Friday, 3 April 2009

Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience




William Blake. Accepted into the "Romantic Canon" after his death, as he was viewed as being insane while he was alive.Like John Keats, he was a "Cockney" and recieved a minimal education, as was normal for the children of the lowest possible respectable class of English society. Perhaps it was his lack of formal education that allowed his creative tendencies to flourish.


A fierce supporter of individualism, he stated that "I must create my own system or be enslaved by another man's", and that's what he did-create a whole new method of writing poetry. His method was "dialectic", that is, he combined two opposing forces to synthesise a third, more powerful force. Hence the titles of his books of peotry "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience" and "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell". Blake's world of poetry was a mystical, new universe.
We looked at two sets of complementary poems-"The Lamb" and "The Chimney Sweeper" from "Innocence" and "The Tyger" and "The Chimney Sweeper" from "Experience", and we saw how in order for innocence to be "good", some evil is necessary!

35 comments:

Unknown said...

The lamb was my most favorite poem all of the William Blake's poem in the lesson. All babies come this world without sins. Who makes them guilty and sinful? Of course we do. William make us know this fact.
Also this poem made me upset in the lesson, but I liked it very much.
HATİCE ERDOĞAN

Murat said...

I found Chimney Sweeper much more touching. When I asked the teacher Amanda that did children really sweep the chimney, I got really shocked. Although the children in the Chimney Sweeper has not good standart of life he has a positive outlook on life because of his friends dream that when they die they will have a better life with God and an Angel will set them free from these coffins they are in.

Unknown said...

There is an excellent contradiction between William Blake's works. For example "The marriage of Heaven and Hell". I think his views are different from others. He shows that our experiences make us achieve goodness. He demostrates this clearly with his works...

Unknown said...

Songs of Innocence poems describes the innocence and joy of the natural world, advocating free love and a closer relationship with God. this poem are typically written from the perspective of children or written about them.

Directly contrasting this, Songs of Experience instead deals with the loss of innocence after exposure to the material world and all of its mortal sin during adult life, including works such as The Tyger. Poems here are darker, concentrating on more political and serious themes. Throughout both books, many poems fall into pairs, so that a similar situation or theme can be seen in both Innocence and Experience.
ın Blake's works, there is contradiction between. For example in "The marriage of Heaven and Hell".

Unknown said...

William Blake's poems Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience were written creatively.The poems tells about what he feels about the world,the goodness,two opposite thoughts about a topic etc.All of the poems worth reading and thinking of.

Unknown said...

The poems fall into pairs, so that the same situation or problem is seen through the view of innocence first and then experience.
The songs of innocence dramatize the pure hopes and fears from the lives of children. It sees the world from a positive perspective.
The songs of experience tell about the harsh experiences that destroy what is good in the songs of innocence. It sees the world from a negative perspective.
William Blake usually starts to the poems with questions, especially the ones that are difficult to answer! and his poems are really touching..
In particular, I like the first two lines of "The Lamb" from songs of innocence;
"Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?"

Anonymous said...

I liked all the Blake's poems we read in class,but in my opinion,Chimney Sweeper is the most effective one of all.My eyes filled with tears while reading it.
Şeyda Çeşmeci

ilyas YILMAZCAN said...

Everything can be recognized with its contrast.If it was only for the bad in the world,we would not be aware of the value of the good.Let's talk about the smallest particle of the materials:Atom.Atom consists of protons and neutrons.Protons are positive(+) and neutrons are negative(-).Even here we are talking about 2 things that are incompatible with each other.When we take out the protons off the atom,uneasiness takes place,and a destructive effect comes into existence.This is the working principle of the atomic bomb.I am just talking about the microlevel opposition.You imagine the macrolevel of it.

Unknown said...

Blake wrote vey good poems.Especially, Chimney Sweeper was very good. It affected me more.Especially, the part in which an older boy tries to console a younger one impressed me.
Yasemin YILMAZ

Anonymous said...

Blake gives some messages. I took the message that being so naive is not good, and also a bit of evil thinking is necessary.
I think he is very intelligent, because he writes contrast poems, and wants reader to compliment the different messages.
I liked 'Lamb' a lot, because it is a child poem,and there are naive questions.
I liked 'The Chimney Sweeper' (innocence), too. The following lines are very sad, but the part of 'weep weep weep weep' is comic a bit. I laughed in the class when I was listening to the poem.
'Could scarcely cry weep weep weep weep. So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.'

ali erdönmez said...

Evil in the world makes goodness meaningful.William Blake's sense of literature reflects hıs perspectıve of world.In addıtıon hıs style dıoletıc was worth thınkıng.

Unknown said...

Blake 's poems tells the life has both positive and negative aspects and he asks can individual who is innocent be good or does the achievement of goodness require experience????? these questions are open to discussion, I think both are possible.

Unknown said...

William's poems tell us there areboth good and bad, evil and angel, and there are hell and heaven.
ın the songs of ınnocence there are some questions we think they are some simple ones but they have deep meanings.and ın the songs of experience William want to show us that there are always evil things but we gain the goodness by experience. ıf we use bad things to do good things. don't say using bad things we can't achive good ones. you are human and you have all opportunities to do this.

