William Blake wrote during the Romantic period which was a span between 1785 - 1830. Other great writers during this time were Mary Wollstonecraft, Coleridge, Wordsworth, and others. Some said that the Romantic period was the fairy tale way of writing through symbolism and allegory and also an age for individualism. A crucial point by Romantic theorist referred to the mind, emotions, and imagination of the poet (Abrams, et al 5). In comparison to Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience Northrop Fry's distinction between the imagined states of innocence and experience is stated as thus:
             world of innocence: unfallen world/ unified self/ integration with nature/ time in harmony with rhythm of human existence.
             world of experience: fallen world/ fragmented divided self/ alienation from nature/ time as destructive, in opposition of human desire (Feldman).
             This can be seen in "The Lamb," and "The Chimney Sweeper;" from Songs of Innocence and in Songs of Experience "The Tyger," and "The Chimney Sweeper,".
             Blake was little known as a poet during his lifetime. His reputation became established late in the 19th century. Blake's first book of poems was Poetical Sketches. This book of poems showed his dissatisfaction with the reigning poetic tradition and his restless quest for new forms and techniques (Abrams, et al 19). Blake was said to write symbolist poetry in which things such as a cloud, a flower, or a mountain was presented as an object imbued with significance beyond itself (Abrams, et al 8). Blake along with other poets explored visionary states of consciousness that are common among children but violate the standard categories of adult judgement (Abrams, et al 10). This can be seen in Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. In Songs of Innocence the speaker is often a child and in Song...