INNOCENCE UNDER THREAT: COGNITIVE STRUCTURES IN BLAKE’S “NIGHT”

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine William Blake’s poem “Night”, and to demonstrate that the poem constructs Innocence not as a state of absolute security, but as a condition of conditional safety based on vigilance, compassion, and moral balance. The relevance of the study lies in addressing the gap between classical interpretations of the poem and the lack of systematic explanation of the mechanisms through which danger and protection coexist within a single poetic space. The study integrates traditional Blakean criticism with a cognitive-poetic perspective in order to clarify how meaning is organized at the level of perception and conceptualization. Special attention is given to frames, conceptual metaphors, and image schemas that structure the nocturnal world of the poem. Methods used in the study include general scientific methods (analysis and synthesis), elements of cognitive linguistics (frame semantics, conceptual metaphor theory, image schema theory), and close textual analysis. The results of the research contribute to a deeper understanding of Blake’s poetic model of Innocence and may be applied in literary translation for preserving underlying conceptual structures across languages.