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
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. The first line of the first stanza, “Tiger, tiger, burning bright” could also be sung as a nursery rhyme, resembling most of the poems in Songs of Innocence and Experience. He seems to be unable to comprehend the reasoning behind the creation of both innocence and experience, experience in this case being almost morally evil. This could even be sung to the tune of “Twinkle, twinkle little star” which is one of the more innocent nursery rhymes sung to small children, children of the age of “The Chimney Sweeper” which shows the irony of what Blake is portraying because he is describing the harsh realities of life. The church and “God” bring about a lot of the rules humans follow throughout life (such as “Thou shalt not kill” and “Thou shalt not commit adultery”) and these are rules which have progressed and been magnified over time. ” This is almost a nightmare for parents, and it is not obvious at first who is seeing this image, Lyca or her parents, until “The Little Girl Found. 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. Had it been written in a more insightful fashion, this poem could have been used in the Songs of Experience due to its content. ” His innocence is lost by the recognition of religion’s sins and that his learning them was not of his own will. Due to this way of writing the poems, they could be either read or sung to small children, which is often the only innocent element of the poem. The Chimney Sweeper’s tale describes a life of rules set by the church and his parents, all three of whom have entirely removed the innocence of a small boy. 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. This poem is very powerful as Blake’s resentment towards adults and the church is made very clear. For instance, “The Chimney Sweeper,”’s tale is of woe and anguish, yet the style provokes a happier image. In fact, it seems almost as though it’s an angry poem, blaming “God” or whatever created the living things on Earth.
Common topics in this essay:
Songs Experience,
Tiger” Blake,
Sweeper” Experience,
Chimney Sweeper”’s,
Innocence Experience,
Songs Innocence,
Lost Nought,
Girl Lost”,
Chimney Sweeper”,
Divine Image”,
songs innocence,
songs experience,
innocence experience,
songs innocence experience,
“the chimney,
“the tiger”,
songs innocence written,
innocence written,
“the chimney sweeper”,
chimney sweeper”,
“little boy,
thy fearful,
frame thy fearful,
thy fearful symmetry”,
lost faith,
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Acceptance Essays
