Poetry Review on William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience

William Blake is an intriguing man. His desire for a revolution in Britain, like in France was huge and even came out in his work. Possibly his most famous collection of poetry is from ‘Songs of Innocence and of Experience’ and quite frankly I was intrigued with how the poems from the innocence version perfectly mirrored those within experience. I’m not exactly sure how to review a poem but I’ve given it ago, despite it reading as if I’m doing a poetic analysis. Oh well! I have decided to review the poems that I think best mirror each other in the two sections of poetry:

Songs of Innocence

The Lamb:

The Lamb his notable biblical references, such as the idea of sacrifice. But I think the ‘Lamb’ is a representation of Jesus. The Lamb is used to personify Jesus hereby as an idea of purity and sacrifice. The speaker within the poem is a child who is both naïve but also proud, evidenced by the abundance of questions within the poem that also display an idea of self-assurance. The questions within the poem are displayed as rhetorical, but the answers are imbedded within the poems, making the poem appear as more of a riddle. The poems form has a song like quality, displayed by the repetition of “Little Lamb God bless thee” at the end of the poem. Also the “L” sounds contribute to this affect, could suggest the bleating of the lamb. From initial reading without delving too deep, it’s clear this poem will mirror later with a poem which that connotes evil, to counteract this poem. Overall I think this is a sweet poem to start off with.

Holy Thursday:

Now this one is rather interesting, especially when it couples with the experience poem of the same name. Holy Thursday is traditionally referred to Ascension Day. The poem displays clean-scrubbed charity-school children of London flow like a river toward St. Paul’s Cathedral. The 3 stanzas have two rhyming couplets within each, and alongside this each line within the stanza is longer than the other poems, which suggests the train of children passing towards the cathedral or to show the flowing of the Thames. Throughout each stanza the children change from being weak, to growing and finally their combined display the power of God and direct contact to heaven. The narrator is neither Blake nor a child’s instead is an observer. Although this version makes the children seem cared for as there’s no suggestion of ill treatment as their innocent faces are “clean”. Overall I prefer the other version of the poem, yet I can see the relevance of reading this version first.

The Divine Image:

This 5-stanza ballad has ABCB rhyming structure demonstrating, “Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love” to represent “God” and form the “divine”. These “virtues of delight” are what all people pray to, according to our speaker. It’s clear from the 3rd stanza they dramatize Christ –the mediation between man and God: “the human form divine”. This is also repeated twice. But the speaker claims that they are all men, that human qualities become recognisable by its features (heart, body, face, clothes) and we interpret these human qualities when thinking of God. This is because we are unable to picture God in any other form as we morph him into these human-like qualities because its familiar to us and possibly one of the most intelligent species on the planet. I like this poem as it displays how something so complex can be broken down into 4 simply qualities that make up the human being.

The Little Black Boy:

Overall I’m not thrilled with this variation of a ballad stanza poem as the ideas within the ABAB rhyming structure don’t overly excite me – but that’s just personal opinion. It’s clear this is a story of race – quite obvious with the black child narrator. The poem is centred on the theme of how the child came to know his own identity but also to know God, as it displays a spiritual awakening which transcends the issue of race. The use of the mother is very clever since it displays natural, selfless love and showing the tenderness of concern to her child’s self-esteem. The boy takes the lessons of his mother and applies them to his relationship with a white child. Skin on earth is only questioned or problematic whereas in heaven its entirely irrelevant. Black and white for as long as literature has been written (I think the first known piece of literature was the Beowulf discovered in the medieval ages, but don’t quote me on that) connotes bad and good and the speaker has to develop as sense of self belief when tackling this. The poem itself implies that these ideas amount to the same thing. Overall I think it’s a clever poem but not for me.

Nurse’s Song:

Now this is a sweet poem, I do like this one because finally there isn’t a poem that is tragic or involves death or downfall of some sort! The poem instead displays a nurse watching the children play and as the sun goes down they ask to play till the sun is truly gone and then they will go to sleep, the nurse lets them. This unusually doesn’t display any alienation between the adult and the children instead Blake displays them to be near equal. The ABCB rhyming stanzas a harmonisation of the children’s joy and play with the busy world of the “sleep” and “little birds”. Blake displays the children’s approach to the world with a simple optimism. Innocence is also demonstrated not just in the children, but also in the Nurse as their happiness inspires her to be peaceful. There’s a sense that we don’t want the night to come that we want this happiness to continue forever. The tranquillity of the evening’s natural stillness resonates with the nurse as they both seem to envelop the children in their own protection from harm. Once again I really like this poem as it just displays the beauty of innocence.

