Talk by M. M. Mahood

The form Blake chose for his first, and perhaps his finest, attack on the rational morality of the Enlightenment was that of a children's book (Songs of Innocence and of Experience). He did this deliberately because books for children expose the adult outlook of their time so clearly, and because the Age of Reason was unbendingly rational in its attitude towards them. This programme places these poems of Blake in the context of contemporary writings for children by setting some of his Songs against passages from Newbery's Juvenile Library, the books of Lady Fenn, and the Divine Songs for Children of Isaac Watts (from one of which the title of this programme is taken).

Miss Mahood is a Fellow of St. Hugh's College, Oxford.
Readers: Mary O'Farrell and William Devlin