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The concept of innocence
The lamb and the tyger comparison and contrast
The lamb and the tyger comparison and contrast
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Comparing the Lamb and the Tyger in In Songs of Innocence
Children embody the very essence of innocence. They see the world through virgin eyes, hear life with fresh ears and create the world with a simple mind and pure heart. It is about the only time in a person's life when the weight of sin, corruption, egotism, and hatred are not blurring their vision and thoughts. It is the only time a person is completely free. But this state of innocence becomes separated and exiled once experience has tainted the soul. William Blake conveys this theory in his work, Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul.
In Songs of Innocence, a childlike vision is conveyed through William Blake's clever use of speakers with their varying perspectives and questions. In this first set of poems, Blake often uses a child as the speaker, questioning the ways of the world. The atmosphere is bright and cheerful. For all of the purity that is conveyed through out the poems, there is an underlying current of indignation at the way the corrupt institutions are tainting the souls of the children. Even though the children see the realities of the world they live in, their innocence does not allow them to feel or express their resentment.
In the Songs of Experience, Blake continues his contrast of the two states of the human soul with the second state, experience. Just as Blake used children to represent innocence, he uses adults as the victims of experience. These poems show the inhumanity and cruelty under the surface of civilization. They show how humans are constricted and laden with despair, that the institutions of society have lain upon them. One of the most prevalent institutions of this ti...
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...tainted this God. He is no longer a loving and pure God, but a hard and judgmental one.
The state of innocence, once lost through experience, is never possible to regain. As in The Lamb, God is one in the same with the child. They both embody the same innocence. He became a child. But in The Tyger, man has corrupted what they believe to be God so He can fit into their world of experience. This God might be the tiger's (man's) creator, but he is no longer one with him like He is the lamb (child). Once innocence is lost, it's not possible to revive it to what it once was in childhood. Nothing lasts forever, even innocence in this "best of all possible worlds."
Bibliography:
Blake, William. The Songs of Innocence and of Experience. The Norton Anthology
World Masterpieces. Ed. Sarah Lawall. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.: New
York. 11-68
In the first chapter of God Behaving Badly, David Lamb argues that God is unfairly given a bad reputation. He claims these negative perceptions are fueled by pop culture and lead many to believe the lie that the God of the Old Testament is angry, sexist, racist, violent, legalistic, rigid, and distant. These negative perceptions, in turn, affect our faith. Ultimately, Lamb seeks to demonstrate that historical context disproves the presumptuous aforementioned. In addition, he defends his position by citing patterns of descriptions that characterize God throughout the Old Testament. “Our image of God will directly affect how we either pursue or avoid God. If we believe that the God of the Old Testament is really harsh, unfair and cruel, we won’t want anything to do with him” (Lamb 22). Clearly, they way Christians choose to see God will shape their relationship with Him.
The fact that they feel they can sit about the knee of their mother, in this stereotypical image of a happy family doesn’t suggest that the children in this poem are oppressed... ... middle of paper ... ... y has a negative view of the childish desire for play which clearly has an effect on the children. The fact that they the are whispering shows that they are afraid of the nurse, and that they cannot express their true thoughts and desires freely, which is why they whisper, and therefore shows that Blake feels that children are oppressed. I feel that the two poems from innocence which are ‘The Echoing Green,’ and ‘The Nurses Song,’ display Blake’s ideological view of country life which I referred to in my introduction, and show his desire for childhood to be enjoyed.
Throughout history the concept of innocence in literature has been a topic in which author’s have held an obsession with. According to Harold Bloom, the loss of innocence has played a large role in western literature since the Enlightenment when man was said to be initially good and then corrupted only by his institutions. (Bloom 6) The institution in which Bloom speaks of is nothing more then society. Society is what is believed to be the cause for the loss of innocence in children. Bloom has stated that a return to the childhood mindset would eliminate the social problems in which people suffer. This is unerringly why the cause of many physiological problems can be traced back to a problem or unsettlement in one’s childhood. (Bloom 7) The history of innocence continues further back in history as it is said that the first encounter of loss of innocence or “original sin” was from Adam and Eve when they ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. (Bloom 7) These historical events and ideas are what influence the works of authors from the 19th century to modern day.
