Songs of Innocence and Experience: with Other Poems

William Blake

Jan 1866 · Basil Montagu Pickering

Ratings and reviews

William Blake writes about serious social issues of his time, like how the chimney sweeps were treated and lost childhood, but he does it without moralizing. The love poems are down to earth, humorous - a treat!

An obvious classic of english language poetry from an almost totally self-taught and incorrigibly rebellious man. Marking his return to poetry after a decade working in a London clothes shop, The Songs of Innocence were written in 1791 as part of a writing competition held amongst his local book group, as it were. They were written to try to outdo a certain Revd. Trussler and I suspect Revd Trussler's efforts were indeed outdone by them. They are not as good, however, as their sequel. The Songs of Experience, written by 1795, most likely to complement and even correct the first Songs, are where the true greatness of Blake first shows itself. These songs, which according to eyewitnesses Blake sang to his own, strange melodies, like London, To Tirzah, The Clod and The Pebble and what is commonly regarded as one of the greatest poems in english, The Tyger, appear. Originally recognised as an awed meditation on the force of nature but now also increasingly thought to be a meditation of the base fury unleashed in the course of the French Revolution, The Tyger is reason enough to want a copy of this. No one ever dislikes The Tyger. I don't think it is possible. I have seen poetry professors give lectures on it and 3 year olds demand repeat performances when they have had it read to them. It is biblically sublime.

---Very pleasant poems in mid-19th century English. I've just read a few of the first ones. "Little Lamb" (and others) show the God/Jesus immersed headspace of the author and his readers in that era. "Little Black Boy" shows at least the author's rather progressive opinion of that little black boy wanting to be white with light, and how God's light shines on him, too. ---"Innocence and Experience" - that's about it - we're all innocent until we experience life's otherwise. Belief in God is kind of innocent like that - until we find out that experience, including new knowledge, challenges that. Just like kids eventually finding out that Santa isn't real, either. ---I'm a big fan of Amazon, a lot because of the comments on all of the books there. If Google can generate such a comment base, along with offering so many interesting and free books, they will be doing well. ---This was exciting, on one of GEB's first days, to be this book's first reviewer! The review doesn't show double spacing or indentation - that's why I start each paragraph with three dashes.