Analysis Of The Songs Of Innocence By William Blake

As a forerunner to the free-love movement, late eighteenth century poet, engraver, and artist, William Blake (1757-1827), has clear sexual overtones in many of his poems, and he layers his work with sexual double entendres and symbolism. Within the discussion of sexuality in his work Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Blake seems to take a complicated view of women. His speakers use constructs of contraries, specifically innocence/ experience and male/female. Of the latter sex, he experiments with the passive (dependent, docile, virtuous) and active (independent, evil, a threat to the masculine) female subjects. Blake’s use of personification specifically of nature and botany suggest the use of nature to discuss human society. In Songs

Just like the “lamb” that was born into this world through a virgin and was sacrificed for all mankind, this same “lamb” made us and called us by his name. In his poem "The Lamb," William Blake clearly uses repetition, personification, and symbolism to describe his religious beliefs and how a pure sacrifice is portrayed by a little lamb. Laura Quinney’s book, “William Blake on Self and Soul,” shows the religious side of Blake when it says, “Blake makes this argument in his address “To the Deists,” where he insists “Man must & will have Some Religion; if he has not the Religion of Jesus, he will have the Religion of Satan” (Quinney, 2009). Blake uses his religious view to show us he believes that our creator is the Lamb of God. He distinctively uses the innocence and purity of a little lamb and how its creator clearly takes care of it. The lamb is fed, given water by the stream and a bidden a blessed life.

Because of his influence of art and religion in the late eighteenth century, William Blake excessively used symbols and archetypes through his words of poetry and through his visual art to examine different pieces of humankind. He was extremely famous for his romantic twist on artwork and for being one of the best “romantics” of his time. William Blake distinguished a fine line between what “the language of art” meant and of art itself and explaining it. In Stephen Behrendt’s The Moment of Explosion, he states that “William Blake recognized what the artist gains forever is indeed a language- a language of tradition.

Blake a romantic poet who doesn't write romance poems but poems of his love of nature. In his poems though it's not only about the love of nature ,but also having innocence and experience put inside the poems. So far we have read 4 poems of Blake's two are poems of experience and two of innocence, the two experience poems are the Tyger and the Chimney Sweeper and the two innocence poems are the Lamb and Infant Sorrow. The poem that is my favorite out of these is the chimney sweeper which is an experience poem. It has obviously experience, joy and sorrow hidden away in the poem which makes it interesting to read.

Blake left school at the age of ten to attend the Henry Pars Drawing Academy for five years. The artists he applauded as a child included Raphael, Michelangelo, Giulio, Romano and Dürer. He began writing poetry at the age of twelve and in 1783 his friends paid for his first collection of verses to be printed, which was designated “Poetical Sketches” and is now seen as a leading anapestic situation of the 18th century. Now Blake became a well-established engraver, who began to establish experimenting with printing skills. And it was not long before he assembled his first distinguished book, 'Songs of Innocence' in 1788. It was then, that Blake became determined to take his poetry above just being “words on a single paper” and perceived that they sought to be illustrated to create his desired reaction. One of Blake’s central influences was the society in which he lived. He lived during revolutionary times and observed the downfall of London during Britain’s war with France. Blake’s obsession over good and evil as well as his substantial philosophical and religious beliefs were endured throughout his lifetime and never resisted to depict them in his poetry and engravings. He died at the age of sixty-nine in 1827 and although the Blake family name died with him, his legacy as a captivating, convoluted man of many artistic talents will no doubt remain firm into this

William Blake was an artist and poet. He was born in England in 1757. He unlike any other poet was not educated in religion and literature, and instead he was sent to drawing school. He love writing poetry so when he died at age seventy he died doing what he loved. Before he was a poet he worked as an apprentice to engraver who carved pictures into plates then the were use for printing.

William Blake completed the manuscript of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, as well as the twenty-five accompanying engraved plates, in 1792. In the sense that the The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is a vision of a particular version of reality, it subscribes to one definition of the mythic, but also fulfills another as Birenbaum writes in Tragedy and Innocence: "...on a more specialized level..."true myth"...suggests a penentration to the essential nature of human experience, made by conspicuously violating features

William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are collections of poems that utilize the imagery, instruction, and lives of children to make a larger social commentary. The use of child-centered themes in the two books allowed Blake to make a crucial commentary on his political and moral surroundings with deceptively simplistic and readable poetry. Utilizing these themes Blake criticized the church, attacking the hypocritical clergy and pointing out the ironies and cruelties found within the doctrines of organized religion. He wrote about the horrific working conditions of children as a means to magnify the inequality between the poor working class and

In terms of his writing, Blake’s approach to creation reflects the world he was brought up in. With no formal education, Blake came

William Blake is one of England’s most famous literary figures. He is remembered and admired for his skill as a painter, engraver, and poet. He was born on Nov. 28, 1757 to a poor Hosier’s family living in or around London. Being of a poor family, Blake received little in the way of comfort or education while growing up. Amazingly, he did not attend school for very long and dropped out shortly after learning to read and write so that he could work in his father’s shop. The life of a hosier however was not the right path for Blake as he exhibited early on a skill for reading and drawing. Blake’s skill for reading can be seen in his understanding for and use of works such as the Bible and Greek classic literature.

William Blake was an English poet and printmaker in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, specially renowned for his poems published in a series titled Songs of Innocence (1889) and Songs of Experience (1894) ("William Blake.”). Although in his lifetime he was considered mad by British society and his works were neglected, today, Blake is regarded as one of the original Romantic poets (G.E Bentley). Furthermore, his works reflect the transition between the Augustan period and the Romantic one; a time of rediscovery, inquiry, and individuality. The evolution that gravitated away from the Augustan era (18th century) (”Augustan Literature.”). was very much characterized by the political and economic changes in Great Britain; in addition, the

The works of William Blake cannot be entirely discussed, so my project particularly focuses on 'Songs of Innocence and Experience'.

Of the poems and stories we’ve read up to this point the most captivating for me personally has to be the two Chimney Sweeper poems from William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience. These poems are incredibly moving in the way that they shed light on the lives of these young chimney sweeps and I think also serve as an important testimony to the horrible repercussions that this era of rapid industrialization had on the lives of contemporary England’s working poor. The hopelessness of these kid’s lives really hit home for me while watching the BBC documentary which did a perfect job of illustrating just how inhuman their working conditions were.

This essay will aim to show the relationship between Innocence and Experience in William Blake's Songs.

William Blake, a poet, whom was associated vastly within the romanticism period. His poems included mostly that which was associated with children. He placed emphasis on poems that dealt largely with that that involved what was happening around him at the time. The two poems that we will be placing focal point is “The Little Boy Lost” (1789) and “The Little Black Boy” (1789) ,one can see how within both poem titles it places emphasis on the boy being ‘little’. Through these poems we will be have a new perception on Blake and be able to understand his reasoning behind his poetry. I will also make reference to Julian Walker's short article, "William Blake and 18th Century Children's Literature" and Jennifer Wallace's "Blake's Two Chimney Sweeper's."