Songs of innocence and experience

In Blake's view, innocence and experience are two opposites that together form a
whole. One isn't better than the other; they both need each other.
Allen Ginsberg is. He's a controversial American poet who became a lead figure
in the Beat Generation poets of the 1950s. His work was banned by the United States
government, which led to a widely publicized censorship trial, which he won.

one of blakes illuminated manuscripts

blake was illustrator and printer

Songs of innocence
1789
about children
focuses on naive, pure, inexperienced
world can be scary
God is protective source

Songs of experience
1794
About adults
world is a dark place
church, politics, society
jealousy and corruption
more mature
scary

similarities

Differences

both use temporary accessible language

The lamb vs. the tyger

take place in natural settings

"The Lamb" shows the world as a safe place.

Religion is portrayed in a nonthreatening way.
the tyger uses slant rhyme.

Theodicy: If there is an all-powerful, loving, and just God, how can evil and suffering exist?

Note that Blake doesn't seem to accept the traditional answer to this question, which is to
attribute all pain and suffering to the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.
innocence and evil attributed to skin color?

SOI:

SOE:

THE CHIMNEY-SWEEPER
When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry Weep! weep! weep! weep!
So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.

THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER

A little black thing in the snow,
Crying weep! weep! in notes of woe!
Where are thy father and mother? Say!

Theres little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,

That curled like a lambs back, was shaved; so I
said,
Hush, Tom! never mind it, for, when your heads
bare,
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white
hair.
And so he was quiet, and that very night,
As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight!
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and
Jack,
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black.
And by came an angel, who had a bright key,
And he opened the coffins, and let them all free;
Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing, they
run,
And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.
Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind;
And the Angel told Tom, if hed be a good boy,
Hed have God for his father, and never want joy.
And so Tom awoke, and we rose in the dark,
And got with our bags and our brushes to work.
Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy
and warm:
So, if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.

They are both gone up to the church to pray.

Because I was happy upon the heath,
And smiled among the winters snow,
They clothed me in the clothes of death,
And taught me to sing the notes of woe.
And because I am happy and dance and
sing,
They think they have done me no injury,
And are gone to praise God and his priest
and king,
Who make up a heaven of our misery.

Note of happiness. Finds God as protector

and promise of heaven and happiness if
Earth has found no problem of the dear
children.

Tone of despair, the child has been left alone

because the parents do not pay attention to
his health and need. Parents praise all who
the child blames for his position and situation.

Child is young, and new to the ways of the

world.

Child sees the ugly of the world.