Songs of Innocence and of Experience represent
only a fragment of his total poetic production,
but illustrate his major themes and his style. The
two parts of the collection are complementary,
in fact there is a dual vision of life.
Externally the state of Innocence represents
the condition of man in the Eden before his Fall.
Internally it refers to the condition of the child
who hasn’t yet know what evil is. The inner state
of Innocence is represented by many images like
the Child or the Lamb. Moreover there is a
society based on good feelings like love and
generosity.
In the world of Experience, which is the world
of adults, people are selfish and incapable of
spontaneity, while society presents inequalities
and exploitation between men. This world is
represented by symbols such as the Tiger.
In human soul these two states coexist:
innocence is an ideal to be struggled for in a
corrupt and wicked world.
To this dual vision of life corresponds a dual
vision of God: in the first collection the Lamb is
the symbol of God’s innocence and a
demonstration of his love for his creatures, while
in Songs of Experience the Tiger is a powerful
symbol of energy which question the nature of
God and the value of his creation.
INFLUENCES ON BLAKE’S WORKS
His production was a reaction against the
values of the previous Age of Reason, his poetry
was truly Romantic in its triumph
of
imagination. His rebellious attitude was the
result of several influences. He shared the social
and political ideas of left-wing radicals like
Paine and Godwin, Mary Shelley’s father. He
followed the assertions of intellectuals like
Voltaire and Diderot that the individual had a
right to freedom and happiness outside the
restrictions of conventional morality and
religion. Finally, he became a visionary and
believed in the illuminating power of his
visions. The most important literary influence
in his life was the Bible, because it presented a
total vision of the world and its history.
The Tyger
The Lamb
Subject and theme: The Tiger = a symbol
of God's power in creation
Key images: The tiger seen by Blake's
poetic imagination: "fearful symmetry";
"burning bright...fire";
"hammer...chain...furnace...anvil".
Technical features:
repeated (rhetorical) questions;
the Tyger is addressed directly;
fast and hammering rhythm;
the Creator compared to a blacksmith;
the poet fascinated by the divine artistry
Subject and theme: The Lamb = a symbol of suffering innocence and
Jesus Christ.
Key image: The Lamb seen through the eyes of a child.
Technical features:
repeated questions, directed to the lamb, but easier to answer than those
addressed to the tiger;
answers given in the second stanza;
idyllic setting of "stream and mead"
contrasts with "forests of night" (exotic and dangerous) in The Tyger;
suggests Biblical book of Psalms especially the 23rd psalm, with its "green
pastures";
as well as making The Lamb, God becomes like The Lamb: Jesus is both
the "Good Shepherd" and "The Lamb of God".
Like the Passover Lamb, He is sacrificed to redeem mankind.
IMAGINATION AND THE POET
Blake considered imagination as the means through which Man could
know the world. Imagination, or “the Divine Vision”, means “to see more,
beyond material reality, into the life of things”. God, the child and the poet
share this power of vision, which is also the power of creating things.
Therefore the poet becomes a sort of prophet who can see more deeply
into reality and who also tries to warn men of the evils of society.
HIS INTEREST IN SOCIAL PROBLEMS
Blake was concerned with the political and
social problems of his time: he supported the
abolition of slavery and shared other intellectuals’
enthusiasm for the egalitarian principles of the
French Revolution. He believed in revolution as
purifying violence necessary for the redemption of
man.
Later, disillusioned, he focused his
attention on the evil consequences of the
Industrial Revolution: the injustices caused by
a materialistic attitude and the commercial
exploitation of human beings. In his poems he
sympathised with the victims of industrial society
such as children and prostitutes, as well as with
the victims of institutional oppression such as
orphans and soldiers.
“COMPLEMENTARY OPPOSITES” AND SYMBOLISM
His Christianity was not liturgical or moralistic. He believed in the reality of a spiritual
world, but he regarded Christianity and the Church as responsible for the
fragmentation of consciousness and the dualism characterising man’s life. To this
dualistic view he substituted a vision made up not of
“contraries”, but of
“complementary opposites”.
He affirmed:
“Without Contraries there is no
Progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate are necessary
to Human existence”. The possibility of progress, of achieving the knowledge of what we
are, is set in the tension between opposite states of mind.
In such a dualistic world, Blake does not encourage us to remain innocent, he suggests
that naïve innocence must of necessity pass through and assimilate the opposite state of
experience and reach the third state called “higher innocence,” which transcends the
first two states to arrive at perfection.
The two states coexist not only in the human being but also in the figure of the Creator
who can be at the same time the God of love and innocence and the God of energy.
His poems present a very simple structure and a highly individual use of symbols. He
employed a central group of related symbols: the child, the father and Christ,
representing the states of innocence, experience and a “higher innocence”.
He produced his collections of poems by the method of “illuminated printing”: each
page was an engraving of a text surrounded by images in watercolor. The text and the
drawings were meant to illustrate and intensify each other’s meaning.