Point of View

The poems in Songs of Innocence shift between the first person singular, first person plural, and third person perspective. For example, the first poem, “Introduction,” uses the first person singular as a means of establishing the context of the book and Blake’s role in its creation. However, a poem such as “Echoing Green” shifts in perspective from the singular to the plural, as Blake writes “while our sports shall be seen/on the echoing green” (6). Then, in a poem such as “The Shepherd” the first person pronoun is omitted entirely, as only the third person singular masculine pronoun is used with regard to the shepherd himself. In a poem such as this, the third-person point of view appears to be omniscient as opposed to limited, with the speaker being aware of all information and circumstances pertaining to the subjects of the poems.

Blake places...