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    Songs of Innocence and Experience
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    Songs of Innocence and Experience
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    Songs of Innocence and Experience
    Ebook59 pages19 minutes

    Songs of Innocence and Experience

    By William Blake

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    About this ebook

    Songs of Innocence and Experience is a collection of poems by William Blake in two phases. "Innocence" and "Experience" are definitions of consciousness that rethink Milton's existential-mythic states of "Paradise" and the "Fall." Blake's categories are modes of perception that tend to coordinate with a chronology that would become standard in Romanticism: childhood is a state of protected innocence rather than original sin, but not immune to the fallen world and its institutions. This world sometimes impinges on childhood itself, and in any event becomes known through "experience," a state of being marked by the loss of childhood vitality, by fear and inhibition, by social and political corruption, and by the manifold oppression of Church, State, and the ruling classes. The volume's "Contrary States" are sometimes signalled by patently repeated or contrasted titles: in Innocence, Infant Joy, in Experience, Infant Sorrow; in Innocence, The Lamb, in Experience, The Fly and The Tyger. The stark simplicity of poems such as The Chimney Sweeper and The Little Black Boy display Blake's acute sensibility to the realities of poverty and exploitation that accompanied the "dark satanic mills" of the Industrial Revolution'.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookRix
    Release dateJun 9, 2019
    ISBN9783736802087
    Author

    William Blake

    William Blake (1757-1827) was a nonconformist who associated with some of the leading radical thinkers of his day, such as Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft. A skilled engraver and illustrator, his illustrated poetry collections resembled the illuminated books of the Middle Ages.

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    Reviews for Songs of Innocence and Experience

    4/5

    655 ratings14 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Interesting Poems to Compare and Contrast: Interesting poems to compare and contrast - definitely a must for any literature student. Moreover, if you're interested in the different movements, as Blake was a key figure in bringing Romanticism into poetry.
    • 4/5
      The contrast between the songs of innocence and the songs of experience is amazing. Blake is at the same time vague and descriptive. The subtleties in his meter are fantastic! I love reading these and analyzing the intention and the meaning behind them. There are so many points of view one could take.
    • 5/5
      Blake's collection of ballad-like poems. Deceptively simple and direct, but often more complex and difficult than they seem.
    • 3/5
      Blake wrote some good poems, but I didn't particularly like most of them.
    • 3/5
      I like Blake´s poetry but not his content. The structure, the rhythm and rhyme, the length of the poems I enjoyed; the subject matter, especially in the Songs of Innocence was too much 'little lamb of God' for my tastes.

      That said, this book is very short and does contain some treasures - most notably The Tiger - so I would recommend it to anyone who, like myself, is trying to acquire some knowledge of poetry.
    • 4/5
      This is a beautiful edition of Blake's poems. I've used this a lot in school.
    • 5/5
      One of the few poets that have stayed and grown with me. And the artwork!
    • 4/5
      My copy of William Blake's 'Songs of Innocence and of Experience' features Blake's original plates on one page and his poems typed out on the other. The pictures are strange, ornate, exquisite and the poems are poignant and beautiful, about children and nature, the Chimney Sweeper and the Echoing Green. More famous poems appear in the Songs of Experience, The Sick Rose and the Tyger. The work is visionary and shows sensitivity, depth and a great social conscience.
    • 5/5
      A gorgeous book
    • 4/5
      First of all, I would like to state in my defense that I picked up this slim volume days before I started freaking out about getting to 50 books by any means necessary. Ever since I catalogued my poetry shelf, I've been making an effort to get more of it read. Plus, in the story currently in my head, I'm a teacher, leading a unit on poetry. And apparently now I'm doing research for the stories I tell myself on long walks and as I fall asleep.

      Yes? Well, okay. I don't know exactly what I was expecting when I first picked this up, but it certainly wasn't the poems I found in Songs of Innocence. This first volume is so excessively sweet, devoid of any hint of adult cynicism, that I felt a bit unmoored, and it actually took me days to work my way through them. It wasn't until I made it into Songs of Experience and heard the call and response between volumes that everything fell into place. Each side is illuminated and brought into relief by the other.

      This volume contains what must surely be one of the most famous poems in the English language -- "The Tyger," which somehow I think I had never previously read in its entirety, though certainly I have seen its opening lines quoted often enough. Myself, I prefer "the Little Vagabond."

      Worth its reputation after all, I'd have to say.
    • 5/5
      I started reading this from the age of twelve. Still love it, and find it deeply meaningful.
    • 5/5
      Songs of Innocence and Experience are William Blake's two most famous books. The best way to read them is as the artist intended, with a facsimile of the original artwork/poems. They are admittedly a little strange and opaque at first but its possible to pry out some double meanings to discover the "contrary states of the human soul," and if not that, at least enjoy some mirth and joy in lightness of being.
    • 4/5
      Despite their age, these poems really sing to me: "Get with child a mandrake root...."
    • 5/5
      Songs of Innocence and of Experience remains a favorite of mine. The concept is brilliant-- illustrated poetry. Blake paints a beautiful picture with the poem woven into it. The words are so small I'm not sure how he actually got them on there. I told my daughter she should try to do a painting "Blake-style" with a poem woven into the picture.Some of my favorite Blake poems are found in this collection: "The Lamb" and "The Tiger." But I read some new ones that I also really enjoyed. The first half of the book contains the Songs of Innocence and the poems reflect that theme with sweet poems of God and children and Shepherds, etc. Many of these poems in the Songs of Innocence seem like lullabies.The second half contains the Songs of Experience, with more emphasis on pain, poverty, and sin. The cover picture for Songs of Experience is a picture of someone dead on their bed. It sets the tone for the whole last part. Is the first part like the Garden of Eden—Innocence, and Experience--post Garden? The title is Songs of Innocence and Of Experience: Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul. So is that contrasting good and evil? Here are some examples of his criticism.Holy Thursday was pointed, “Is this a holy thing to see,/In a rich and fruitful land,/Babes reduced to misery,/ Fed with cold and usurious hand?” This was critical of children in poverty.The poem Garden of Love, I found very critical of the church. The garden had a church built there and it was now filled with tombstones instead of flowers; and priests in black robes were binding with briars. Where he used to play was no longer a garden of love! London was very critical of the city. Phrases like “Harlot’s curse” “blood down palace walls” “marriage hearse” “Infants cry” etc. really paints a bleak picture of the city.