Throughout William Blake’s poems he has expressed his views about social issues that affected him directly and indirectly. There are many issues that are displayed throughout his work, in William Blake’s book Songs of Innocence and Experience reflecting on the stages of childhood and the adult life and how people’s perspective change over their life span. Songs of Innocence is the child-like and more playful naive way of seeing the world, which contrast to Songs of Experience being harsh and bold statements on the real world.
Songs of Innocence exaggerate the hopes and fears that center around the lives of children and document the transformation of a child going into adulthood. Some of the poems are written from the viewpoint of children, …show more content…
In The Voice of the Ancient Bard, the narrator urges readers to “see the opening morn, image of truth new born” (Puchner). These poems suggest that there are different ways to view the same experience, like how several poems in Songs of Experience that are direct answers or companions to poems in Songs of Innocence, some even sharing the same name. In the experience version of Holy Thursday, the narrator is alarmed by the existence of poverty in such a wealthy country as England. Comparatively, if people had a good relationship with each other and nature, the poem suggests that hunger and hardship would not occur. In the second Nurse’s Song, this is a poem of closeness and correspondences. Not to mention the suggestion of separation, either between children and adults or human and nature. Even the dark certainty of night is eased by the promise of playing once more the next day. The theme of the poem is the children’s innocent and simple joy. Continuing the spontaneous joy without shame, the children ask for approval to continue playing. In the experience adaptation of The Chimney Sweeper it is made clear how both a world of sadness and mindset of optimism presented in Songs of Innocence can exist alongside one another. A chimney sweeper’s parents often went to church, thus one of society’s failings being supported and excused by the institutions of religion and government. Which managed to convince people everything will be all right, even during the
Songs of Innocence exaggerate the hopes and fears that center around the lives of children and document the transformation of a child going into adulthood. Some of the poems are written from the viewpoint of children, …show more content…
In The Voice of the Ancient Bard, the narrator urges readers to “see the opening morn, image of truth new born” (Puchner). These poems suggest that there are different ways to view the same experience, like how several poems in Songs of Experience that are direct answers or companions to poems in Songs of Innocence, some even sharing the same name. In the experience version of Holy Thursday, the narrator is alarmed by the existence of poverty in such a wealthy country as England. Comparatively, if people had a good relationship with each other and nature, the poem suggests that hunger and hardship would not occur. In the second Nurse’s Song, this is a poem of closeness and correspondences. Not to mention the suggestion of separation, either between children and adults or human and nature. Even the dark certainty of night is eased by the promise of playing once more the next day. The theme of the poem is the children’s innocent and simple joy. Continuing the spontaneous joy without shame, the children ask for approval to continue playing. In the experience adaptation of The Chimney Sweeper it is made clear how both a world of sadness and mindset of optimism presented in Songs of Innocence can exist alongside one another. A chimney sweeper’s parents often went to church, thus one of society’s failings being supported and excused by the institutions of religion and government. Which managed to convince people everything will be all right, even during the