Everything about Songs Of Innocence totally explained
» This article is about William Blake's poems. For David Axelrod's album see Song of Innocence.
Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul are two books of
poetry by the
English poet and
painter,
William Blake. Although
Songs of Innocence was first published by itself in
1789, it's believed that
Songs of Experience has always been published in conjunction with
Innocence since its completion in
1794.
Songs of Innocence mainly consists of poems describing the innocence and joy of the natural world, advocating
free love and a closer relationship with
God, and most famously including Blake's poem
The Lamb. Its poems have a generally light, upbeat and pastoral feel and 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.
Many of the poems appearing in
Songs of Innocence have a counterpart in
Songs of Experience with opposing perspectives of the world. The disastrous end of the
French Revolution caused Blake to lose faith in the goodness of mankind, explaining much of the volume's sense of despair. Blake also believed that children lost their innocence through exploitation and from a religious community which put
dogma before mercy. He did not, however, believe that children should be kept from becoming experienced entirely. In truth, he believed that children should indeed become experienced but through their own discoveries, which is reflected in a number of these poems.
Blake believed that innocence and experience were "the two contrary states of the human soul", and that true innocence was impossible without experience.
Songs of Innocence
Songs of Innocence contains the following poems; each is accompanied by an illuminated plate by Blake.
Songs of Experience
Songs of Experience is a 1794 poetry collection forming the second part of
William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Some of the poems, such as
The Little Girl Lost and
The Little Girl Found were moved by Blake to
Songs of Innocence, and were frequently moved between the two books
Songs of Experience contains the following poems; each poem is accompanied by an illuminated plate.
Introduction
Earth's Answer
The Clod and the Pebble
Holy Thursday
The Little Girl Lost
The Little Girl Found
The Chimney-Sweeper
Nurse's Song
The Sick Rose
The Fly
The Angel
The Tyger
My Pretty Rose Tree
Ah, Sunflower
The Lily
The Garden of Love
The Little Vagabond
London
The Human Abstract
Infant Sorrow
A Poison Tree
A Little Boy Lost
A Little Girl Lost
A Divine Image
A Cradle Song
The Schoolboy
To Tirzah
The Voice of the Ancient Bard
Musical settings
Poems from both books have been set to music by many composers, including Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten. Individual poems have also been set by, among others, John Tavener, Jah Wobble, Tangerine Dream. More extensive settings have been made by folk musician Greg Brown on his 1987 album Songs of Innocence and of Experience(External Link
) and by Finn Coren in his Blake Project. The composer William Bolcom set the entire collection of poems in 1984.
A recording of this work from 2004 by the University of Michigan on the Naxos label won 3 Grammy Awards for Best Choral Performance, Best Classical Contemporary Composition, and Best Classical Album.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Songs Of Innocence'.
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