The Contrary States of the Humn Soul

Reading poems can be very intriguing but difficult at the same time, especially reading poems of William Blake. Blake wrote a poem called “The Land of Dreams”. William Blake has many other poems that can contribute to being a part of the songs of innocence and experience. When it comes to “The Land of Dreams” it is hard to actually put it in a category with experience and innocence. For some reason, this poem can be put into both categories of experience and innocence. They way Blake starts off his poem and the way it ends can give you an idea that it can be both innocence and experience. Also, Blake has many other poems that can contribute to whether “The Land of Dreams” is a part of the songs of innocence or the songs of experience. Two

In the poems "The Lamb" and "The Tyger," William Blake uses symbolism, tone, and rhyme to advance the theme that God can create good and bad creatures. The poem "The Lamb" was in Blake's "Songs of Innocence," which was published in 1789. "The Tyger," in his "Songs of Experience," was published in 1794. In these contrasting poems he shows symbols of what he calls "the two contrary states of the human soul" (Shilstone 1).

The Songs of Innocence poems first appeared in Blake’s 1784 novel, An Island in the Moon. In 1788, Blake began to compile in earnest, the collection of Songs of Innocence. And by 1789, this original volume of plates was complete. These poems are the products of the human mind in a state of innocence, imagination, and joy; natural euphoric feelings uninhibited or tainted by the outside world. Following the completion of the Songs of Innocence plates, Blake wrote The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and it is through this dilemma of good and evil and the suffering that he witnesses on the streets of London, that he begins composing Songs of Experience. This second volume serves as a response to Songs of

William Blake was deeply aware of the great political and social issues during his time focusing his writing on the injustices going on in the world around him. He juxtaposed the state of human existence through his works Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794), showing differentiating sides of humanity. The contrast between Songs of

Blake wanted to show that there are two sides to every situation by writing companion pieces for most of his works. “The Chimney Sweeper”, for example, has the same title in Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, as well as “Holy Thursday” that appears in both. “The Lamb” and “The Tyger” are also paired poems contrasting the concept of good and evil that Blake focused on through out his poems.

In order to exist in nature and in human, innocence requires experience. The author, William Blake divided his poems into two volumes which are Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. “The Lamb” is the poem from Songs of Innocence and “The Tyger” is from Songs of Experience. In “The Lamb,” Blake writes in an incomplex, childlike way asking an innocent lamb who made it. In “The Tyger,” Blake asks who could have possibly made something as formidable as the tiger. William Blake uses archetypes in his poems “The Lamb” and “The Tyger.”

Compare and Contrast the ways in which Heaney and Blake write about innocence and experience in their poetry

Although William Blake died almost entirely unknown, his works influenced readers long after his death because he challenged important issues, such as religion. His works Songs of Innocence and Experience demonstrated the hypocrisy and corruption of the Church and State, by showing situations seen through the eyes of those that are innocent and those that are experienced. For example, in his two poems both titled “The Chimney Sweeper”, he brings attention to the cruelty of children being sold into slavery by their parents and the ideology that allows them to do so without guilt. The poem “The Chimney Sweeper” in the Innocence collection, ends when the boy Tom was visited by an angel who promised him a place in heaven and

as her own because she doesn't want to let go of them and wishes that

Furthermore, Blake juxtaposes this to Tom’s dreams, where “down a green plain leaping, laughing they run” (14), where the connotations of the colour “green” conveys a sense of happiness and joy that is stereotypically associated with the connotations of childhood. However, the children eventually “rose in the dark” (21), where the noun “dark” indicates their gloomy reality. Therefore, Blake presents irony in that fact the magic of childhood as been destroyed and corrupted, ultimately highlighting the injustice that these children did not get to lead the lives that children should. In a like manner, Owen similarly employs juxtaposition to convey iron through the title of his poem itself, “Anthem for Doomed Youth”. There is a contrast between

Blake’s aphorism are bold and questionable with the reason of cynical reflection. “The Little Boy Lost” shows that there is no good without evil, and vice versa. In the beginning of the poem, the boy pleads his father not to walk too quick. One can view this in common moral terms as the conscience imploring God’s navigation through the evil universe. As the poem gets deeper, the little boy is lost, left all alone in the darkness.

The style of Songs of Innocence and Experience is simply direct, but the rhythms and language are often deeply complex. Many of the poems are narratives, but some like, “The Sick Rose” use symbolism and abstract concepts to deliver a message. Blake often uses Biblical symbolism and language in his writing. He seems to enjoy applying simple, nursery rhyme meter to his unorthodox conceptions. This combination of familiarity with the unfamiliar is what keeps Blake’s work perpetually interesting (Erdman, David V. Complete Poetry and Prose. New York, 1982.

In William Blake’s poem Songs of Innocence, he addresses the issue of child labor in London, and how it damages their innocence and health. Like the corruption in London at the time, the children’s essence is being corrupted by the lies they are being told to get them to do their duties. Blake writes about a little boy, Tom Dacre, who is new to chimney sweeping, and allows the audience to see what an innocent child is like before his innocence decomposes. Blake uses innocent Tom Dacre in this poem to amplify his fight against child labor in London, and show society, how it causes children’s lives and innocence to decay. Although a minor character, Tom Dacre undergoes a major evolution in only 24 lines, that represents the sad evolution that many children in his position experience.

Blake's poems of innocence and experience are a reflection of Heaven and Hell. The innocence in Blake's earlier poems represents the people who will get into Heaven. They do not feel the emotions of anger and

Some of William Blake’s poetry is categorized into collections called Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Blake explores almost opposite opinions about creation in his poems “The Lamb” and “The Tiger.” While the overarching concept is the same in both, he uses different subjects to portray different sides of creation; however, in the Innocence and Experience versions of “The Chimney Sweeper,” Blake uses some of the same words, rhyme schemes, and characters to talk about a single subject in opposite tones.