Songs of Innocence and ExperienceSongs 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'. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
angel arise armed babe bear beguiles birds blossom bore breast bright child Church clothing cloud cold Dare dark deep delight divine doth dread dream earth echoing eyes face father fear fled flower garden gives gold gone green grief hair hand happy head hear heard heart heaven holy human infant innocent kissed laugh light LITTLE BOY LITTLE GIRL Little lamb look LOST Love Lyca Merrily merry mild moans morn mother naked nest never night o’er Once pale Peace pipe Pity play pleasant pray pretty rise rose round seek shade shine sigh silent sing sleep smiles snow soft song Soon sorrow soul spring stand summer Sweet tears tender thee thou thought tigers told tree turned voice walking wander watered weary weep wept wild Youth