Comparative Analysis

Comparing the Songs of Innocence &
The Songs of Experience with reference

to the poems in the course
The Songs of Innocence and of Experience is an illustrated collection of poems
by William Blake. It was published in two phases; the first few copies being published by
Blake in 1789 and 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.
"Innocence" and "Experience" are definitions of consciousness that rethink

Milton's existential-mythic states of "Paradise" and "Fall". Blake has categorized 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. The collection brings
forth two very contrasting outlooks to the world as evident in the sub title of the
collection “Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience showing the two contrary
states of Human soul.” Many of the poems in these two collections present parallel
situations from opposite sides of the coin. The shift from innocence to experience can
be seen in change from lamb to tiger, childhood to adulthood, rural to urban scenes,
and generous love to selfish sexuality. These are the dominant symbolic patterns that
Blake uses to show the differences between the contrary states of the human soul.
Blake has presented the reader with two contrasting views, from a blissful
representation Blake move on to a tragic representation of the society.
Throughout the Songs of innocence there exists an underlying theme of divine

love and sympathy. In the poem “The Lamb” the use of the word lamb signifies the
goodness of God and the creation. In “The Chimney Sweeper” the urchin’s dream of
release from his life of dirt, danger, and drudgery provides a satiric comment on child
labor customs.
Similarly, there exist contrasting themes to that of the Songs of Innocence

