The Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Experience contrast and complement one another. The two Songs illustrate different realms that in a sense coexist with one another. That is how they are able to be alike yet different. In the Songs of Innocence much like the title the poems under this section speak about innocence particularly innocence of the youth, peace, and love. Songs of Experience on the other hand are poems about corruption, death and destruction. Those are the two existences in the world.
In the Songs of Innocence the poem called the Lamb is about a little lamb and how the innocence that animal posses is like that of a child, “For he calls himself a Lamb./ He is meek, & mild;/ He becomes a little child. / I a child & thou a lamb,” the parallel here reinforces the fact that all creatures have innocence. There is also another subject in the poem and that is identified with the pronoun He. I believe he to be Jesus because in the Bible Jesus is the Lamb, the Lamb of God. God has blessed the world with the lamb, “Little lamb, God bless thee!/ Little lamb, God bless thee!” which ultimately the reader can conclude that because the Lamb is innocent, then God has bless the world with innocence. In the Bible is said that God made man in his likeness. Now when Adam and Eve committed the original sin, the two feel from God grace and that is what leads to experience.
In the corresponding poem called the Tyger the tone of the poem is very different from the Lamb and there is also a different feeling a different emotion that stirs. When I first read the Tyger I felt the heat that was coming from the Tyger’s eyes and the smell of metal. The ambiance of this poem is much more chaotic and destructive compared to the atmosphere of the Lamb, which was calm and tranquil. In this poem Blake is trying to show the reader that ominous events and dangerous animals are created by the same God that created the Lamb, “Did he smile his work to see? /Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” That line backs up that claim that there is also balance, when there is good there must also be evil. I think tying this back to the idea of experience that, that was what Adam and Eve learned when they fell from God’s grace that because God gave them free will there was the creation of balance. We as humans are born with some say a blank slate and who we become are due to the positive and negatives that influence our lives.
The other two poems the Chimney Sweeper and the Chimney Sweep from my opinion explain the difference of innocence and experience a little better. The Chimney Sweeper is a poem about a child who was sold and because the child was young and innocent it was easy to take advantage of him. But it seems that he is one of the older boys among the sweepers so he sets up to comfort Tom and Tom dreams of brighter days, “And by came an Angel who had a bright key,/ and he open’d the coffins & set them free;”. This in itself shows that innocence hold hope, the Sweepers have faith in God and that with continued belief will come down to say them. Again God is bought into the poem and God is synonymous with hope and beauty much like The Lamb.
Similarly The Chimney Sweep is aligned with the Tyger and the view of God from a negative view in that the parents abandon the child to go to church, “They are both gone up to the church to pray.”. Even more so to further emphasize that from such events the child has learned “ And because I am Happy & dance & sing,/ they think they have done me no injury,/ And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King,” how to move from innocence to experience.
The two environments exist in everyday life, innocence and experience. Often times people when they are in their youth are perceived as naïve or innocent but with more knowledge and time the innocence develops into experience. Experience is sometimes synonymous with maturity and for one to be seem as mature one needs to have many experiences. For example in the working word, an employer is often times more likely to invest and hire someone who is more experience and has a solid track record. However, because life is funny there are always exceptions. Such as those individuals who are lucky and given opportunities because of their skill which was harvested by their love for what they do. Similarly in relationships older adults usually offer better advice because they have wisdom due to experience. What pops up in my mind are the young couples who have been together for a few months and claim that they love each other. Those couples have little experience and are still raw to the dating scene, so to them infatuation is seen as love. Any one older looking in can see blatantly that it is not love but infatuation because they have the experience to tell the difference that the young folks do not.
Innocence and experience are connected but separate at the same time. Connected in the sense that they are related to one another. They are also separate in that innocence and the movement away from it will not always lead to experience. This is why it is so complex. Experience is bred from Innocence through the process of life. The themes that Blake address and makes evident for the readers are timeless.
No comments:
Post a Comment