Mingled Voices: The Communication between the Contrary Natures of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience

Type :

Presentation

Pages :

5 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

06/23/2008

Category :

Philosophy & literature

Sub category :

Literature

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Summary :

Following the emerging tradition of writing individually disseminated by poets.
His poems tend to revolve around a few key themes and symbols which focus these lessons for the reader.
This narrator is not so accepting of his fate.
The account of Holy Thursday in Songs of Innocence seems a pleasant outing for both the children and the spectators.
Blake demands proof that it is indeed holy.
Blake writes his poems and pieces them together into richly illustrated volumes.

Abstract

In his "songs of innocence and songs of experience, books of children's poems" written and illustrated by himself, William blake explores human perception and the contemporary social milieu, focusing on the transience of opinion and the variability of fact in two contrary states of human nature. In England prior to and during the French Revolution, social opinion was under great pressure to remain loyal to tradition while still representing the best interests of Europe, resulting in schisms between social classes and religious sects, some of whom wished to maintain the status quo, while others wanted to see change that would equalize their countries. blake delves into various aspects of London's social life, as well as England overall, especially the role of children in society, in relation to this struggle for power, money, and God's approval. While the aristocracy clung to its traditional power structure and monetary superiority, many children were sold or abandoned daily on the streets of London, either to be taken in as destitute charity cases, which could result in a variety of levels of treatment and care, or to be employed as chimney sweeps, the dirtiest, most abused population of children imaginable. blake displays a multitude of images concerning children in these conditions and others, but his imaginative and vibrant poems offer more than clear-cut portraits of these unrepresented human beings. If the songs appear to be simply opposing views upon the same subject matter, separated by the ebullient wonder of innocence and the odious fact of experience, one must look more closely to discover blake's true purpose. That he often switched poems from one book to the other as he printed them by hand is evidence enough that there were no clearly defined divisions between the states of innocence and experience, and within the poems, the two contrary states often mingle, tincturing each other with memories of innocence or foreshadowings of experience. While blake seems to offer us two differing viewpoints on the same subjects and images, the more we look, the more we see the complexity of his perception and his inability to differentiate completely between his two songs.