POEMS
SONGS OF INNOCENCE (1789) – SONGS OF EXPERIENCE
(1794)
- Songs of Innocence is written in the pastoral mode with simple imagery. It deals with childhood as the symbol of innocence.
- Songs of Experience is more complex and pessimistic. The poems pair those of Songs of Innocence.
- The world of innocence is full of joy and happiness, while the world of experience is full of cruelty and injustice.
- The child becomes the object of Blake’s poetry because he is closer than the adult to the original state of harmony with nature.
STYLE
Blake uses complex
symbolism: a lamb or a tiger, a chimney sweeper or a London street were symbols of a supra-natural reality,
never to be taken at their face value.
Child => innocence
Father => experience
Christ => higher innocence
His language
and syntax are simple. He often
adopts an apparently naive style, using a plain, Anglo-Saxon vocabulary,
repetitions, refrains and regular stress patterns typical of ballads and
children’s songs and hymns.
THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER
Theme => The exploitation of children.
Key images => The
cry “weep”, darkness, the Angel.
Devices => Symbols of innocence (lamb, happy, dance, sing).
Contrast (black/white).
Irony to criticize the institution.
In the poem from Songs of Innocence the child
accepts the hope offered from the Angel and has no consciousness of the
injustice of his condition.
In the poem from Songs of Experience the child
is aware of his conditions and of how unjust it is.
