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Analysis of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on February 17, 2021 • ( 0 )

Songs of Innocence and of Experience contain William Blake’s best-known and most widely read works, including what is perhaps his most famous poem, The Tyger. The book, beautifully and delicately illustrated by Blake, has been vastly influential, determining, for example, the opening poems in William Butler Yeats’s book The Rose ( 1893), which contrasts “The Song of the Happy Shepherd” with “The Sad Shepherd:” (The second Song of Innocence is called “The Shepherd.”) The contrast, and the very idea of the song, harkens back to Blake.

The title itself has had an enormous effect on ways of thinking about poetry. Songs of Innocence —the title of the first part, which appeared by itself in 1789— might seem a fairly innocuous title, like the famous Songs and Sonnets which begin the full title of Tottel’s Miscellany (1557; Shakespeare has Falstaff refer to it that way). But the idea of Songs of Experience (added to the Songs of Innocence in a new volume in 1794) was peculiarly modern; it led eventually to such titles as Bertolt Brecht’s “Ballad of ill-gotten gains” in The Threepenny Opera (1928), but it is more radical still because of the difficulty of understanding the idea that there should be such things as songs of experience. The idea of the songs is something like the idea of innocence. Experience does not sing (although sorrow might), since the idea of experience might be that it no longer believes in song.

But for Blake there is more than irony in the title. That all things should be in some sense poetic—should long for poetic expression, long to sing—is one of his central tenets. The songs of experience also indicate the possibility that in experience there is still some fundamentally saving innocence that may not recognize itself but is still there, still attracted toward the love and life which for Blake constituted holiness. Conversely, the idea of Songs of Experience might mean that songs themselves are not the sure symptom and symbol and expression of incorruptibility we might wish them to be, so that the songs of innocence do not protect or immunize their singers from corruption as we would wish them to do.

Another way to put this point is to say that the Songs of Innocence, even when they appeared alone, are far from being expressions of naïveté, later corrected by an older Blake with the Songs of Experience . The very idea of songs of innocence is an idea that comes from a no longer-innocent perspective. This is clear throughout the Songs of Innocence, for example in “The Nurse’s Song” and “The Little Black Boy.” As these poems indicate, the truly innocent do not recognize their innocence because, by the very nature of that innocence, they have had no experience to the contrary. But the title alone of the volume is enough to make the point. Songs of Innocence as a title means, in one respect, “songs of those still innocent,” though innocence will never last long. To recognize innocence, as the title and entitler does, is to recognize that it is fleeting.

This can be seen in the introductory poem. Some of the poems in “Innocence” and “Experience” form obvious diptyches, and we consider other paired poems in the two parts of the book elsewhere (see the pairings of the two versions of “The Nurse’s Song,” “ The Chimney-Sweeper, ” “The Lamb” and “The Tyger”). Here we will take the inaugural poems as exemplary. Songs of Innocence opens with this subtle introductory verse:

Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:

“Pipe a song about a Lamb!” So I piped with a merry chear. “Piper, pipe that song again;” So I piped: he wept to hear.

“Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe; Sing thy songs of happy chear:” So I sung the same again, While he wept with joy to hear.

“Piper, sit thee down and write In a book, that all may read.” So he vanish’d from my sight, And I pluck’d a hollow reed,

And I made a rural pen, And I stain’d the water clear, And I wrote my happy songs, Every child may joy to hear.

The speaker meets the laughing angelic child, and both the songs he pipes—“songs of pleasant glee”— and the child’s response seem to speak for purity and innocence. The child wants to hear more from the piper and then weeps to hear the song. Why does he weep? The piper believes that it is “with joy,” but even if it is, the joy seems to be the joy of relief or return to innocence from a more experienced, bleaker perspective, not the simple, innocent joy that one would expect a child in the Songs of Innocence to exemplify.

