20.860 --> 00:03:24.379 says, nor is it possible to thought a greater 00:03:24.379 --> 00:03:27.979 than itself to know. Ah, OK. He is arguing that 00:03:27.979 --> 00:03:31.439 the human mind thought. cannot truly comprehend 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:34.819 or or love anything that is beyond its own ability 00:03:34.819 --> 00:03:37.280 to understand okay let me try to paraphrase that 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:39.360 so he's saying that because my brain is finite 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:42.560 because i'm just a human i can't actually wrap 00:03:42.560 --> 00:03:45.400 my head around an infinite concept like god right 00:03:45.400 --> 00:03:48.879 and if i can't understand it i can't honestly 00:03:48.879 --> 00:03:51.580 claim to love it more than i love myself because 00:03:52.060 --> 00:03:54.400 You know, I know myself. Exactly. It's an epistemological 00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:57.139 claim. He's saying that love is bound by our 00:03:57.139 --> 00:03:59.840 perception. If I am a finite being, my love is 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:02.259 finite. It is a limitation of biology and reason. 00:04:02.659 --> 00:04:04.860 He's just telling the truth about the human condition. 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:07.719 Which in 1794 is already walking a very fine 00:04:07.719 --> 00:04:10.180 line. You aren't supposed to say, hey, I can't 00:04:10.180 --> 00:04:12.389 love God that much because I don't get it. Right. 00:04:12.449 --> 00:04:14.210 It challenges the requirement of blind faith. 00:04:14.330 --> 00:04:16.689 But then in the second stanza, he makes it personal. 00:04:16.870 --> 00:04:20.029 He talks to the father. And it's ambiguous. Is 00:04:20.029 --> 00:04:22.930 he talking to a biological dad, a priest, or 00:04:22.930 --> 00:04:26.329 God? It feels like all of them at once. Blake 00:04:26.329 --> 00:04:28.730 likely intends all three. It's the archetype 00:04:28.730 --> 00:04:31.050 of authority. So the boy continues his logic. 00:04:31.089 --> 00:04:34.509 He says, and father, how can I love you or any 00:04:34.509 --> 00:04:37.389 of my brothers more? I love you like the little 00:04:37.389 --> 00:04:40.430 bird that picks up crumbs around the door. I 00:04:40.430 --> 00:04:42.410 love you like the little bird. That is such a 00:04:42.410 --> 00:04:45.689 specific image. That simile like the little bird 00:04:45.689 --> 00:04:48.730 is the hinge of the entire poem. Break that down 00:04:48.730 --> 00:04:51.639 for us. Why a bird? Well, think of the dynamic 00:04:51.639 --> 00:04:53.980 there. A bird picking up crumbs isn't offering 00:04:53.980 --> 00:04:56.720 worship. It isn't prostrating itself. Right. 00:04:56.860 --> 00:04:59.199 It isn't singing hymns of glory because it feels 00:04:59.199 --> 00:05:01.220 unworthy. It's a simple, natural interaction. 00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:04.259 The bird eats because it's hungry. The human 00:05:04.259 --> 00:05:06.980 provides because they can. It is, well, it's 00:05:06.980 --> 00:05:09.600 transactional or at least entirely instinctual. 00:05:09.720 --> 00:05:12.639 It's not holy. It's just life. No, it's not holy 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:15.279 in the religious sense. It's natural. The boy 00:05:15.279 --> 00:05:17.839 is telling the priest, I love you in a normal, 00:05:17.879 --> 00:05:21.040 natural way. I can't manufacture this supernatural, 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:24.800 trembling adoration you're asking for. I love 00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:27.019 you the way a bird loves the hand that feeds 00:05:27.019 --> 00:05:30.180 it. With simple gratitude, but not with submission. 