A View of “Songs of Innocence and of Experience” by William Blake

A View of “Songs of Innocence and of Experience” by William Blake

From reading the brief Introduction to the book, it is clear how the deep and personal loss of his brother Robert, who as a fellow artist could be considerd Blake’s kindred spirit, has formed a very religious world view which clearly colours his poetic and visual vocabulary.

The poet’s contemporary society was very different to ours. An important factor i feel in explaining his worlds view point differences to ours. An interesting aspect that our more secular society should consider when trying to understand the poets work from that time is that these prints were created close to one hundred years before the publication of Darwin’s theory of evolution.

When discussing a piece of work, such as the religious poetry of Blake, we should keep in need mind that how our modern society discusses the nature of religion has forever been changed by our undersdtanding of evolution. The fact that the poets society is pre evolutionary theory in my view leads the poet to some well meaning but horrendously naive opinions, for example on the nature of differently coloured skin in “The Little Black Boy”. This poem I’m sure by the standards of his day was quite liberal and progressive, but to me it seems to smack of condescending. Particularly the Idea that once mankind reaches a certain level of harmony on earth, the black little boy will transform and earn the respect of his fellow man,

“And be like him and he will love me”

I understand the message that Blake is trying to convey which comes across in the illustration, and wording the two little boys white and black are both similar in their inferiority and dependance on the more domiant adult religious parent figure but i can't help feel a sense of not bigotry because that's too strong a word but condensation which is is influenced from the imperical, and religious qualities of the English soceity at that time.

I feel that his ’s relationship with religion is very interesting in these poems, in once sense I would regard his use of Religion as a crutch. This stops him from asking important questions. Why must pigmentation characteristics have to be mended for two humans to see each other as equals? Why should such qualities of skin need such a, what I would consider childish naive explanation? However they were different times I suppose. And for all his naivety his charitable and social conscience seen in poems such as “The little black boy” and “The Chimney Sweeper” are clearly born out of the sense purpose Religion places upon his life, or as The Chimney Sweeper last line refers to it

“So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm”.

He also sees religion as a parental figure protecting and nurturing the young, and of course being the giver of life, which he feels personal connected to, as is seen especially in the poem “The Lamb”, even going as far as equate himself somewhat with the divine,

“He became a little child;

I a child & thou a lamb”.

And again also strongly seen in the language of the poem “The Devine Image”, where his belief that Jesus was god made man, bestows upon man a celestial trait. If god is special and chose to become like man than man is special. However the danger of that which is clear in his picture where he falls into the common pitfall is the question of which man does god look like. Here Blake displays ,what could be the unconscience imperial view point of his society, a clearly tall white caucasian Jesus and other religious figures.

However his belief that man was devine due to man's connection with god, through the body of jesus ,would explain why an more typical non spiritual adult figure is used as a stand in for the image of god in some of the carvings for example in the print for the poem “The Little Boy Found”.However even though the carving isn't instantly recognizable as a specific religous figure, nor said to be in the wording, there is certainly a strong devine quality to the figure of the humans.

However despite Blake’s clearly warm and favourable view of religion he was also a critic of what he saw as the hypocrisy of organised religion. This more critical side to Blake’s artistic voice can be seen in the two versions of his poems spread between the catagories of innocence and experience. By portraying his work in such stark contrast the clarity of his message rings out in the duality of the poems .

While it is true some view the upbeat traits delivered in the innocent version of “Holy Thursday” to be satirical, such as in the analyis at the back of the book, the poems of "experience" are far less ambiguous, there can be no confusing the scathing opinions Blake held towards the institutions in the “Holy Thursday” of experience, which is quite frank in its criticism. This isn’t just limited to the wording but it is also solidly present in the morbid imagery used to frame the poem.

This criticism also comes to the fore in the reimagining of “The Chimney Sweeper” which now blames the troubles the boy feels on the Indifference of an uncaring church willing to stand idly by in the face of such poverty. This clearly shows the difference that Blake feels between the church as a kind of body with all the frailities and weakness that come with that, and what could be considerd the less rigid soul it claims to hold within.

The alternative poem to “The Divine Image”, “The Human Abstract” continues to carry the cross of religious critique. Here organised religion in the form of the priest hood is likened to Insects eating away at the Tree of Mystery. If we continue the analogy of the ideal of the church being a soul and the institution being a body you could say that here Blake takes his critique to an even more savage degree . By comparing the church to insects eating away Blake's now saying that the body is cancerous and deminishes the soul.

In the later experience version of “A Little Boy Lost”, the little boy is no longer searching outwardly for the need of comfort and guidance of the Religious institutions that Blake had earlier described as nuturing and adult, the early hierarchy structure of child and adult is broken. The Child is just as capable of searching for meaning on his own with out the guidance of adult. Blakes negative view of the church can be seen in the way his depiction of them reacts to the new balance of power. The priests are cast in vilianous light,and react in a incredibly gruesome way preceiving the boy to be a challenge to their power base. Blake feels that the churches preoccupation with profit is standing in the way of the prophets.

The two duelling interpretations of themes isn’t only limited to discussions on religion. Blake also uses it slant the original reading of the premise in many other poems.