And, father, how can I love you

The variations on the theme of being ?lost? that William Blake elaborates upon in both this poem and its counter-part, The Little Boy Lost is tied in to the theme of innocence and maturity, that, unsurprisingly, is found in all of the Songs of Innocence and Experience.

While the poem from the Songs of Innocence concerns itself with the more literal interpretation of the word, with the father bounding off leaving the boy in the woods, ?lost? in conventional sense, the simplicity of the entire situation seems to demand of its reader a metaphorical reading. Does the forest represent doubt? Are the vapours the mire of reason? Is the father a religious reference? There must be something there.

In stark, and I do mean stark, contrast, the poem from the Songs of Experience uses ?lost? in a more literary manner of having strayed from the path of righteousness, and seems adverse to interpretation. The Priest is clear, the judgment is final, and there is little room to move beyond what Blake has given you.

In such a fashion, these poems themselves resonate with the very themes of innocence and maturity they reflect, with the Song of Innocence being a world of simplicity and limitless growth, solipsistic (the title of THE Little Boy Lost) and without consequences, and the Song of Experience being a world of stagnant world of complexity, full of countless others (A Little Boy Lost) and with dire consequences.