Yeşim ATASOY said...

There is not only good things in the world but also bad things that is around us, and William Blake tries to awaken human beings for this truth! In Chimney Sweeper (innocence)we see that no matter what the boy's job is, he is happy,but in Chimney Sweeper (experience),the boy is aware of the world and he is strictly criticizing his parents and also church.These contrasts show us that the world is not ALWAYS a better place to live !
Yeşim ATASOY

Unknown said...

The poems that we studied in the class are very good, and I am impressed the way Blake used...The Chimney Sweeper is the most effective one.In expeirence one the first part of the poem "Where are thy father & mother?say?""They are both gone up to church to pray" is very impressive.The children have mother and father ,but that sell their children...In the Innocence one as the parents died they are subjected to these difficulties..I think the poem 'TYGER' is also very effective..It has a different rhyme from the ones that we know.It has a trochaic tetrameter.The first syllable is rhythmic...

DİDEM GÖKTAŞ said...

Blake believed that children lost their innocence as they grew older. They were born innocent. They grew to become experienced as they were influenced by the attitudes of adults. Their parents sold them, the church excludes these kinds of children. The children understand the lies. When this happened, they could no longer beconsidered innocent."Songs of Innocence" reflect an innocent child's perspective."Songs of Experience" reflect a more experienced person perspective.

aysun musoglu said...

songs of innocence consists of poems involves the innocence and a relationship with god,christian notions especially in "lamb".on the other hand, songs of experience consist of sin,experience and bad things happened in the world e.g. "tyger".

ebru polat said...

The society choose a role for everyone.You should obey these norms.We lose our basic values becouse of these norms.Who cares it.Blake was a great poet for his courage.

meryem gündüz said...

Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience focuses on the innocent, pastoral world of childhood against an adult world of corruption and repression.

meryem gündüz said...

The Lamb" represent a meek virtue, poems like "The Tyger" exhibit opposing, darker forces. Thus the collection as a whole explores the value and limitations of two different perspectives on the world.

nurhayat said...

I think William Blake is well-known as the author of Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.

medine said...

To me, it is a fact that People who suffer are more creative and make good jobs. Blake is one of them.

Unknown said...

both chimney sweepers made me sad i think it's the fate of all street children. it's very hard to imagine a little child sweeping in a chimney and sleeping on the ashes he collected :((
i liked the rhythm of tiger. it's enjoyable.both tiger and lamb have deep meanings about life.

nurhayat said...

blake told an event with contrasts, like lamp for goodness,like tiger for negative thoughts.

azime said...

ı think chimney sweeper is much more emotional than songs of innocence and songs of experience.when ı first heard the chimney sweeper ı was very upset because little children would clean the dirty chimneys...:(

dilek doner said...

ı like the marriage of heaven and hell very much this is the most facinating of them and this is unusual for me

sebahat said...

William Blake tried a new method of writing poetry.There are two different poems which are "Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience"I really enjoyed while I was reading it.In my opinion, he was successful at writing these poems...

hatice özbaşı said...

In my opinion the Chimney Sweeper is the best poem of William Blake.The young child was abandoned through died.I think Blake asks his reader compare the realities of two poem Innocence and Experience .This poem is really much more touching.

mrvettasdemir said...

Blake's poem 'London' is really nice and affective.It paints a frightening, dark picture of the eighteenth century London, a picture of war, poverty and pain:(

HİKMET ASLAN said...

Blake both positive and negative aspect of life.In Blake's poems there has been contrast such as good or evil
KEZBAN ASLAN

DEMET TURASAN said...

These poems are really good at expressing the occasions that children are on. It is inevitable to feel shocked when you read realities from the poems.

suat said...

The contrast between the songs of innocence and the songs of experience is amazing. Blake is at the same time vague and descriptive.I love reading these and analyzing the intention and the meaning behind them. There are so many points of view one could take.

Unknown said...

Blake is one of the poorly living and growing writers in English literature, so his situation affects him and so he reflects his aspect of life upon his poets for example Chimney Sweeper, etc. It is very touching and biting. Blake always writes the difficiult sides of the life on his poets.

hande said...

Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are books of English poet , William Blake. I have never read the books of William Blake before, so after the lesson I searched about the author and I learnt that he was also a painter. In fact, it was not surprise for me because I think poetry and painting are very related arts. In both, imagining is basic and in both emotions are expressed successfully. Songs of Innocence consists of poems describing the innocence and the natural world, free love and a close reltionship with the God. However, Songs of Experience consists of loss of innocence after exposure to the world. Here poems are darker and themes are on more political and serious events. I found the Songs Of Experience more extraordinary...

Unknown said...

According to William people were born without sins, tehy become sinful because of society and of course life.l agree this idea.l find it very interesting that children sweep the chimney, but this doesn't cause them to feel negative because they believe that after they die they they will return to a better life...