The child asks the piper to write the songs down, and then he vanishes. Why? Partly perhaps because he grows up; at any rate, he cannot sustain the presence of eternal innocence. He asks the piper to write the songs down in order to record what otherwise would not last: childhood glee is ephemeral. Writing the songs down requires something other than the innocent piping that the speaker delights in. It requires the hollow reed and, as well, that the clear water be stained. Every child may hear these songs read aloud—the children cannot read, but the piper can, and so, too, can those the child considers: “sit thee down and write / In a book, that all may read . . .” Those who read will therefore read aloud to those who can only hear but will rejoice to hear these songs. But their hearing, like the piper’s writing, is mediated by the less-innocent position of the writers and performers of the song. Those who can read or write are no longer innocent, since the innocent children hear the songs, rather than reading them. And the angelic child who vanishes is the most knowledgeable of all: What he knows is that a child’s form is no guarantor of protection from experience. The weeping child shows both the value and the fragility of innocence.

This introductory song has a pendant, or counterweight, in the introductory song to the Songs of Experience . There the singer is not the piper but the “bard / Who present, past, & future sees.” He has seen God walking in the Garden of Eden after the Fall of humanity, and therefore the Songs of Experience begin with an account of the end of innocence with the eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. The bard is the one who calls upon the fallen earth to return to what she was before she fell. That return is not a return to ignorance but to hope and assurance of life, rather than the perpetual fear she now lives under. The beautiful last stanza assimilates experience (represented as nighttime) to the possibilities of a transcendent innocence that understands, accepts, and transmutes sin, sorrow, and experience itself:

“Turn away no more; Why wilt thou turn away? The starry floor, The wat’ry shore, Is giv’n thee till the break of day.’

The simplest way to read this, and one consonant with those interpretations of Blake that see the “starry floor” and “wat’ry shore” as cause for regret and as symbols of psychic and spiritual oppression, is to take them instead as beautiful forerunners of the day that is coming. It is night, perhaps, but at night the stars and waters are a token of the coming of the morning.

“Earth’s Answer” (to this appeal) in the next poem in the Songs of Experience shows the grim reading of the starry floor as a place of “starry jealousy,” and the “wat’ry shore” as a prison. But even that idea of them can be read in the more properly Blakean style: that even jealousy and prison can be transmogrified in the imagination into something beautiful, starlike and shorelike. Earth’s answer shows the extent to which the soul is oppressed by experience. But the very fact that she must make an answer—that the introduction to the Songs of Experience by itself does not offset the introduction to the Songs of Innocence —shows both the deeper, more ubiquitous nature of experience and the fact that the negativity of experience is in some sense false and contrived, preserved by the earth’s insistent fearfulness rather than overcome through the spirit of hope.

Bibliography Bloom, Harold. Blake’s Apocalypse: A Study in Poetic Argument. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1970. ———. Poetry and Repression: Revisionism from Blake to Stevens. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1976. Damrosch, Leopold. Symbol and Truth in Blake’s Myth. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980. Erdmann, David V. Blake, Prophet against Empire: A Poet’s Interpretation of the History of His Own Times. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977. Fry, Northrop. Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1974. Gilchrist, Alexander. Life of William Blake, with Selections from His Poems and Other Writings. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1973. Ostriker, Alicia. “Desire Gratified and Ungratified: William Blake and Sexuality.” Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly 16 (1982–83): 156–165. Raine, Kathleen. Blake and Antiquity. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977. Thompson, E. P. Witness against the Beast: William Blake and The Moral Law. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

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Introduction (Songs of Innocence) Summary & Analysis by William Blake

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
• Poetic Devices
• Vocabulary & References
• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
• Line-by-Line Explanations

This "Introduction" opens William Blake's hugely influential collection Songs of Innocence (1789), a book of poems embodying one of what Blake called "the two contrary states of the human soul" (as contrasted with experience, which he would explore in the 1794 omnibus volume Songs of Innocence and of Experience ). Here, Blake's alter ego—a wandering piper—explains how he came to write his poems: through a conversation with a visionary child who appears on a cloud, delights in his music, and demands that he write his songs down so that "every child may joy to hear" them. Such fluent, creative joy, the poem suggests, is part of what innocence is all about. But darker notes in the poem remind readers that childlike innocence must also confront a world of pain and suffering.

