Title: Nurse’s Song

Author: William Blake (1757-1827)

Publication: In Blake’s collection, Songs of Experience, in 1789

Form: Two quatrains (four-line stanza)

Rhyme Scheme: In each stanza, the second and fourth lines rhyme: ABCB DEFE

Important Note: In the Innocence version of the poem, a nurse (who looks after the children) finds joy in watching the children play in a field at the end of the day. However, in this version of "Nurse's Song," the nurse takes no such pleasure in childhood innocence. Instead, she seems to resent the way the children remind her of her own youth. She even feels that the children's play is a waste of time and a form of deception. This nurse speaks from an Experience perspective. She has lived a life and seen firsthand what happens when children grow up. Maybe she fears for the children's future because she knows what the world has in store for them—poverty and child labour.