William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience
Trace how Blake’s thought develops from his poem ‘The Lamb’ and ‘The Tyger’ together-
“I have no name:
I am but two days old.”
What shall I call thee?
“I happy am,
Joy is my name.” Sweet Joy befall thee!” ’ The good character as well as the bad abstractions such as virtues and vices is framed up in symbols to elaborate their suggestiveness and implications. Blake’s symbology is too large and complex to be given in brief. His symbols help to express his visions which may be obscure to a common reader. Blake says: “Allegory is addressed to the intellectual powers, while it is altogether hidden from the corporeal. Understanding is my definition of the Most Sublime Poetry.” From this it is clear that in his view poetry is concerned with something else than the phenomenal world and that the only means of expressing it is through what he calls ‘allegory’. For Blake allegory is a system of symbols which presents events in a spiritual world.
“The modest Rose puts forth a thorn,
The humble Sheep a threatening horn;
White the Lily white shall in love delight,
Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright.”
Blake imagined himself under spiritual influences. He saw various forms and heard the voices of angels, fairies, kings of the past and even God; the past and future were before him and he heard in imagination, even the awful voice which called on Adam amongst the trees of the garden. In this kind of dreaming abstraction, he lived much of his life; all his s works are stamped with it. Though this visionary aspect explains much of the mysticism and obscurity of his work, it is also the element that makes his poems singular in loveliness and beauty. It is amazing that he could thus, month after month and year after year, lay down his engraver after it had earned him his daily wages, and retire from s the battle, to his imagination where he could experience scenes of more than-earthly splendor and creatures pure as
“I have no name:
I am but two days old.”
What shall I call thee?
“I happy am,
Joy is my name.” Sweet Joy befall thee!” ’ The good character as well as the bad abstractions such as virtues and vices is framed up in symbols to elaborate their suggestiveness and implications. Blake’s symbology is too large and complex to be given in brief. His symbols help to express his visions which may be obscure to a common reader. Blake says: “Allegory is addressed to the intellectual powers, while it is altogether hidden from the corporeal. Understanding is my definition of the Most Sublime Poetry.” From this it is clear that in his view poetry is concerned with something else than the phenomenal world and that the only means of expressing it is through what he calls ‘allegory’. For Blake allegory is a system of symbols which presents events in a spiritual world.
“The modest Rose puts forth a thorn,
The humble Sheep a threatening horn;
White the Lily white shall in love delight,
Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright.”
Blake imagined himself under spiritual influences. He saw various forms and heard the voices of angels, fairies, kings of the past and even God; the past and future were before him and he heard in imagination, even the awful voice which called on Adam amongst the trees of the garden. In this kind of dreaming abstraction, he lived much of his life; all his s works are stamped with it. Though this visionary aspect explains much of the mysticism and obscurity of his work, it is also the element that makes his poems singular in loveliness and beauty. It is amazing that he could thus, month after month and year after year, lay down his engraver after it had earned him his daily wages, and retire from s the battle, to his imagination where he could experience scenes of more than-earthly splendor and creatures pure as