throughout The Songs of Experience, there is a growing sense of gloom, mystery, and
evil. Blake depicts the actual world of human suffering in lyrics such as “London,” where
the economic, social, and political doctrines of the 18th century are indicted. In the
cryptic poem “The Tyger,” the speaker asks the same questions about the creator as in
“The Lamb,” but here there is no reassuring answer; rather, it is suggested that the
creator is savage and malefic.
Across both the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, Blake has
repeatedly addressed the destruction of the childlike innocence and their lives, by a
society which uses people for its own selfish needs. Blake has placed the children of his
poems in situations common to his time in which they find their faith in their parents or
God challenged by harsh circumstances even though he has gone to great lengths in
romanticizing them. Songs of Experience is an attempt to denounce the cruel society
that harms the human soul in such terrible ways, but it also calls the reader back to
innocence, through Imagination, in an effort to redeem a fallen world.
“The Introduction” which is the first of the poems which follows the themes in the
Songs of Innocence establishes a pastoral background while providing the reader with
an idea which then would help him to understand the Songs of Experience. Blake while
complying with poetic has used divine intervention. The use of the figure of the lamb
signifies the innocence while also hinting at Jesus Christ. Throughout his works, Blake
frequently refers to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. While he alludes to the atoning
act of Christ Crucified, more often Blake focuses on the Incarnation, the taking on of
human form by the divine Creator, as the source of redemption for both human beings
and nature. The episode when the child asks the speaker to sing songs which can then
be documented in a book decorated by natural colors so everyone can listen to them
hints at Blake’s own technique. Additionally, in the “The Lamb” the poet has used
didactic form while portraying it through a dialogue between the child and the Lamb.
The pastoral note is another symbol of innocence in Blake’s poems. Christ has been
shown as the Lamb in the poem as the lamb is understood to be pure, meek and
innocent. The poet has very successfully been able to convey the very essence of
childhood through this poem.
In the poem the Chimney Sweeper Blake is offering here a true vision of the joy
which is available to the innocent. The boy's unpaternally human father is replaced by
the loving fatherhood of God. Blake is implying that those who see from the standpoint
of experience are insensible to this, but the true ‘duty' of the boy is to perceive the ‘truth'
of such visions via the power of imagination. Readers may feel and appreciate what the
child suffers in the first two stanzas. They may, therefore, find relief in the vision of joy
and freedom which encourages Tom from stanza three onwards. However, they are
brought back to the reality of the situation by the angel's message. This vision of joy is a
reward which keeps the child obedient and in line. Readers are invited to see that the
dream is an illusion. It keeps the child looking beyond this life and prevents him seeing
what life could, and should, be like in the present. The moralizing message of the final
line underscores this through its ambiguity
The parallel contrasting poem to The Lamb is The Tyger, it begins with the
speaker's awe before the majestic ferocity of the tiger. He is then moved to what kind of
divine being could have created it. The poem invites us to consider the mind which
produces questions about the nature of the world and its creator. It also challenges the
reader to accept that the dangerous and potentially destructive forces in the world are
also attractive and beautiful. It’s clear that the tiger is symbolic. ‘The forests of the night'
suggests places of darkness where it is easy to get lost, where wild beasts lurk. It
seems, then, to be an energy inhabiting the dark and destructive aspects of human
nature and experience. The associations with ‘distant deeps or skies' suggests that this
power resides not only in humans but in the whole of creation. Thus, the tiger is an
embodiment of the fierce energy present in the cosmos. It’s clear that the tiger is
symbolic. ‘The forests of the night' suggests places of darkness where it is easy to get
lost, where wild beasts lurk. It seems, then, to be an energy inhabiting the dark and
destructive aspects of human nature and experience. The associations with ‘distant
deeps or skies' suggests that this power resides not only in humans but in the whole of
creation. Thus, the tiger is an embodiment of the fierce energy present in the cosmos.
The main focus, however, is not on the identity of the tiger but of the tiger's creator.
What kind of a God could or would design such a terrifying beast as the tiger? The verb
‘frame' suggests that the maker can both build and encompass or restrict this mighty
animal. Blake raises a lot of questions in the readers mind such as, If the tiger is so
terrible, how much more terrible must its creator be? Blake's concern here is with the
perennial problem of evil and the existence of a good God. How can a good God allow
or produce what is evil? How can evil exist in a world created by a good God?
Yet the tiger is only a moral problem for those who are limited by such a
perspective. The creator of the tiger is the product of the ‘mind fetters' which enchain
the human being.
The parallel poem to The Chimney Sweeper is a small twelve-line poem dealing
with lost children where loss becomes a metaphor. This poem links exposure of the
social evil of the child chimney sweep with the exploitation and vulnerability of
innocence. It is also concerned with attitudes to the body which are as entrapping of the
child as the employment system. . Most obviously, it is a protest against the condition of
child sweeps and against the hypocrisy of the society that allows this exploitation. The
child in this poem would have been sold into forced labour by his parents. The poem
may also symbolise the way in which the human mind has produced prohibitions and
inhibitions regarding instinctual life and sexuality. These prohibitions are then
transposed onto wider society. The mind creates an idea of God who is forever saying,
‘Thou shalt not', tying people up in laws and prohibitions. People are led to imagine God
as a great, tyrannical ruler.
In Conclusion it can be said that Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience

juxtapose the innocent, pastoral world of childhood against an adult world of corruption
and repression; while such poems as “The Lamb” represent a meek virtue, poems like
“The Tyger” exhibit opposing, darker forces. Thus, the collection as a whole explores
the value and limitations of two different perspectives on the world. Many of the poems
fall into pairs, so that the same situation or problem is seen through the lens of
innocence first and then experience. Blake does not identify himself wholly with either
view; most of the poems are dramatic—that is, in the voice of a speaker other than the
poet himself. Blake stands outside innocence and experience, in a distanced position
from which he hopes to be able to recognize and correct the fallacies of both. In
particular, he pits himself against despotic authority, restrictive morality, sexual
repression, and institutionalized religion; his great insight is into the way these separate
modes of control work together to squelch what is most holy in human beings.

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Comparative Analysis

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Comparing the Songs of Innocence &

The Songs of Experience with reference

"Innocence" and "Experience" are definitions of consciousness that rethink

Throughout the Songs of innocence there exists an underlying theme of divine

Similarly, there exist contrasting themes to that of the Songs of Innocence

In Conclusion it can be said that Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience

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