Nurse’s Song and NURSE’S SONG

Nurse's Song (Innocence)
When the voices of children are heard on the green
And laughing is heard on the hill,
My heart is at rest within my breast
And everything else is still.

``Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down
And the dews of night arise;
Come, come, leave off play, and let us away
Till the morning appears in the skies.''

``No, no, let us play, for it is yet day
And we cannot go to sleep;
Besides, in the sky the little birds fly
And the hills are all cover'd with sheep.''

``Well, well, go & play till the light fades away
And then go home to bed.''
The little ones leaped & shouted & laugh'd
And all the hills echoed.


 NURSE’S Song (Experience)
When the voices of children are heard on the green
And whisp'rings 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 & your day are wasted in play,
And your winter and night in disguise.

Commentary by Jeff Gillett

In each of these poems, we are given the words of the nurse, who is, in modern terminology, a child-minder. In both poems, she states her own thoughts and feelings before addressing the children directly. In the first poem, from the Songs of Innocence, the children then reply, so that a dialogue continues between nurse and children. In the second poem, from the Songs of Experience, the children are given no opportunity to reply.

The two nurses are seen to have very different personalities and attitudes. The former is at peace with herself and indulgent towards the children. The 'voices of children... on the green' and the sound of 'laughing... on the hill' set her heart 'at rest'. The second nurse, however, does not hear laughter on the hill, but 'whisp'rings... in the dale'. The laughter appeared open and joyful; the 'whisp'rings' seem secretive, perhaps subversive. Even their situation is less open: whilst the laughers are perhaps fully visible on the hillside, the whisperers are hidden in the 'dale'. However, it isn't clear whether it is the children who are less open and trustworthy, or whether it is simply the attitude of their guardian. The second nurse recalls 'the days of my youth', and speaks not of the peace in her heart but of the jealousy and misgivings that she reveals in her face, which 'turns green and pale'. Is she jealous of the children's freedom now, or is she thinking bitterly of her own childhood?

The first two lines of the second stanza are identical in both poems, but the ways in which the poems then develop are in sharp contrast. The first nurse simply tells the children to come home because it is night-time: they can carry on playing in the morning. The 'dews of night' seem nothing more than an image of night-fall. When the children beg to be allowed to play a little longer, because 'it is yet day', they are polite, but full of the joys of the natural world around them. How can they possibly sleep when 'in the sky the little birds fly, / And the hills are all cover'd with sheep'? The internal rhyme seems to emphasise the children's excitement. The nurse allows them to carry on playing 'till the light fades away'. The children's response is joyful, and the hills around are full of their exuberance:

            'The little ones leaped & shouted & laugh'd
            And all the hills ecchoed.'

The second nurse doesn't listen to any arguments or pleadings. Instead, she lectures the children on the shallow falseness of their lives, both now and perhaps in later years. Here, 'the dews of night' seem to gain connotations of treachery and intrigue. 'Your spring & your day' could refer to childhood, when, from this nurse's perspective, play is simply a waste of time; 'winter and night' would then be adulthood, which appears to be a time of deception, concealing your true personality. Alternatively, all these times and seasons could refer to the children as they are now: in which case, the nurse sees the children as already being secretive and untrustworthy, as was suggested by her suspicion of their 'whisp'rings'.

The former nurse is clearly a warmer and more likeable personality - but is she, perhaps, a little too naive and trusting? Innocence and experience are 'two contrary states of the human soul', and Blake does not equate them simplistically with right and wrong.