From childhood he was unlike those around him. He went to school to study art and found his love of poetry. From his early childhood, Blake spoke of having visions. He spoke of seeing God and the Angels. He married his with Catherine Boucher in 1782. His brother, Robert died, but this is where Blake got a lot of inspiration for his work. In 1789 Blake wrote and illustrated the popular Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience in 1794. His poetry was extremely non-conformist and focused on imagination, rather than reason. Both works have many common parallels and themes. His poetry also deals with the common aspect of a romanticism work; it has moments of sin, suffering and salvation. In Songs of Innocence, The Chimney Sweeper, it is a heartbreaking poem about the young children that were forced into doing labor as chimneysweepers. Mostly because they were the only ones small enough to fit in the spaces and they were sold into that work. It was damaging and cruel how they treated these children and Blake writes about it in such a powerful way. In the first stanza alone the reader learns about the difficult life and the suffering this child has had to overcome, “When my mother died when I was young, my father sold me while yet my tongue…so, your Chimney’s I sweep and in soot I sleep.” (Songs of Innocence) This poor child is portrayed so innocently and gentle, yet leads this suffering unfortunate life. People treated
" First, there is some confusion between innocence and ignorance. They are often used interchangeably. Because a person is innocent, it does not mean that he or she is unaware of reality. Innocence is almost like a different type of view. A child and an adult may interpret a single thing entirely differently, but this does not mean that the adult knows more about that thing.
The theme of the suffering innocent person, dying and being diseased, throws a dark light onto the London seen through the eyes of William Blake. He shows us his experiences, fears and hopes with passionate images and metaphors creating a sensibility against oppression hypocrisy. His words come alive and ask for changes in society, government and church. But they remind us also that the continued renewal of society begins with new ideas, imagination and new works in every area of human experience.
In conclusion, both poems are clear on the perspectives of innocence and the perspectives of experience and while experience lifts the veil of innocence it does not erase the raw belief that there is some place or someone who may just be better or may just be holy in a harsh world that is covered by manmade innocence.
Innocence is usually associated with youth and ignorance. The loss of one’s innocence is associated with the evils of the world. However, the term “innocence” can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Similarly, the loss of one’s innocence can be interpreted in more than one way, and, depending on the interpretation, it may happen numerous times. The loss of innocence is culture specific and involves something that society holds sacrosanct. It is also bounded by different religious beliefs. Still, no matter which culture or religion is at hand, there is always more than one way to lose one’s innocence, and every member of that particular culture or religion experiences a loss of innocence at least once in their lives. In addition, the individual’s loss of innocence will impair him or her emotionally and/or physically.
Innocence is usually associated with being pure. That being said, children are innocent because they perceive the world as benevolent and fair. They do not know the good or bad, or at least that’s what adults think. They were born pure and free from sin, which shifts as they gain experience. Philip Pullman’s novel “The Golden Compass” centers
Abstract: William Blake's Songs of Innocence contains a group of poetic works that the artist conceptualized as entering into a dialogue with each other and with the works in his companion work, Songs of Experience. He also saw each of the poems in Innocence as operating as part of an artistic whole creation that was encompassed by the poems and images on the plates he used to print these works. While Blake exercised a fanatical degree of control over his publications during his lifetime, after his death his poems became popular and were encountered without the contextual material that he intended to accompany them.
Blake's poems of innocence and experience are a reflection of Heaven and Hell. The innocence in Blake's earlier poems represents the people who will get into Heaven. They do not feel the emotions of anger and jealousy Satan wants humans to feel to lure them to Hell. The poems of experience reflect those feelings. This is illustrated by comparing and contrasting A Divine Image to a portion of The Divine Image.
His spiritual beliefs reached outside the boundaries of religious elites loyal to the monarchy. “He was inspired by dissident religious ideas rooted in the thinking of the most radical opponents of the monarchy during the English Civil War” (E. P. Thompson). Concern with war and the blighting effects of the industrial revolution were displayed in much of his work. One of Blake’s most famous works is The Songs of Innocence and The Songs of Experience. In this collection, Blake illuminates the naive hopes and fears that inform the lives of children and follow them into adulthood.... ...
Interestingly enough, William Blake's poems from Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience usually provide common topics but opposite perspectives; each perspective accomplished my means of unique writing techniques. "The Shepherd" from Songs of Innocence and "The Garden of Love" from Songs of Experience have in common the experiences of a shepherd but "The Shepherd" creates a joyful and friendly mood through the word choice of Blake while "The Garden of Love" creates a sorrowful mood by means of imagery.
For the poem the Tyger, is quite the opposite of its counter poem the Lamb. In this work the narrator gives the reader the feeling of great doubts that the creator even has goodness with in. This is created throughout the poem, by asking "what" instead of asking "who". By doing this it asks how the creator could make the first tiger as an inhuman creation. There is alliteration within the poem such as" Ty...
In the William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, the vision of children and adults are placed in opposition of one another. Blake portrays childhood as a time of optimism and positivity, of heightened connection with the natural world, and where joy is the overpowering emotion. This joyful nature is shown in Infant Joy, where the speaker, a newborn baby, states “’I happy am,/ Joy is my name.’” (Line 4-5) The speaker in this poem is portrayed as being immediately joyful, which represents Blake’s larger view of childhood as a state of joy that is untouched by humanity, and is untarnished by the experience of the real world. In contrast, Blake’s portrayal of adulthood is one of negativity and pessimism. Blake’s child saw the most cheerful aspects of the natural wo...