00:05:30.879 --> 00:05:33.420 Exactly. He's essentially admitting he can't 00:05:33.420 --> 00:05:36.920 love a distant abstract deity more than the actual 00:05:36.920 --> 00:05:39.720 people and nature he interacts with. He loves 00:05:39.720 --> 00:05:42.420 the crumbs, the reality, more than the hand he 00:05:42.420 --> 00:05:44.339 can't see. Right. And this is what the sources 00:05:44.339 --> 00:05:47.040 refer to as his innocent candor. He isn't trying 00:05:47.040 --> 00:05:48.860 to be a heretic. He's just being honest about 00:05:48.860 --> 00:05:51.180 his feelings. He's stripping away the whole performance 00:05:51.180 --> 00:05:52.860 of religion. He doesn't know he's supposed to 00:05:52.860 --> 00:05:55.379 lie. That's the key, isn't it? He doesn't know 00:05:55.379 --> 00:05:58.149 the script. But in the world of songs of experience, 00:05:58.449 --> 00:06:01.910 refusing to perform the script is a crime. The 00:06:01.910 --> 00:06:04.029 ultimate crime. Because if you stop performing, 00:06:04.350 --> 00:06:06.389 the people in charge look a lot less powerful. 00:06:06.709 --> 00:06:09.069 And the reaction confirms that immediately. Yeah. 00:06:09.189 --> 00:06:12.110 In stanza three, the vibe shifts from this gentle, 00:06:12.149 --> 00:06:14.850 philosophical musing to just absolute terror. 00:06:15.050 --> 00:06:17.069 The priest has been listening. And the text says, 00:06:17.250 --> 00:06:21.970 the priest sat by and heard the child. In trembling 00:06:21.970 --> 00:06:25.110 zeal, he seized his hair. Trembling zeal. That 00:06:25.110 --> 00:06:27.810 is a terrifying image. It is. Let's unpack zeal. 00:06:28.009 --> 00:06:30.870 We often think of zeal as a positive thing, passion, 00:06:31.069 --> 00:06:33.790 enthusiasm. Sure, a zealous advocate. Exactly. 00:06:34.149 --> 00:06:37.250 But here, combined with trembling, it implies 00:06:37.250 --> 00:06:40.810 instability. It's fanaticism. He is shaking with 00:06:40.810 --> 00:06:43.970 rage because his entire worldview has been threatened 00:06:43.970 --> 00:06:46.230 by a child's logic. And it's physically violent, 00:06:46.269 --> 00:06:48.089 too. He doesn't just scold him. He seized his 00:06:48.089 --> 00:06:51.360 hair. The violence is just so abrupt and disproportionate. 00:06:51.459 --> 00:06:53.939 One minute the kid is talking about birds, the 00:06:53.939 --> 00:06:56.180 next a grown man is dragging him by the scalp. 00:06:56.360 --> 00:06:58.259 But the line that actually disturbs me the most 00:06:58.259 --> 00:07:00.819 isn't the hair pulling. The crowd. It's the crowd. 00:07:01.139 --> 00:07:04.639 And all admired the priestly care. Yes. That 00:07:04.639 --> 00:07:07.439 is Blake's masterful irony at work. It's the 00:07:07.439 --> 00:07:10.000 scariest line in the poem. The crowd sees a grown 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:12.560 man dragging a child by the hair, and they don't 00:07:12.560 --> 00:07:15.040 see abuse. They see care. They see a shepherd 00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:17.800 correcting a stray sheep. It suggests a total 00:07:17.800 --> 00:07:21.379 societal brainwashing. They've been conditioned 00:07:21.379 --> 00:07:24.399 to believe that protecting the dogma is more 00:07:24.399 --> 00:07:26.939 important than protecting the actual human being. 00:07:27.060 --> 00:07:29.199 It creates a complicity. If the crowd admired 00:07:29.199 --> 00:07:31.459 it, then the crowd is part of the machinery. 00:07:31.660 --> 00:07:34.019 It's not just one bad apple. It's a rotten orchard. 