William Blake

Songs of Innocence And of Experience

read for brooklyn poets mentorship reading group

Patricia K

Iris Adi

fiona

Songs of Innocence and of Experience is an collection of poems by William Blake. It appeared in two phases. A few first copies were printed and illuminated by William Blake himself in 1789; five years later he bound these poems with a set of new poems in a volume titled Songs of Innocence and of Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul. William Blake was also a painter before the songs of innocence and experience and made paintings such as Oberon, Titania, and Puck dancing with fairies. "Innocence" and "Experience" are definitions of consciousness that rethink Milton's existential-mythic states of "Paradise" and "Fall". Often, interpretations of this collection centre around a mythical dualism, where "Innocence" represents the "unfallen world" and "Experience" represents the "fallen world". Blake categorizes our 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.

Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Jacob Edwards

The poetry is pure in this collection, and Blake really shines through. With commentary on social misjustices, poverty, and the colonial, racist past of Britain (albeit still not perfectly anti-racist), it's a perfectly melodical selection that can move one to tears. The illuminated plates that Blake crafted containing the poems are also a sight for sore eyes - the man is a genius, and his art certainly reflects this.

Emily

3/5 - Read it for my British Literature course

LaToia Bates

Fall semester is here! Not really something I would have chosen for myself I'm not huge on poetry but I do appreciate the contrasts between the two sections. Their are subtitles that are interesting to ponder. If I was taking a course on Blake on not on Romantic lit it would be nice to spend more time discussing this

Maria Amaro

Adoro la poesía de William Blake. Hoy ha sido un buen refugio. Sus poemas y un café bien caliente, a las seis de la mañana, pues no podía dormir más. La casa estaba en silencio, y mis ojos solo me pedían leer, no pensar en nada más. Ha sido un viaje increíble. ❤️

William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience includes some of the visionary poet's finest and best-loved poems such as 'The Lamb', 'The Chimney-Sweeper' and 'The Tiger'. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition has a foreword by Peter Harness. Blake's work is instantly recognizable by its flamboyance and inventiveness. This gorgeous edition contains stunning reproductions of the fifty-four plates of the poems and illustrations together, which Blake etched himself and coloured by hand. Each has the poem printed on the facing page. Whilst Songs of Innocence captures the innocence of childhood, Songs of Experience is its contrary sequel.

karissa🌙

Isabella Agostino

Helena

Daniel Voicu

andrea valentina 

Kendall McClain

Alejandra 

Songs of Innocence and Experienceis one of the best-loved poetry collections of all time, an innovative and groundbreaking experiment in which Blake intertwined text and image to dazzling effect. The volume, published sometimes as two separate collections, juxtaposes the innocent world of childhood with the corrupt and repressed one of adults. Many of the poems are in pairs, enabling the reader to see the same situation first from the perspective of innocence and then from that of experience, and the volume includes such favourites as 'The Lamb', 'The Chimney Sweeper' and 'The Tyger'.

Songs of Innocence and Experience

Dennis Jacob Rosenfeld

Andrew John Kinney

Geoffrey Keynes

Reproduces the texts and the fifty-four hand-colored etchings of Blake's famous and now much sought-after double volume of lyrics

Songs of Innocence And of Experience

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