William Blake 2

William Blake’s “Songs Of Innocence And Experience” Essay, Research Paper

In this first essay, I will be dealing with poems from

William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience. More

precisely, I shall be dealing with the Introduction from

Songs of Innocence, as well as its counterparts Introduction

from Songs of Experience and Earth’s Answer. For my thesis,

I shall attempt to demonstrate how Blake used the symbols of

the Piper and the Bard to represent the states of innocence

and of experience, and how he passes from one state to the

next through the use of these symbols.

Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience are two

series of poems which complete one another. Each poem has a

counterpart in the opposite series. Many people tend to

misread or misinterpret these poems. In order to be able to

fully understand what Blake is saying, we must look at both

corresponding poems as one.

Let us examine the images of the Piper and the Bard.

The OED defines Bard as an “Ancient Celtic order of

minstrel-poets, whose primary function appears to have been

to compose and sing verses celebrating the achievements of

chiefs and warriors.” In his poems, Blake’s definition is

fundamentally the same, except that he utilizes the term to

mean someone “Who Present, Past, & Future sees”. The Bard

is able to see through time and space. He is what Blake

defines as a Visionary. The Piper, on the other hand, is

not of this nature. He is a simple man who dwells in

innocence. He listens to the child he encounters without

thinking. In his mind, everyone is good, everyone is

honest. But while the Bard is living in a world of

experience, he sees without judging, he knows without

thinking. The Bard is at the highest level attainable by

humankind. He has returned to the perfect unity that was

before the creation of our fallen world. Therefore, he

lives in innocence. But a Bard he cannot be without

experience, because he is destined to tell the stories of

those from the past to the masses of the future. He cannot

be whole without combining both innocence and experience

within himself. No living being can exist solely in

innocence or experience. We necessarily must be a

combination of both.

In Introduction from Songs of Innocence, the Piper

“loses” his innocence, in a manner of speaking. The child

makes the Piper write his songs so “that all may read”. In

doing so, he creates writing for the first time. Therefore,

he gains experience, in that he can educate others of his

songs, teach them to others, all the while, not having to

remember them all. It is not so much that he has lost his

innocence, as that he has gained experience.

Blake passes from the Piper in Songs of Innocence to

the Bard in Songs of Experience much in the same manner he

did with the Lamb and the Tyger. In the Songs of Innocence,

the Lamb is a powerful symbol of innocence. It is youth; it

is white; it is innocent and gentle. In contrast, the Tyger

is a symbol of experience. It is cunning, deceitful and

cruel. The images from the Songs of Innocence are inversely

paralleled in the Songs of Experience. Therefore, what is

innocent becomes experienced, and vice-versa.

In his poems, Blake does not describe innocence or

experience. He does not even employ these terms, yet

proceeds to paint a portrait of these states. He recreates

a state of innocence or of experience by using a number of

different techniques. For example, in Introduction from

Songs of Innocence, the rhythm of the poem is very childlike

and simple. It is a bouncy rhythm which is very easily

followed, but not structured in any way. This pattern is

simple, like a child, and free from experience. The use of

the child as a symbol of innocence is another method Blake

utilizes to recreate this state of innocence.

Another technique Blake used is placing opposites

within the poem. For example, he writes: “While he wept

with joy to hear.” and ” And I stain’d the water clear,”.

In an adult’s rational mind, these contraries cannot exist.

We do not normally cry when we are happy, but rather when we

are sad. And by staining the water clear, Blake is creating

a paradox. Something cannot be stained clear. In a child’s

mind, opposites do not exist. These statements all make

perfect sense to him. A child does not have a rational

mind; a child has a literal mind.

Repetition is yet another method used by Blake to

recreate the state of innocence. Repetition is an important

tool used by children to learn. They repeat what they are

told, and adults repeat what the child says to assure

clarity. In this poem, we find the words piper, pipe,

piping and song repeated numerous times. We therefore

assoc

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