Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience

“To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wildflower Hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour.” –William Blake

cottage from http://www.gailgastfield.com/blake3.html

Songs of Innocence and of Experience is a collection of poems written by William Blake. Blake contemplates certain themes within these works that parallel each other and present the audience with ideas one reality in two different views. The first view is one of innocence, which reveals the youthful outlook on life that is not yet, tainted with the realization of what the world is really like. The other view is one of experience, which is a more cautious view due to one’s witness to the horrors that encompass all of human nature. Through the duration of life one goes from being innocent and optimistic to experienced and pestimistic. Blake lays out these views not to impose what you should believe is true , but rather to allow you to reflect on different issues and ideas through his straight forward, yet artistic language.

See an Original Copy of Songs Of Innocence and of Experience at the Library of Congress by clicking here.

An Analysis of Some of Blake’s Poems:

Songs of Innocence:

The Ecchoing Green
The Little Black Boy
On Another’s Sorrow

Songs of Experience:
London
The Lilly
The Little Vagabond

Poems taken from:
http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/BlaSong.html

Contributors:
Danielle Allen, Elisa Lala, Natalie Johnson, Sarah Potochney

More on Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience

by Emily Coon, Lindsey Johnson, Erin McCusker

Our group will be discussing a total of six of Blake’s poems from the Songs of Innocence. We will be focusing on two themes of these poems, Animals and Nature.

The Companion Poems from Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience

by Brooke Vreken, Andrea Dashiell, Andrea Pedicone

Photograph from Answers.com

We will discuss the similarities and differences of four sets of poems with identical titles from William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience.

Companion Poems: Mirror Images

Photograph borrowed from http://www.answers.com/topic/songs-of-innocence-and-of-experience-1
All poem texts borrowed from http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/BlaSong.html