00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:37.180 They believe that this pain is for the child's 00:07:37.180 --> 00:07:40.100 own good, that saving his soul requires breaking 00:07:40.100 --> 00:07:43.970 his body. That is gaslighting. on a massive societal 00:07:43.970 --> 00:07:46.410 scale. I'm dragging you by your hair because 00:07:46.410 --> 00:07:48.449 I care about you. Exactly. And everyone watching 00:07:48.449 --> 00:07:50.689 nods and says, yes, look how much he cares. It 00:07:50.689 --> 00:07:53.129 illustrates how deep the oppression goes. So 00:07:53.129 --> 00:07:56.110 the priest drags him away. And in stanza four, 00:07:56.370 --> 00:07:59.350 he puts the kid on display. He drags him to the 00:07:59.350 --> 00:08:01.850 altar high, literally looking down on everyone. 00:08:02.319 --> 00:08:04.660 And makes his case. He points at the boy and 00:08:04.660 --> 00:08:07.899 screams. Yeah. Lo, what a fiend is here, said 00:08:07.899 --> 00:08:10.459 he. One who sets reason up for judge of our most 00:08:10.459 --> 00:08:13.399 holy mystery. He calls a little boy a fiend. 00:08:13.420 --> 00:08:15.759 He has to dehumanize him. You can't burn a child. 00:08:15.860 --> 00:08:17.579 People won't stand for it. But you can burn a 00:08:17.579 --> 00:08:20.639 monster. You can burn a fiend. He has to turn 00:08:20.639 --> 00:08:23.449 the child into an other. to justify what he's 00:08:23.449 --> 00:08:25.790 about to do. But look at the specific charge 00:08:25.790 --> 00:08:28.870 he levies. The crime isn't theft or murder or 00:08:28.870 --> 00:08:32.490 even lying. The crime is setting reason up for 00:08:32.490 --> 00:08:35.669 judge of our most holy mystery. That is the core 00:08:35.669 --> 00:08:38.330 conflict of the poem and really the core conflict 00:08:38.330 --> 00:08:41.250 of Blake's entire worldview here. The priest 00:08:41.250 --> 00:08:44.269 explicitly states that mystery is the ultimate 00:08:44.269 --> 00:08:47.080 good. And when he says mystery, he doesn't mean 00:08:47.080 --> 00:08:48.960 like a Sherlock Holmes mystery that you're supposed 00:08:48.960 --> 00:08:51.899 to solve. No, no. In this context, mystery means 00:08:51.899 --> 00:08:55.100 a religious truth that is beyond human understanding, 00:08:55.340 --> 00:08:57.539 something you are supposed to submit to without 00:08:57.539 --> 00:09:00.519 question. It is the dogma that keeps the church 00:09:00.519 --> 00:09:03.159 in power. And the boy's crime was using his brain. 00:09:03.299 --> 00:09:05.759 He tried to judge the situation with reason. 00:09:06.019 --> 00:09:08.720 Exactly. By using logic, I can't love what I 00:09:08.720 --> 00:09:11.240 don't know, the boy challenged the validity of 00:09:11.240 --> 00:09:13.940 the mystery. And here's the thing. If people 00:09:13.940 --> 00:09:15.940 start thinking for themselves, if they start 00:09:15.940 --> 00:09:18.820 using reason, the mystery falls apart. And if 00:09:18.820 --> 00:09:21.159 the mystery falls apart, the priest loses his 00:09:21.159 --> 00:09:24.779 job and his power. Precisely. Reason must be 00:09:24.779 --> 00:09:27.139 punished to protect the mystery. The priest isn't 00:09:27.139 --> 00:09:29.980 just angry, he's terrified. He's terrified that 00:09:29.980 --> 00:09:31.899 the question will reveal the emptiness of the 00:09:31.899 --> 00:09:34.120 answer. So the priest is basically saying, how 00:09:34.120 --> 00:09:36.320 dare you try to make sense of this? The fact 00:09:36.320 --> 00:09:38.539 that it doesn't make sense is the point. Yes. 00:09:39.070 --> 00:09:41.529 Submission is the goal, not understanding. And 00:09:41.529 --> 00:09:44.509 the punishment for asking that question is, well, 00:09:44.570 --> 00:09:47.529 it's horrific. We get to the final two stanzas, 00:09:47.529 --> 00:09:50.190 and this is where the poem turns into a nightmare. 