William Blake – Songs of Innocence & Experience

Eliška Sedláková, BRIL2

As already mentioned, we talk about the turn of the 19 th century as the romanticism. Romanticism
reacts to huge social changes in Europe, such as the French or American Revolution. These changes
put base of democracy, therefore the main focus was on all the primitive but beautiful daily
experiences: from the warm, calm sunrises to epic storms above the seaside. What romantic literature
is about is mostly emotions of the characters, spirituality, celebration of commonness or even nature.
While the poets were focusing on the imagination of a perfect reality, prosaic writers were actually
more into the psychological fields (such as Poe’s interpretation of horror genre) and historical novels.
Some people refer to Blake as the “predecessor of romanticism” as he was publishing his rather
romantic poems sooner than what we now recognise as the romantic period.

But Blake was deeply influenced by John Milton, a century-older author. Blake’s poetry explicitly
highlights the issue of Milton’s fallen state in attempting to produce a work about God and innocence. 1
The words Innocence and Experience basically represent what Milton thought to be the existential-
mythic states of “Paradise” and “Fall”. Eventually we can interpret the Innocence as the real one that
we have as children, and Experience means the adulthood.

Songs of Innocence contain 19 poems, mostly about the pure perception of the world, the so-called
“Unfallen world”, where the innocence is protected and no sin actually exists. 2 The Songs of
Experience, on the other hand, focus on how cruel the reality can be. There is a huge contrast between
these two collections.

The book is full of metaphors and various symbols, whether they are presented literally (“ I love you
like the little bird that picks up crumbs around the door.” (Songs, 50)—Christians blindly take only
the knowledge that is being presented to them) or in the form of the illumination artwork (illustration
of ivy vines—poisonous connection between earth and heaven).

I personally find Blake’s work very readable and catchy. The poems are not so long and pretty easy to
understand. What I tend to demonstrate is the symbols of actual innocence being presented in the first
half of the collection. For the example, I have chosen 2 poems called “A Little Boy Lost” and “A Little
Girl Lost”.

1
Spratt, Andrew M., Innocence Lost: The Tension of Contrary States in Blake and Milton, s. 4
2
Frye, N., Fearful Symmetry, s. 42
Both poems are presenting very young people, whose innocent tendencies lead them to eventual
trouble. In A Little Boy Lost, we see a child who questions the religious dogma, which is perfectly
fine; he is just a kid. Unfortunately, this brings the boy to the situations where he is accused of heresy
and burned at the stake. The innocence is being buried and his questions are never to be answered.

Nought loves another as itself, And Father, how can I love you
Nor venerates another so, Or any of my brothers more?
Nor is it possible to Thought I love you like the little bird
A greater than itself to know: That picks up crumbs around the door.
(Songs, p. 50)

In the first stanza, we can clearly see the little boy’s expression of love for the divine spirit. He
immediately questions it, because it makes no sense to him. What I think, is that the verses “I love you
like the little bird That picks up crumbs around the door” show how religion is based only on what the
Church want to present and what wisdom they pass to common people and how these people just
blindly follow what is given to them. But there is so much more to this that we do not know. The boy
is just concerned, and he has a great reason for it. There is nothing purer than children’s curiosity
about the new world they have got into. The fact that he does not doubt his love, only the purpose of it,
is what I consider the symbol of innocence in this poem.

A Little Girl Lost describes the story of a young maiden who is in love. We once again meet the topic
of questioning some religious stereotypes or even rules given by Bible which Christians must obey;
again- blindly. She is tired of waiting to make love to her lover, so she decides to wait no more, which
causes her trouble when her father finds them. She did not mean to rebel or protest, she just wanted to
express love in the most beautiful way possible, which I find innocent.

To her father white

What it seems to me is that the verse “Came the maiden bright” describes the pleasure and happiness
she is finally able to feel. Even today we use the phrase “you’re glowing” when we want to express
that someone looks thrilled and satisfied. And she was really glowing. With no intention of harming
anybody, especially her father, who is incredibly upset. She was just tired of the injustice.

Blake himself mentions in the first stanza:

Children of the future Age,

This stanza is something we can easily convert to today’s issues connected with love. Innocent people
are still being killed for trying to express their feelings today. Whether it concerns religious or political
stigmas, there are some places where these people just cannot be with their loved ones. And I would
say that love is one of those things that makes you even more innocent and vulnerable.

In conclusion, I would definitely recommend Blake to anyone interested in romantic literature. His
poems are filled with emotions and feelings that seem very true to me. Some poems are really breath-
taking, making you question even your position in the world today. The world can be a cruel place,
where is no place for the Innocent and where you simply have to get the Experience.
Sources

Spratt, Andrew M., Innocence Lost: The Tension of Contrary States in Blake and Milton, (2011).
Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects. 97. Available at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/honors/97,
retrieved 13th January 2022

Frye, Northrop (1969). Fearful Symmetry. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-
691-01291-1.

BLACK, Joseph, Leonard CONOLLY, Kate FLINT, et al. The Broadview Anthology of British
Literature Volume 4: The Age of Romanticism - Second Edition. 2. Broadview Press, 2010. ISBN 978-
1-77048-090-2.

The Realistic Inquiry of Selected Romantic Poetry by Blake, Wordsworth, Shelley and
Keats. Petranika: Social Sciences & Humanities. 2019, 2019(27), 2525 - 2541. ISSN 0128-7702.

FRYE, Northrop. Blake: A Collection of Critical Essays. Prentice Hall (Higher Education Division,
Pearson Education), 1987. ISBN 0130775452.