When paired together, Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience offer conflicting views of the world; where Innocence views everything through the rose-colored glasses of a child and fails to accept the evils in the world, Experience focuses on displaying humanity in the harsh, unfailingly corrupt scene of adulthood. Many of the poems in Innocence correspond with ones in Experience, displaying the same situation from both the naivety of childhood and the more sophisticated, jaded eyes of an adult. Neither one poem can truly express the full aspect of the situations displayed, however. Blake’s depictions of innocence in the realm of experience are only completely represented when the poems are read in as complements to each other.
Easily the most distinguishably related, the Introductions in both Innocence and Experience both serve to set the mood for the poems that follow. While Innocence’s “Introduction” is narrated by a piper whose aim is to write “happy songs” that “Every child may joy to hear” (Blake 4), Experience features the veteran bard telling the melancholic story of the “lapsed Soul” (Blake 30). In the first “Introduction”, Blake references the Lamb of biblical lore, a classic symbol of pure innocence. The prevalent alliteration, strict rhythm and repetitive rhyme scheme also depict an essentially childlike tone. When read, the poem falls into a dance-like rhythm reminiscent of classic children’s songs. In direct contrast, the second “Introduction” involves a more complicated ABAAB pattern that suggests a matured narrator. It also gives the subject a sense of complexity that the first did not have. Where the first “Introduction” seeks to lead readers on a “pleasant” journey following its narrator, the second tries to evoke a response from its subject (Blake 4). It calls upon the Earth and in the second poem of Experience, Earth responds. In comparison, the poem following the first “Introduction” just depicts a shepherd at his work; there is no connection between the two. This suggests not only more mature subject matter, but also a newly world-weary poet. Another distinction between the two is the conspicuous lack of a period at the end of the first “Introduction”. This gives the impression that it is continual and eternal, as though the joyful piper’s song cannot be finished. Contrastingly, the second has a definitive ending, ironically at the “break of day” (Blake 30). The darkness that the second “Introduction” implies sets the cynical tone that characterizes the rest of Experience, much the opposite of the joyful naivety seen in Innocence. However, the second “Introduction” does not completely reject the happiness of the first; rather, it urges the “fallen light” to “renew”, implying that whatever innocence was lost between the first and second introductions could still be exist in tandem with the gained experience.
The contrasting tones of Innocence and Experience are especially evident in “The Lamb” and “The Tyger”, two overtly religious poems. The primary focus of “The Lamb” is to exalt God and Jesus Christ as the makers of the lamb, an animal commonly known as the symbol for Jesus. It is made up of rhyming couplets, with the ones at the beginning and end of each stanza repeating. This evokes a level of comfort, much like the refrain and chorus of a lullaby. Also, though the question “dost thou know who made thee” arises more than once in the poem, it is never followed by a question mark, giving the reader the idea that it is not meant to be answered (Blake 8). In contrast, “The Tyger” is made up completely of questions, suggesting that after gaining experience, the narrator’s faith in religion and the Lord has been shaken. The tiger is also an animal with enormous strength that perhaps it does not understand; it is alone with its own “deadly terrors” and is a virtual killing machine (Blake 42). The poem draws a contrast between the tiger and the lamb, asking “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” (Blake 42) This suggests that the narrator cannot seem to reconcile the ability of a God to make a truly innocent being and also one whose purpose is to maim and kill its prey. He asks what “immortal hand” would “dare” make such a “fearful” creature and even by the end of the poem has not come up with an answer (Blake 42). The tiger can be seen as a symbol of all things evil in the world whereas the lamb is akin to children and everything good and pure. When paired together, the two form an image of the world as a whole: good and bad together. Apart, “The Lamb” is pathetically hopeful and “The Tyger” seems fraught with insecurities and doubt. Their power is strongest in the pair, much like Blake’s personal view of innocence and experience; a person cannot be truly experienced if he does not allow his childhood innocence to also thrive.
Two curiously related poems are “Nurse’s Song” and “NURSES Song”. Their only titular difference is the apostrophe and randomly capitalized word, but their tones are completely opposite. Where “Nurse’s Song” utilizes both the voice of the Nurse and the children to depict the happiness of childhood and staying out to play just a little longer into the night, “NURSES Song” follows, satirizing the joyful unawareness characteristic of young children by using the Nurse’s voice to speak of adolescent loss of innocence and sexual knowledge. In “Nurse’s Song”, the Nurse speaks with a protective, maternal tone, asking the children to “come home” because the “sun has gone down” (Blake 24). This suggests a willingness to guard their innocence for as long as possible. Also, the hills are “coverd with sheep”, returning to the Lamb imagery to reinforce the idea of total innocence throughout the poem. The “little birds” in the air also symbolize children and innocence. The nighttime, from which the Nurse is seeking to protect her children, can be viewed as sexual knowledge in the context of “NURSES Song”. The “whisprings in the dale” of “NURSES Song” are symbolic of sexual adventures that make the Nurse “green and pale” (Blake 38). The “dews of night” can also be seen as an example of sinful behavior and the Nurse urges her children, like in the first, to “come home”, but to no avail this time (Blake 38). It parodies the irresponsibility of childhood play while also condemning the “disguise[s]” of the adolescents at night, accusing them of pretending to be something else while exploring sexual behaviors (Blake 38). These two poems display the maturing process from childhood to adolescence and the subsequent deviance from religiously innocent lambs on a hill to disguises on the dale. The Nurse’s acknowledgement of this displays her previous experience, so she, while seen as protective and almost nun-like in the first poem, is also caricatured as an equally sinful being. Together these poems explore the idea that once childhood has gone, no person can truly be innocent anymore.
The conflicting views of the world featured in Innocence and Experience are hardly more apparent than in the poems “Infant Joy” and “Infant Sorrow”. Here, both poems illustrate the exact same situation from directly contrasting viewpoints. “Infant Joy” consistently repeats the words “pretty joy” and “sweet joy”: two extremely simple phrases and perfectly connotative of the innocence of a baby “two days old” (Blake 25). Each line is short and repetitive, proving that there is beauty in simplicity. “Infant Sorrow” is equally short in length but there is a pronounced rhyme scheme and the words used are more complex. Instead of joy, the poem displays a “dangerous” scene with a weeping father (Blake 48). The baby is “struggling” and a “fiend”, raising the idea that perhaps children are not the blank slates that Blake previously believed them to be. This uncertainty is characteristic of all of the Songs of Experience, but when paired with “Infant Joy”, the reader is able to discern the flaws in each poem’s thoughts. While “Infant Joy” is more joyous than necessary given the scene of a baby at birth, “Infant Sorrow” does not present a completely correct picture either. Only when paired together can the reader see the necessity of both sides of the story. A baby is not only joyful or only sorrowful; one poem cannot be presented without the other – much like Innocence and Experience themselves.
Though presenting an opposing position, Blake’s Songs of Experience did not reject his Songs of Innocence but rather proved them necessary to the human experience. Through his poems, he asserts that humans should not be either naïve or cynical, but instead a mix of both extremes if they wish to live a pious and fulfilling life. When read alone, each poem is only one half of the story; only by reconciling both innocence and experience is the reader able to ascertain the proverbial truth in the verses.
Works Cited
Blake, William. Songs of Innocence and Experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970.
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