Monday, November 11, 2019
Response to William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience
INNOCENCE v EXPERIENCE 109 UWA 2012 William Blakeââ¬â¢s Songs of Innocence and of Experience was combined in 1794. Having compiled Songs of Innocence in 1789, Blake intended that he was writing happy rhymes that all children may enjoy (Norton Anthology pg 118 footnote 1). Not all the poems reflect a happy stance, many incorporate injustice, evil and suffering. Blake represents these aspects of the world through the eyes of ââ¬Ëinnocenceââ¬â¢. In contrary Blakeââ¬â¢s Songs of Experience were written as ugly and terrifying versions of the same world.These poems were used to reflect a ghastly representation of the world as one of poverty, disease and war. The Songs of Innocence were penned around the end of the American Revolution and the start of the French Revolution, although Blake would have worked on them for years prior. The Songs of Experience were etched during the middle and toward the end of the revolution and reflect how the poetââ¬â¢s view of the world had bee n affected and changed by the horrific events. Blakeââ¬â¢s work is a compilation of a number of ââ¬Ësongsââ¬â¢.Although each can stand as an independent poem many from Songs of Innocence have a pair in Songs of Experience such as ââ¬Å"Infant Joyâ⬠ââ¬â ââ¬Å"Infant Sorrowâ⬠, ââ¬Å"The Lambâ⬠ââ¬â ââ¬Å"The Tygerâ⬠and ââ¬Å"The Ecchoing Greenâ⬠ââ¬â ââ¬Å"The Earthââ¬â¢s Answer. â⬠Taking ââ¬Å"Infant Joy,â⬠from Songs of Innocence, it is told from the perspective of a baby ââ¬Å"but two days old. â⬠The baby is perceived as happy and joyous through lines such as ââ¬Å"joy is my name/Sweet joy befall thee! â⬠and plays on the common ideology that infants are happy and loveable.Yet, its counterpart ââ¬Å"Infant Sorrow,â⬠from Songs of Experience, still told from the perspective of the new born, presents the harsh reality of child birth: ââ¬Å"My mother groand! My father wept. /Into the dangerous wor ld I leapt. â⬠The organisation of the work in this way presents two contrasting views of the world from the same perspective. I believe that the main problem that motivates Blake appears to be the comparison between childhood innocence and what we really experience in the world. The modern idea of wearing ââ¬Ërose tinted glassesââ¬â¢ springs to mind, in the sense that as a child we view the world as this magnificent, beautiful nd happy place but as we grow and learn more about ourselves and the world our experiences begin to taint that ââ¬Ëinnocentââ¬â¢ view and the world becomes ugly, harsh and cruel. The primary focus of Blakeââ¬â¢s work is to create contrast between the fanciful, innocent view of the unjust, evil and suffering world and the harsh reality that suffering, war, poverty and disease really bring. These songs would have been read to children and it can be presumed that it was Blakeââ¬â¢s attempt to teach them something about the world in which t hey were living through engaging their imaginations with his use of poetry.
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