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Essay / Analysis of Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience
AnalysisBlake's Songs of Innocence and Experience (1794) juxtaposes the innocent, pastoral world of childhood with an adult world of corruption and repression ; while poems like “The Lamb” represent gentle virtue, poems like “The Tyger” present opposing, darker forces. Thus, the collection as a whole explores the value and limits of two different perspectives on the world. Many poems are grouped in pairs, so that the same situation or problem is first seen through the prism of innocence and then of experience. Blake does not identify entirely with either of these views; Most poems are dramatic, that is, performed by a speaker other than the poet himself. Blake situates himself outside of innocence and experience, in a distanced position from which he hopes to be able to recognize and correct the errors of both. In particular, he opposes despotic authority, restrictive morality, sexual repression, and institutionalized religion; its great insight lies in how these distinct modes of control work together to stifle what is most sacred in human beings. The Songs of Innocence dramatizes the naive hopes and fears that inform children's lives and traces their transformation as the child grows into adulthood. . Some poems are written from the perspective of children, while others are about children seen from the perspective of adults. Many poems draw attention to the positive aspects of natural human understanding before the corruption and distortion of experience. Others take a more critical stance toward innocent purity: for example, while Blake paints touching portraits of the emotional power of rudimentary Christian values, he also expounds, so to speak, over the heads of the innocent , Christianity... ... middle of paper ...... the reference to the lamb in the penultimate stanza reminds the reader that a tiger and a lamb were created by the same God, and raises questions about the implications of this. It also invites a contrast between the perspectives of “experience” and “innocence” represented here and in the poem “The Lamb.” “The Tyger” is made up entirely of unanswered questions, and the poet leaves us speechless at the complexity of creation, the magnitude of God's power, and the inscrutability of divine will. The perspective of experience in this poem involves a sophisticated recognition of what is inexplicable in the universe, presenting evil as the prime example of something that cannot be denied, but which also does not resist easy explanation . The open fear of "The Tyger" contrasts with the easy confidence, in "The Lamb," of a child's innocent faith in a benevolent universe..