00:09:50.509 --> 00:09:53.429 The weeping child could not be heard. The weeping 00:09:53.429 --> 00:09:56.649 parents wept in vain. They strip him to his little 00:09:56.649 --> 00:09:59.389 shirt, bind him in an iron chain, and burn him 00:09:59.389 --> 00:10:02.330 in a holy place. The juxtaposition there is brutal. 00:10:02.450 --> 00:10:05.509 The little shirt versus the iron chain. Blake 00:10:05.509 --> 00:10:07.509 is just emphasizing the physical vulnerability 00:10:07.509 --> 00:10:10.669 of this victim. He is small. He is soft. And 00:10:10.669 --> 00:10:13.009 he's being crushed by the cold, hard machinery 00:10:13.009 --> 00:10:15.169 of the institution. Exactly. And the parents 00:10:15.169 --> 00:10:16.690 are there. That's the part that gets me. They 00:10:16.690 --> 00:10:18.669 are weeping, but they weep in vain. They can't 00:10:18.669 --> 00:10:20.889 do anything. Because the authority overrides 00:10:20.889 --> 00:10:23.950 the family. In a natural world, parents protect 00:10:23.950 --> 00:10:26.230 their young. That is the most basic biological 00:10:26.230 --> 00:10:29.919 instinct. But in this dogmatic world, the church 00:10:29.919 --> 00:10:32.240 has more rights over the child than the mother 00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:35.500 and father do. The parents are paralyzed. It 00:10:35.500 --> 00:10:38.100 shows how the system disrupts those natural bonds. 00:10:38.279 --> 00:10:40.480 The priest has stepped between the parent and 00:10:40.480 --> 00:10:42.940 the child. And the text mentions something really 00:10:42.940 --> 00:10:45.940 disturbing. Where many had been burned before. 00:10:46.259 --> 00:10:48.580 Yeah, that line stuck out to me. Many. That is 00:10:48.580 --> 00:10:50.970 the chilling detail that widens the scope. This 00:10:50.970 --> 00:10:53.149 isn't a freak accident. This isn't one priest 00:10:53.149 --> 00:10:56.529 having a bad day. This is a system. It is a system. 00:10:56.730 --> 00:10:59.509 Many had been burned before. It's a routine. 00:10:59.750 --> 00:11:01.990 It's an assembly line. It implies that there 00:11:01.990 --> 00:11:04.750 is a pile of ashes there already. It completely 00:11:04.750 --> 00:11:07.389 removes the idea that this is an anomaly. This 00:11:07.389 --> 00:11:09.710 is how the society functions. It runs on the 00:11:09.710 --> 00:11:11.850 fuel of burnt children, essentially. Right. And 00:11:11.850 --> 00:11:13.850 then just when you think you can distance yourself 00:11:13.850 --> 00:11:16.500 from it. Maybe pretend this is set in the Spanish 00:11:16.500 --> 00:11:20.139 Inquisition or some distant barbaric past Blake 00:11:20.139 --> 00:11:22.740 drops the hammer with the very final line. Yeah. 00:11:22.860 --> 00:11:25.700 The boy is burned. The parents are weeping. And 00:11:25.700 --> 00:11:29.240 the narrator asks, are such things done on Albion's 00:11:29.240 --> 00:11:32.379 shore? And Albion is the ancient poetic name 00:11:32.379 --> 00:11:34.799 for England. So he's asking, is this happening 00:11:34.799 --> 00:11:37.830 in England? Right here. It's a rhetorical question. 00:11:38.009 --> 00:11:40.529 He knows the answer is yes. He is bringing the 00:11:40.529 --> 00:11:43.330 horror home. He's saying, don't think this is 00:11:43.330 --> 00:11:45.350 some distant land. This is us. This is our society. 