• Read the full text of “Introduction (Songs of Innocence)”

The Full Text of “Introduction (Songs of Innocence)”

1 Piping down the valleys wild

2 Piping songs of pleasant glee

3 On a cloud I saw a child.

4 And he laughing said to me.

5 Pipe a song about a Lamb;

6 So I piped with merry chear,

7 Piper pipe that song again—

8 So I piped, he wept to hear.

9 Drop thy pipe thy happy pipe

10 Sing thy songs of happy chear,

11 So I sung the same again

12 While he wept with joy to hear

13 Piper sit thee down and write

14 In a book that all may read—

15 So he vanish'd from my sight.

16 And I pluck'd a hollow reed.

17 And I made a rural pen,

18 And I stain'd the water clear,

19 And I wrote my happy songs

20 Every child may joy to hear

“Introduction (Songs of Innocence)” Summary

“introduction (songs of innocence)” themes.

Creative Inspiration

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The Nature of Innocence

Line-by-line explanation & analysis of “introduction (songs of innocence)”.

Piping down the valleys wild Piping songs of pleasant glee On a cloud I saw a child. And he laughing said to me.

Pipe a song about a Lamb; So I piped with merry chear, Piper pipe that song again— So I piped, he wept to hear.

Drop thy pipe thy happy pipe Sing thy songs of happy chear, So I sung the same again While he wept with joy to hear

Lines 13-16

Piper sit thee down and write In a book that all may read— So he vanish'd from my sight. And I pluck'd a hollow reed.

Lines 17-20

And I made a rural pen, And I stain'd the water clear, And I wrote my happy songs Every child may joy to hear

“Introduction (Songs of Innocence)” Symbols

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“Introduction (Songs of Innocence)” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

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Parallelism

“introduction (songs of innocence)” vocabulary.

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Introduction (Songs of Innocence)”

Rhyme scheme, “introduction (songs of innocence)” speaker, “introduction (songs of innocence)” setting, literary and historical context of “introduction (songs of innocence)”, more “introduction (songs of innocence)” resources, external resources.

The Poem Illuminated — Compare and contrast some of Blake's hand-painted editions of Songs of Innocence. Blake published many of his books as illuminated manuscripts, in which pictures interweave with poems; consider how word and image interact here (especially in the illustrations to this "Introduction").

Portraits of Blake — Take a look at some portraits of Blake that capture his character: equal parts visionary and pugnacious. While he sat for the painted portrait at the top of the page, he described his friendship with the Archangel Gabriel to the artist.

A Brief Biography — Learn more about Blake's life and work via the British Library.

Songs of Innocence and of Experience — Learn more about the groundbreaking collections in which Blake printed this poem.

Blake's Legacy — Read a piece by the contemporary novelist Philip Pullman on what William Blake means to him.

LitCharts on Other Poems by William Blake

Ah! Sun-flower

A Poison Tree

Earth's Answer

Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience)

Holy Thursday (Songs of Innocence)

Infant Sorrow

Nurse's Song (Songs of Experience)

Nurse's Song (Songs of Innocence)

The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience)

The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Innocence)

The Clod and the Pebble

The Divine Image

The Ecchoing Green

The Garden of Love

The Human Abstract

The Little Black Boy

The Little Vagabond

The School Boy

The Sick Rose

To the Evening Star

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Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Comprehensive Guide for A Level with Recordings

• AQA B A Level

Blake’s political leanings are deceptively complex: though he is inescapably treated as part of the Enlightenment and its liberal burgeoning, his social commentary lies outside the traditional realms of satire, and his conceptions of rebellion and power dynamics are inextricably bound with his views on religion. Get to grips with these intricacies with thorough notes, interspersed with thoughtful activities for students to expand their knowledge of the collection, encourage comparisons within it and support creative independent analysis of each poem.

Consolidate and deepen learning!

• Debate prompts
• Active learning tasks, including close-reading tasks and comprehension questions
• Key literary and linguistic terms
• 'Did you know?' boxes
• 'Compare and contrast' boxes
• Practice essay questions
• Images of the engravings to support analysis of the poems

The pack tackles the key stages of text analysis:

• Walk-through Thorough poem-by-poem commentary walks students through each poem
• Drawing it all together In-depth discussion of all poems focuses on: genre, themes, attitudes and values, language and form, context and more!
• Indicative content Supports teaching by ensuring all key areas are covered

Plus! A Further Reading List and a Glossary of Key Terms.

