There seems to be little to distinguish the Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Experience. Discuss with reference to content, style, form and poetic technique
Blake’s songs of innocence and experience are written differently to emphasise the differences in what we find appealing at different ages. The Songs of Innocence are written in a way, which could be compared with nursery rhymes for their style and rhythm. This is shown differently in the Songs of Experience, which seem much more appealing for an older audience giving more focus on the content. In this way, the Songs of Innocence are much more similar to the Songs of Experience but our focus is taken away from the content and put more into the way in which it would be read. In this way, they abandon the cheery form by which the Innocence poems are written (regardless of their content) and give a much more sombre effect. In the Songs of Innocence, Blake often uses exclamations to emphasise a happy and joking atmosphere as opposed to an exclamation of anger. These give the impression that the subjects Blake was writing about are being portrayed in a child-like manner with laughter and sadness mixed. This is shown in all the Songs of Innocence with the exception of “The Echoing Green,” “Little Boy Found,” “The Divine Image” and “Night.” The other 15 poems in this collection all
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” Because this is written in a basic way, this has been used in Songs of Innocence. Had it been written in a more insightful fashion, this poem could have been used in the Songs of Experience due to its content. The same poem title “Little Boy Lost (Nought loves another as itself),” is also about a lost boy but not in the physical sense as he has appeared to have lost his faith in God, or lost his faith in the equality of man. The image portrayed is that of a child who does not love anyone more than he loves himself. A priest punishes him, although due to the nature of the punishment, we are led to sympathise for the “lost” boy. The “lost” children Blake writes about are lost in a different way to those in Songs of Innocence. In “The Little Girl Lost,” the feeling of being lost is shown in a little girl’s parent’s dream. As a paternal instinct they have dreamt about their child, Lyca, only 7 years old being alone and lo! Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?” Blake’s poem “The Tiger” in Songs of Experience gives an overall message which could serve to prove the theory about Blake’s resentment towards adults and religion, and the difficulty to link the differences between the Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Experience. It questions “God” about creating innocence and evil and why are they both in the same world? He asks how the same creator could make both the lamb and the tiger. The poems in Innocence could be included with Songs of Experience as they all contain the same sorts of underlying messages of despair and grief, but they are written in a much lighter tone to give the sense of an innocent situation, but the reality is that both the Songs of Innocence and Experience are written about the same things, just written differently. The children of Innocence and Experience are always the innocent component, described often as lambs, yet Blake depicts them to be corrupt by the power that is the Tiger, or their parents and the rules of the church. “Father, father, where are you going? The differences between the Songs of Innocence and Experience are indistinguishable because each poem contains some innocence and some experie
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1597
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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