00:11:45.590 --> 00:11:49.289 It is a direct indictment of the English society 00:11:49.289 --> 00:11:52.649 of his time. Wow. It really recontextualizes 00:11:52.649 --> 00:11:54.730 the whole thing. It's not a fantasy. It's social 00:11:54.730 --> 00:11:57.850 commentary. Absolutely. If we zoom out a bit, 00:11:57.970 --> 00:12:00.710 the priest isn't just a character. He is a metaphor 00:12:00.710 --> 00:12:03.409 for the hierarchical powers that be of the church 00:12:03.409 --> 00:12:05.190 and the state. And the source material mentions 00:12:05.190 --> 00:12:08.210 that Blake is hearkening back to a time when 00:12:08.210 --> 00:12:11.309 the church held, you know, unchecked power. Right. 00:12:11.629 --> 00:12:13.289 Historically, Blake is looking at how religious 00:12:13.289 --> 00:12:15.950 institutions across Europe and specifically in 00:12:15.950 --> 00:12:18.610 England had the power to destroy anyone deemed 00:12:18.610 --> 00:12:21.250 intolerable in thought or behavior. If you didn't 00:12:21.250 --> 00:12:23.429 fit the mold. If you didn't fit the mold, if 00:12:23.429 --> 00:12:25.600 you thought differently, you were a threat. and 00:12:25.600 --> 00:12:27.659 threats were eliminated there is an interesting 00:12:27.659 --> 00:12:30.620 debate though about the boy himself we talked 00:12:30.620 --> 00:12:33.340 about his innocent candor but is there a chance 00:12:33.340 --> 00:12:37.059 he's being a bit precocious like is he intentionally 00:12:37.059 --> 00:12:40.779 poking the bear it's a valid question i mean 00:12:40.779 --> 00:12:42.720 some readers might theorize that blake intended 00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:45.259 to portray the child as a precocious dissenter 00:12:45.259 --> 00:12:47.639 someone who knows exactly what he's doing the 00:12:47.639 --> 00:12:49.669 priest Definitely thinks so. He treats the kid 00:12:49.669 --> 00:12:51.690 like a rival philosopher. Right. But if you look 00:12:51.690 --> 00:12:54.629 closely at the text, the consensus, and what 00:12:54.629 --> 00:12:57.129 our sources point to, is that the boy is genuinely 00:12:57.129 --> 00:12:59.950 innocent. The tragedy lies in the misunderstanding. 00:13:00.870 --> 00:13:03.649 The boy speaks with the simple honesty of a child. 00:13:03.929 --> 00:13:06.409 I love you like a bird loves crumbs. That's not 00:13:06.409 --> 00:13:08.970 a manifesto. It's an observation. Exactly. So 00:13:08.970 --> 00:13:11.690 the horror is that the adult world, the world 00:13:11.690 --> 00:13:15.110 of experience, is so corrupted that it can't 00:13:15.110 --> 00:13:18.379 recognize innocence anymore. It sees innocence 00:13:18.379 --> 00:13:21.759 and calls it heresy. It construes innocent questioning 00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:24.639 as malicious attack. It's the emperor's new clothes 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:27.419 scenario. Only a child is innocent enough to 00:13:27.419 --> 00:13:29.879 say, hey, the logic doesn't add up. And because 00:13:29.879 --> 00:13:32.059 he points out the nakedness of the logic, he 00:13:32.059 --> 00:13:34.200 has to die. Then Blake wasn't writing this for 00:13:34.200 --> 00:13:36.080 the elites, was he? This isn't some Hightower 00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:38.779 academic paper. No, and that is important to 00:13:38.779 --> 00:13:42.340 remember. Blake was an engraver, a craftsman. 