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• A Level AQA B English Literature (7717)
• A Level English Literature
• A Level English Literature Comprehensive Guide
• Elements of Political and Social Protest Writing
• Paper 2: Texts and Genres
• Songs of Innocence and of Experience
• William Blake

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Songs of Innocence and of Experience Lesson Plan

Discussion of thought questions, what does the text of the "introduction" for songs of innocence suggest about the intended tone and audience for the rest of the poetry collection.

The "Introduction" sets the tone for the rest of the collection. A child follows the poet asking for stories and insights about different topics, suggesting that the poet or speaker for the collection is a divinely-inspired visionary or prophet of some sort. In addition, the child tells the speaker to write a book of his songs and visions, and the speaker does so, making sure to write happy songs that will bring children joy. This suggestion shows that the poems in Songs of Innocence are intended to speak...

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Songs of Innocence and of Experience Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Songs of Innocence and of Experience is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What are the social, political and religious problem that Blake has addressed in "Songs of innocence and experience"?

The two poems which show the most constant contrast in religious experience are "The Tiger" and "The Lamb." The question posed in "The Tiger" focuses on the fearsome power of God and whether or not "Did he who made the lamb make thee?" "The Lamb"...

How does Blake's "Laughing Song" reflect upon the new paradigm of poetry which is emerged with individual poems, or as Jonathan Culler puts it "they should not recount the event, they should rather strive to be an event"?

Check this out:

https://www.gradesaver.com/songs-of-innocence-and-of-experience/study-guide/summary-the-laughing-song

summary of this paragraph

This quatrain, a four-line verse from "The Tyger" by William Blake, is asking fundamental questions about the tiger and how he became the way he became. In other words, "In what distant deeps or skies/Burnt the fire of thine eyes?" asks the...

Study Guide for Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Songs of Innocence and of Experience study guide contains a biography of William Blake, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Songs of Innocence and of Experience
• Songs of Innocence and of Experience Summary
• The Lamb Video
• Character List

Essays for Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Songs of Innocence and of Experience essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of the poems in Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake.

• Satire and Expression in Blake's Songs
• Wordsworth and Blake: The Plight of Mankind
• A Study of Blake's "Introduction" to Innocence and Experience
• How do Keats and Blake reflect romantic values in their poetry?
• William Blake's Abolitionism

Lesson Plan for Songs of Innocence and of Experience

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Songs of Innocence and of Experience
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Songs of Innocence and of Experience Bibliography

E-Text of Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Songs of Innocence and of Experience e-text contains the full text of Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake.

• Songs of Innocence: Introduction
• Songs of Innocence: The Shepherd
• Songs of Innocence: The Echoing Green
• Songs of Innocence: The Lamb
• Songs of Innocence: The Little Black Boy

Wikipedia Entries for Songs of Innocence and of Experience

• Introduction
• Songs of Innocence
• Songs of Experience
• Illustrations
• Musical settings

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Essays on Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Understanding the "introduction" in "songs of innocence and of experience", the story of a chimneysweeper, made-to-order essay as fast as you need it.

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Good and Bad in "The Little Black Boy"

Main ideas in william blake's works, blake's critical perspective on social hierarchies, analyzing william blake's views of life, let us write you an essay from scratch.

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Engulfed by Hatred

Blake's view on a human spirit, blake and keat's approaches compared, the issue of the welfare of children in the poems of william blake, get a personalized essay in under 3 hours.

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Loss of Innocence Through Lack of a Moral Compass and Parental Care

The concepts of mercy, pity and love in william blake's poems, relevant topics.

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Grade A AQA English Literature William Blake Essay

Subject: English

Age range: 16+

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

25 May 2021

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Grade A AQA English Literature William Blake Songs of Innocence and Experience Essay to the question "“In the world Blake presents, there is no escape from political and social constraints”. Mark awarded = 18/25

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