William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience
Introducing the poems
1.
What do you associate with:
Innocence?
Experience?
2.
Is one necessarily better than the other, or do they both have positive
and negative aspects?
3.
Relate these two ‘states of being’ to childhood and adulthood. Try to
explain the reasoning behind your answer.
4.
What views do we, as a society, hold with regard to the ‘innocence of
children’ and how have these views been challenged in recent years?
5.
Can adults be innocent?
6.
What do you know of the Christian attitudes towards children and
innocence? (You may need to do some research for this.)
o Remember that Blake published the ‘Songs of Innocence’ first, and
the ‘Songs of Experience’ later.
o Note that some of the original ‘innocence’ songs were actually
transferred into the ‘experience’ collection when they were published
in a combined edition – these include ‘The School Boy’, ‘Little Girl
Lost / Little Girl Found’, and ‘The Voice of the Ancient Bard’.
Why are they called songs ‘of’?
Are they about Innocence/Experience or by Innocence/Experience or both?
© 2007 www.teachit.co.uk
5999.doc
Page 1 of 2
William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience
Now read ‘The Clod and the Pebble’:
Love seeketh not Itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care;
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair.
So sang a little Clod of Clay,
Trodden with the cattle's feet:
But a pebble of the brook,
Warbled out these metres meet.
Love seeketh only Self to please,
To bind another to Its delight:
Joys in another's loss of ease,
And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite.
1.
Which one is right?
2.
Don’t just rely on your opinion; look for how the clod and pebble are
presented.
3.
What do you associate with ‘clod’ and ‘pebbles’?
4.
What is the implication of the pebble ‘warbling’?
5.
What position is each one in – what does the environment imply about
them?
6.
What does this poem suggest about innocence and experience?
© 2007 www.teachit.co.uk
5999.doc
Page 2 of 2