00:13:42.730 --> 00:13:45.129 He printed these poems himself. He wrote his 00:13:45.129 --> 00:13:47.710 poetry for the common man. He wanted these ideas 00:13:47.710 --> 00:13:50.269 to be accessible. He's critiquing power structures 00:13:50.269 --> 00:13:52.610 on behalf of the oppressed. He's showing the 00:13:52.610 --> 00:13:55.309 average person, look at what this authority does 00:13:55.309 --> 00:13:57.649 to your children. Look at how it crushes their 00:13:57.649 --> 00:14:00.850 natural ability to think and love. It's heavy 00:14:00.850 --> 00:14:03.330 stuff. It really makes you look at that title, 00:14:03.409 --> 00:14:06.710 A Little Boy Lost, differently. He wasn't lost 00:14:06.710 --> 00:14:08.789 in the woods. He was lost to the machinery of 00:14:08.789 --> 00:14:11.259 the state and the church. He was lost because 00:14:11.259 --> 00:14:13.759 he tried to find his own way through reason and 00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:16.960 the path was blocked by fire. The lost part is 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:19.000 that he was discarded by the society that should 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:21.120 have protected him. So what does this all mean 00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:24.080 for us? Why should we, sitting here today, care 00:14:24.080 --> 00:14:27.360 about a poem from 1794 about a fictional boy 00:14:27.360 --> 00:14:29.259 getting burned? Well, if we connect this to the 00:14:29.259 --> 00:14:31.000 bigger picture, it's about the tension between 00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:33.580 thought and mystery. That tension hasn't gone 00:14:33.580 --> 00:14:36.860 away. In the poem, knowledge and personal reasoning 00:14:36.860 --> 00:14:39.440 are portrayed as existential threats to the established 00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:42.639 order. The institution protects its mystery by 00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:46.659 silencing reason. It's about control. It is always 00:14:46.659 --> 00:14:49.179 about control. The poem forces you to ask, what 00:14:49.179 --> 00:14:52.039 happens when we prioritize dogma over humanity? 00:14:52.379 --> 00:14:54.779 What happens when we value the structure of the 00:14:54.779 --> 00:14:57.259 institution more than the people inside it? And 00:14:57.259 --> 00:15:00.019 that idea of... many had been burned before, 00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:02.460 it reminds us that if we don't pay attention, 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:05.139 these systems just keep grinding on. Precisely. 00:15:05.139 --> 00:15:07.480 It's a warning. It's Blake shaking us by the 00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:09.879 shoulders and saying, do not admire the priestly 00:15:09.879 --> 00:15:12.379 care when it is actually oppression. That is 00:15:12.379 --> 00:15:14.860 a powerful image to leave on. Do not mistake 00:15:14.860 --> 00:15:17.659 oppression for care. Just because someone says 00:15:17.659 --> 00:15:19.720 they are hurting you for your own good or for 00:15:19.720 --> 00:15:21.740 the good of the mystery doesn't mean they are 00:15:21.740 --> 00:15:24.059 right. That's the key takeaway. I want to leave 00:15:24.059 --> 00:15:26.100 you with one final thought to mull over. Something 00:15:26.100 --> 00:15:29.169 to take with you. Blake ended his poem by asking 00:15:29.169 --> 00:15:32.309 if such things are done on Albion Shore in his 00:15:32.309 --> 00:15:36.289 own backyard. A brave question for 1794. So if 00:15:36.289 --> 00:15:39.269 Blake were writing today, right now, in our world, 00:15:39.389 --> 00:15:42.309 where else might he see reason being punished 00:15:42.309 --> 00:15:45.070 to protect a mystery? What questions are we not 00:15:45.070 --> 00:15:47.389 allowed to ask today? And who is lighting the 00:15:47.389 --> 00:15:49.850 fire? That is the question. Thanks for diving 00:15:49.850 --> 00:15:51.669 deep with us. We catch you on the next one.