Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience is a book of short poems in two halves. Songs of Innocence (1789) sees the world through a child’s trusting eyes; Songs of Experience (1794) sees the same world after that trust has been broken by poverty, cruelty and power. William Blake later bound them together as Songs of Innocence and of Experience, subtitled Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul. The best way in is to read the poems in pairs. Poetry Catalog has all of these William Blake poems, and this guide shows you where to start.
Short Answer
Start with the pair The Lamb and The Tyger. Then read the two Chimney Sweeper poems, the two Holy Thursday poems and the two Nurse’s Songs side by side. Finish with the great Experience poems London, A Poison Tree and The Sick Rose.
What the Two Contrary States Mean
Innocence is not simply good and Experience simply bad. Innocence is joyful, trusting and close to God and nature, but it can also be naive, easily exploited by adults who tell children to accept their suffering. Experience is bitter and suspicious, but it sees injustice clearly and names it. Blake believed both states were part of the human soul, and that a full vision needed both.
Blake did not publish the Songs in the usual way. He etched words and pictures together on copper plates, printed them himself and colored each copy by hand, so every surviving copy is slightly different.
Step 1: The Lamb and The Tyger
- The Lamb (Innocence). A child asks a lamb, “Little lamb, who made thee?” and answers that its maker is Christ, who “calls Himself a Lamb.” Gentle, simple and full of trust.
- The Tyger (Experience). “Tiger, tiger, burning bright.” The speaker asks what kind of creator could make such a fearsome animal, and finally: “Did He who made the lamb make thee?”
Read together, the two poems ask how the same God could make both gentleness and terror.
Step 2: The Paired Poems
- The Chimney Sweeper: Innocence and Experience. In Innocence a young sweep finds comfort in a dream of heaven. In Experience a child blames the parents, church and king who “made up a heaven of our misery.”
- Holy Thursday: Innocence and Experience. Charity children in St Paul’s Cathedral, first seen as a beautiful sight, then as evidence of a land where children go hungry.
- Nurse’s Song: Innocence and Experience. A nurse lets children play until dark; in Experience the nurse looks at them with envy and regret.
- Infant Joy and Infant Sorrow. A newborn greeted with delight, and a newborn struggling against the world from its first moment.
- The Divine Image and The Human Abstract. Mercy, pity, peace and love as divine qualities, then the same virtues shown as excuses that keep people poor.
Step 3: The Great Experience Poems
- London. A walk through the city’s “chartered” streets, finding “Marks of weakness, marks of woe” in every face.
- A Poison Tree. Hidden anger grows into a tree with a deadly apple.
- The Sick Rose. Eight lines about an “invisible worm” destroying a rose.
- The Garden of Love. A chapel built where the speaker once played, and priests binding joys and desires.
How to Read the Songs
Read the pairs side by side. Ask what changes between the Innocence and Experience versions: the speaker, the tone, who gets blamed.
Notice the simple forms. Blake uses nursery-rhyme rhythms and plain words. The gap between the light music and the dark subject is often the point.
Watch the speakers. Many poems are spoken by children, nurses or bards, not by Blake himself. A speaker’s innocence can be part of what Blake criticizes.
Look for church and state. Priests, kings and charity institutions appear again and again, usually in Experience, as forces that excuse suffering.
FAQ
What is the difference between Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience?
Innocence shows the world through trusting, joyful eyes. Experience shows it through bitter, knowing eyes that see injustice and hypocrisy.
When were Songs of Innocence and of Experience published?
Songs of Innocence in 1789 and Songs of Experience in 1794. Blake then issued them together as one book.
Which poems should I read first?
The Lamb and The Tyger, then the two Chimney Sweeper poems and London.
What does contrary states mean?
Two opposite conditions of the human soul, innocence and experience, which Blake saw as both necessary.
Why did Blake illustrate his poems?
Blake trained as an engraver and worked as a painter, and he saw words and images as one art. On each plate the pictures comment on the poem, sometimes softening it and sometimes making its meaning darker. Reading the Songs without the images is still rewarding, but the original plates add another layer.