Compare/Contrast Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience William Blake is a romantic poet who became very famous for his literary works. He was also known as an artist, who created Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Blake calls these two sets of poems, “The two contrary states of the human soul.” Blake’s Songs of Innoncence and experience juxtapose the innocent pastoral world of childhood and in contrast an adult world of corruption and repression. The poems, “The Lamb”, “The Tyger”, and “The Chimney Sweepers” as a whole explores the values and limitations of two perspectives in the world. These poems fall into pairs , so the same situation can be seen from the view of innocence first and then experience. In “The lamb”
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The other is dark and evil. The poem “The Tyger” starts out with a childlike speaker repeatedly asking who could of made the Tyger. “The Tyger” is a short lyric poem of twenty-four lines that asks, without giving explicit answers, how an all-perfect God responsible for innocence and goodness can be the creator of violence and evil.(Curley). In comparison with the lamb the reader can imply both were made from the same God. A quote from “The Tyger”, “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” It is essential that maybe the one who made the Lamb also made the Tyger. Both poems “The Lamb” and “The Tyger” contrast in many ways. In the songs of innocence the lamb is personified as being Jesus. The lamb also symbolizes all the goodness in the world. When it comes the Tyger it is viewed as the devil an evil being. The question is asked, Where did the being get the rebellious pride of a Satan, a Daedalus, or a Prometheus to defy the natural order of things and seize the fire engendering this monstrous creature? What kind of strength (“shoulder”), artistry (“art”), and force (“hand”) moulded the dreadful beauty into existence (lines 9-12)?(Curley). The readers opinions can vary, one can think maybe God did create both, or the Devil created the Tyger and God created the lamb. This is what makes the poem “The Tyger” so complex because it does not give an actual …show more content…
He placed both poems in his famous collections of poetry, one in the songs of innocence and the other in the songs of experience. In the poem “The chimney Sweeper” from the songs of innocence introduces innocent young chimney sweeps being utilized and oppressed. These kids being utilized are unaware of the oppression. The speaker reports of his mother passing away and his father selling him. A quote from the poem states, “I sweep & in soot I sleep.” Basically this line describes the nature in which the speaker lives in. According to Michael Mc Clard, “Through the first two lines, readers quickly learn that this chimney sweeper has no one to nurture or guide him. The details of this boy’s life are heart wrenching, but Blake exaggerates nothing.” (Mc Clard). The speaker then turns over to his friend little Tom Dacre. Tom Dacre dreams about many other chimney sweepers being locked in black coffins and then an Angel set them all free. The reader can interpret the black coffins symbolizing their death.According to Linda Freedman, “The malicious fiction that suffering in this world is relieved by salvation in the next.” (Freedman). At the end of the Poem the speaker states, “And the Angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy, He’d have God for his father & never want joy.” The reader can fully understand if he is obedient then God will become his father and will accept him in the afterlife.
The other is dark and evil. The poem “The Tyger” starts out with a childlike speaker repeatedly asking who could of made the Tyger. “The Tyger” is a short lyric poem of twenty-four lines that asks, without giving explicit answers, how an all-perfect God responsible for innocence and goodness can be the creator of violence and evil.(Curley). In comparison with the lamb the reader can imply both were made from the same God. A quote from “The Tyger”, “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” It is essential that maybe the one who made the Lamb also made the Tyger. Both poems “The Lamb” and “The Tyger” contrast in many ways. In the songs of innocence the lamb is personified as being Jesus. The lamb also symbolizes all the goodness in the world. When it comes the Tyger it is viewed as the devil an evil being. The question is asked, Where did the being get the rebellious pride of a Satan, a Daedalus, or a Prometheus to defy the natural order of things and seize the fire engendering this monstrous creature? What kind of strength (“shoulder”), artistry (“art”), and force (“hand”) moulded the dreadful beauty into existence (lines 9-12)?(Curley). The readers opinions can vary, one can think maybe God did create both, or the Devil created the Tyger and God created the lamb. This is what makes the poem “The Tyger” so complex because it does not give an actual …show more content…
He placed both poems in his famous collections of poetry, one in the songs of innocence and the other in the songs of experience. In the poem “The chimney Sweeper” from the songs of innocence introduces innocent young chimney sweeps being utilized and oppressed. These kids being utilized are unaware of the oppression. The speaker reports of his mother passing away and his father selling him. A quote from the poem states, “I sweep & in soot I sleep.” Basically this line describes the nature in which the speaker lives in. According to Michael Mc Clard, “Through the first two lines, readers quickly learn that this chimney sweeper has no one to nurture or guide him. The details of this boy’s life are heart wrenching, but Blake exaggerates nothing.” (Mc Clard). The speaker then turns over to his friend little Tom Dacre. Tom Dacre dreams about many other chimney sweepers being locked in black coffins and then an Angel set them all free. The reader can interpret the black coffins symbolizing their death.According to Linda Freedman, “The malicious fiction that suffering in this world is relieved by salvation in the next.” (Freedman). At the end of the Poem the speaker states, “And the Angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy, He’d have God for his father & never want joy.” The reader can fully understand if he is obedient then God will become his father and will accept him in the afterlife.