The secular angel in contemporary children's literature: David ...

have to be considered as they are defined but filtered through a novel point of view introduced
by Pullman. 16
Furthermore, it is far from coincidental that the theme in some of the first epigraphs taken
from Blake is innocence, and they are excerpts from “The Little Girl Lost,” “The Poison
Tree,” and “Auguries of Innocence.” 17 In each of these—Chapters 1, 11, 13 and 19—Lyra is
the protagonist and as the story progresses the reader bears witness to her gradual loss of
innocence, or to be more precise, her ideological ignorance, which is heralded by several
events, some of the most prevalent being her admitting that she is no longer able to lie and tell
stories, and her meeting and confrontation with her own death. As previously mentioned, the
issue of innocence and experience is presented as a major theme in HDM, but the definition of
each state is not always clear or absolute. The notion of innocence and experience, as well as
the particular way it is defined and used within the trilogy, will be analysed in greater detail
later in this chapter.
Lyra starts off as an innocent girl of 11 years who has only ever seen Oxford. Although
her environment has been protected to a great extent, her intelligence, energy, curiosity and
fearlessness have placed her in several dangerous situations. She knows about the Gobblers
and understands the threat, as much as she knows and fears Lord Asriel. Lyra is innocent in
16 Neil Forsyth also speaks of a dichotomy in the Devil figure as described in Milton “One role Satan is to play in
Paradise Lost is to project and play out the consequences of that metaphysical dualism: he certainly believes
himself to be a kind of alternative power to God. In Milton, though, he does not stop that uncomfortable
regression whereby we go back from Eve to the apple to Satan to Lucifer […], and inevitably conclude that God
is responsible for everything in the world, including evil. But his existence makes the question problematic, and
Milton wants his readers to ask it specifically, as he does himself in his treatise” (Forsyth, 2003, 38).
17 Just as Pullman’s epigraphs may work both in isolation and as a complete whole, so the Songs can be read,
understood and seen both individually and in relation to one another. The themes these poems tackle are not
limited to basic notions of loss of innocence, or a child’s transition to experience. Most poems in this collection,
and especially in Experience, including ‘A Poison Tree,’ present clear and powerful allegories for elements of
Genesis, and references to religion, the power of imagination, and the restrictions that rules, and the conformity
to these, inflict on a person forcing them to forget and lose their human spirit. The Poison Tree, for example, is
undoubtedly a reference to the Tree of Knowledge from which God forbade Adam and Eve to taste.
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