Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake

By Loyal Books

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Episodes: 94

Description

“Tiger, tiger, burning bright/In the forests of the night/ What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” These often quoted lines are part of The Tiger in William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience. In 1789, William Blake released a limited edition of the book. Being a gifted artist, poet and printmaker, he undertook to personally publish all his work himself through a very painstaking but highly artistic process of etching, thereby transferring his drawings and poems individually onto copper plates by hand. He himself inked each plate and printed each individual page, hand painted the illustrations and bound the pages to create each single volume. As this was extremely laborious and time consuming, there were very few editions of each book. Blake's works pose an unusual problem. Since he displays both his art and his literary skills together and himself considered them inseparable, it was not easy to review his books as literature or art alone. Additionally, he was writing at a time of literary transition. The Neo-classicism of the 18th century was fading and the Romantic Movement was yet to fully emerge. Caught between these two traditions, Blake remains a genius who cannot truly be classified under any category. Songs of Innocence and Experience showing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul to give it its full title combined two separate volumes that he had released earlier. Blake's “Innocence” is the classical notion of the Romantics—a childhood that is pure and untainted, free from the Biblical notion of “original sin” yet supremely aware of the world and its doings. When the world begins to influence this state of innocence, Blake terms it as “Experience.” Institutions like the Church and the State are examples of the latter, along with the knowledge of corruption, fear and grief that encounters with the realities of life bring. The Songs of Innocence section in the book contain an introductory poem and eighteen others. Songs of Experience contains the Introduction poem and twenty-seven more. The poems are short, with simple rhyming schemes and each is based on a single theme. Some poems have a direct counterpart in the other section. For instance, The Lamb in Songs of Innocence is twin to The Tiger in Songs of Experience and so on. Songs of Innocence and Experience is indeed a treasure trove of deeply humane and spiritual lyrics, which are also interesting and thought provoking.

Episode Date
Introduction (Innocence)
Jan 02, 2024
The Shepherd (Innocence)
Jan 01, 2024
The Echoing Green (Innocence)
Dec 31, 2023
The Lamb (Innocence)
Dec 30, 2023
The Little Black Boy (Innocence)
Dec 29, 2023
The Blossom (Innocence)
Dec 28, 2023
The Chimney-Sweeper (Innocence)
Dec 27, 2023
The Little Boy Lost (Innocence)
Dec 26, 2023
The Little Boy Found (Innocence)
Dec 25, 2023
Laughing Song (Innocence)
Dec 24, 2023
A Cradle Song (Innocence)
Dec 23, 2023
The Divine Image (Innocence)
Dec 22, 2023
Holy Thursday (Innocence)
Dec 21, 2023
Night (Innocence)
Dec 20, 2023
Spring (Innocence)
Dec 19, 2023
Nurse’s Song (Innocence)
Dec 18, 2023
Infant Joy (Innocence)
Dec 17, 2023
A Dream (Innocence)
Dec 16, 2023
On Another’s Sorrow (Innocence)
Dec 15, 2023
Introduction (Experience)
Dec 14, 2023
Earth’s Answer (Experience)
Dec 13, 2023
The Clod and the Pebble (Experience)
Dec 12, 2023
Holy Thursday (Experience)
Dec 11, 2023
The Little Girl Lost (Experience)
Dec 10, 2023
The Little Girl Found (Experience)
Dec 09, 2023
The Chimney-Sweeper (Experience)
Dec 08, 2023
Nurse’s Song (Experience)
Dec 07, 2023
The Sick Rose (Experience)
Dec 06, 2023
The Fly (Experience)
Dec 05, 2023
The Angel (Experience)
Dec 04, 2023
The Tiger (Experience)
Dec 03, 2023
My Pretty Rose Tree (Experience)
Dec 02, 2023
Ah, Sunflower (Experience)
Dec 01, 2023
The Lily (Experience)
Nov 30, 2023
The Garden of Love (Experience)
Nov 29, 2023
The Little Vagabond (Experience)
Nov 28, 2023
London (Experience)
Nov 27, 2023
The Human Abstract (Experience)
Nov 26, 2023
Infant Sorrow (Experience)
Nov 25, 2023
A Poison Tree (Experience)
Nov 24, 2023
A Little Boy Lost (Experience)
Nov 23, 2023
A Little Girl Lost (Experience)
Nov 22, 2023
A Divine Image (Experience)
Nov 21, 2023
A Cradle Song (Experience)
Nov 20, 2023
The Schoolboy (Experience)
Nov 19, 2023
To Tirzah (Experience)
Nov 18, 2023
The Voice of the Ancient Bard (Experience)
Nov 17, 2023