The Writings of William Blake

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Recommended: Similarities between songs of innocence and songs of experience

William Blake was one of England’s greatest writers (Tejvan) in the nineteenth century, but his brilliancy was not noticed until after he was deceased. Blake was very much a free spirit who often spoke his mind and was very sensitive to cruelty. At the age of twenty five he married a woman named Catherine Boucher. They created a book of all Blake’s poems called Songs on Innocence, which was not very popular while he was alive. On the other hand Blake’s other book of poems, Songs of Experience, were much more popular. These two collections are so magnificent because it is two different forms of writing successfully written by one man. Two major poems written by William Blake were “The Tyger” and “The Lamb”. The Lamb is from Songs of Innocence while The Tyger is from Songs of Experience, they may share different perspectives on the world yet they both complement one another very well. Blake believed that life could be viewed from two different perspectives, those being innocence and experience. To Blake, innocence is not better than experience. Both states have their good and bad sides. The positive side of innocence is joy and optimism, while the bad side is naivety. The negative side of experience is cynicism, but the good side is wisdom (Shmoop Editorial Team). The Tyger and The Lamb are two completely different styles of poems yet it wouldn’t have the same affect on a reader if one poem didn’t exist.

The “Songs of Innocence” represents naïve hopes and fears that are consuming children’s thoughts. In general, Songs of Innocence contains idyllic poems, many of which deal with childhood and innocence. Idyllic poems have pretty specific qualities, in which they’re usually positive, sometimes extremely happy or optimistic and innoc...

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...ge and violence. Despite their differences they both seem to complement in all the ways needed. William Blake did a tremendous job of putting these two very opposite poems in unison and joining conflicting animals to create a new perspective on the world.

Works Cited

Pettinger, Tejvan. "Biography of William Blake", Oxford, UK www.biographyonline.net, 18 Apr. 2011

SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Songs of Innocence and Experience.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Web. 18 Apr. 2011

Shmoop Editorial Team. "The Lamb." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 18 Apr 2011.

Shmoop Editorial Team. "The Tyger Summary." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 18 Apr 2011

McCarty, Dennis. "The Tyger and The Lamb." liberal religion and life (2008): n. pag. Web. 18 Apr 2011. .

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