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William Blake's Songs Of Experience: Poetry Analysis

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Many of the poems in William Blake’s ‘Songs of Innocence’ and ‘Songs of experience’ are in a dramatic format. He uses the voice of an unknown speaker rather than using his own voice as the poet himself. Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience contrast largely against each other. One represents the voice of the children and the world of childhood, while the other symbolises the socially corrupt world. It almost appears in Blake’s songs, that the child is instructing the adults and in some ways it seems as if he uses the voice of a child as a mouthpiece to represent what the adults are really thinking. It is strongly represented in his poetry, that Blake wishes the children to have a voice and so, he enables them to be heard. This can be seen in “The Chimney Sweep (innocence)”, which I plan to discuss in this essay. “In Blake’s poetry, the child’s voice, …show more content…

Writing at a moment of cultural transition in the attitude to children, Blake’s poetic representation of a child’s subjectivity still has residues of adult authoritarianism.” (Lecture Notes, Dr Bobata Faragó, 2014). The poem “Holy Thursday” (experience), is an example of this. The cultural aspect of children is also to be seen in “The Little Black Boy”, which I will also discuss. The representation of the child’s voice in Blake’s poetry, in my opinion, make the poems seem more real and have more of an impact on the reader. Reading a poem that states harsh realities effects the reader but when these realities or situations are being narrated by a child, it has an even bigger effect on the reader. In the poem The Chimney Sweeper (innocence), the voice of the child appears harsh. Blake worked in a time of great change in social and political affairs, this has profoundly influenced his writing (www.poetryfoundation.org as

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