Songs of Experience:

The Tiger:

This poem is a clear display of nature as an art therefore reflecting its creator. The poem I believe is a potential criticism of God as it links clearly with the ‘Lamb’ poem from Songs of Innocence. This illustrates how God can create such beauty and yet such evil, but also makes us question whether perhaps the creator was originally innocent like the Lamb, but experience has turned him evil. Also as the Lamb is presented as weak and feeble, the Tiger is a direct contrast as its displayed as strikingly beautiful, but yet its wicked attractiveness is a mask of the true violence of this predator. The speaker throughout wonders how the Tiger's creator had the courage to continue making this creature. Also in the fourth stanza the comparison of the creator is clever as the smith can create something so beautiful, such as a sword however a sword is also an incredibly dangerous weapon. Personally, this poem should focus on the questions on who could make such a creature, but also who would?

Holy Thursday:

In my opinion out of all of his poems I’ve read, this best shows his social criticism. The experience of these events critiques rather than praises the charity the charity of institutions responsible for hapless children. It questions whether the children are victims of cruelty and injustice, an idea that is subtly implied in the 1st poem. The idea of minimal care is shown by “Babes reduced to misery/ Fed with cold and usurious hand?” which represents how it’s a clear responsibility to help the most helpless and vulnerable in society, yet Blake refers to them either delegating or denying obligation. Also, a “trembling cry a song” was viewed in the first version as majestic and powerful, now it represents injustice and the suffering of the children. Also the 4th stanza identifies the critique of society by insinuating that “fields are bleak and bare” is primarily a result of wasting resources and failure to provide for the future generations. Alongside the idea of “thorns” is to show suffering of Christ. The final stanza also demonstrates an “eternal winter” where these children don’t experience the physical comfort nor the warmth of love. Blake defines prosperity by sun, rain and food, claiming this is enough to sustain life and social intervention into natural processes , which ought to remove poverty of the masses and the removal on those who feast plentiful and live magnificent, while others sit in squalor. This doesn’t occur. I overall really like these poems as it displays that there are always two sides to an event, and that experience eludes you to think of the worst.

The Human Abstract:

The poem itself offers further analysis on the four virtues of “Pity”, “Mercy”, “Peace” and “Love”, but also lingers on the idea that there’s no pity without poverty, mercy isn’t needed if everyone is happy and the source of peace is the initial fear, which only leads to “selfish love”. This description I believe ultimately displays the mind of the human experience. The poem refers to how Cruelty plants and waters the tree in the “human brain” with its roots being Humility, its leaves made of Mystery and Deceit being the fruit of the tree. The way the tree grows is unnatural and doesn’t reflect the natural state of man, which presents a rather ambiguous image. But the tree grows nowhere in natural nature, so perhaps its secrecy in the brain is why it lies sequestered. This is a truly ambiguous poem, but it builds of the original idea from the Songs of Innocence that there is more to people that meet the eye, you don’t know entirely what’s growing behind them from within.

London:

THIS WAS MY ABSOLUTE FAVOURATE AT GCSE! It’s incredibly interesting and raw in the experiences felt by the speaker as they travel around London in the late evening. The speaker witnesses despair, prostitution, poverty and suffering. The repetition of “mark” within the first stanza shows that act of observation equals the actual imprint upon the person. Furthermore the repetition of the word “every” in the second stanza evidences the scale of suffering, as the suffering touches “every man” “every infant” ,“chimney- sweeper”, “soldier” and “harlot”. These victims help make their own cuffs and they are more powerful than material chains could be. This shows that the poorest aren’t only held back physically but mentally there’s no escape. The cycle of misery recommences when the young harlot gives birth into poverty. The final idea of the oxymoronic “marriage hearse” slows love and desire to also be paired with death and destruction. Overall call I can say is that it is a very good poem isn’t it?

The Sick Rose:

I saw this poem as I was flicking through the anthology and although its only short it is an absolutely beautiful poem. The ABCB structure of the poem gives a foreboding beat to the poem and therefore this compliments to the reader the cool directness to which the speaker tells the rose she’s dying. This “invisible worm” has come into her bed under the cover of night and thus “life destroy[s]”. Because the rose doesn’t realise her sickness it can be viewed allegorical that there is a suggestion that love doesn’t recognise its own ailing state. There is a potential indication of foul play in the sense of a “crimson joy” connoting a sexual joy or perhaps something worse and is not consensual. These emotions which the rose appears to purge Blake believe to be perverted and unhealthy and the insidious secrecy in which the worm corrupts the rose alludes slightly to the biblical tale of Adam and Eve by way of the worm can regard slightly with the Serpent. Overall the rose’s joy is tainted by an aura of shame and secrecy which is prominent within the culture of sex, and that is why this is my favourite poem within the Experience section.

Although I have no idea how to write a poetry reivew I hope this demonstrates the beauty and indeed raw messages within Blake's poems and I hope this inspires you to read them :)