IndexIntroductionIntroduction to Songs of Innocence: AnalysisSongs of Experience: Introductory SummaryConclusionWorks CitedIntroductionWilliam Blake's collection of illuminated poems in Songs of Innocence and of Experience describes, how The title page explains "the two contrary states of the human soul" (Blake 1). Although Songs of Innocence, written in 1789, was made five years before Songs of Experience, both collections read as autonomous works of printmaking and poetry; however, the second work was created to accompany the first. The companion poems of Songs of Innocence and of Experience establish a distance between the dissimilar states of pure innocence and world-consumed experience. Blake's enlightened poems, "Introduction" to both Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, feature a speaker whose inspirations, themes, and tones highlight the dichotomy between the soul states of innocence and experience. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayIntroduction to Songs of Innocence: AnalysisBlake's use of trochaic tetrameter in his "Introduction" to Songs of Innocence produces a sing-song rhythm similar to that of children's songs that gives the poem a tone of childlike innocence. The Piper, Blake's speaker, begins the poem "Piping down the Valleys Wild", a pastoral scene that reveals the speaker as one unified with the natural world. The "wild valleys" and "songs of pleasant joy" are lawless and unconstrained by social systems and structures, placing the piper in the state of innocence described by S. Foster Damon as "free, for he needs no laws ". , because he is unsophisticated, he enjoys the most spontaneous communion with nature, readily perceiving the divine in all things". From this point of view of pastoral innocence the Piper draws inspiration. A child laughing on a cloud, an otherworldly symbol of innocent joy, asks the speaker to "play a song about a lamb." once the song for the child who reacts to the speaker's efforts with tears of joy. The tears elicited from the ethereal child at the Piper's second recitation represent a reaction of pristine innocence to the song of Christ's mercy Implicit in the Piper's song on 'Lamb, the redemption of humanity through Christ, is the notion of original sin and the loss of innocence. The joyful tears of the child, in a sense, oppose the crying in the Introduction of Songs of Experience, but also predict. mourning for lost innocence and gained experience. Serving as a muse, the child on the cloud exhorts the speaker to "write in a book for all to read," the happy song in the name and from the standpoint of spotless innocence. The "hollow reed" and "rural pen", to which the Piper refers, serve as pastoral symbols for Blake's engraving tool, the burin, used in making the plates from which Songs of the innocence and experience. Watercolors were used by Blake to paint his prints, so the Piper "stained the clear water", as he transcribed his "happy songs / Every child may be happy to hear them". The innocence presented by Blake in his vision of the child in pristine nature translates through the artist's tools and onto the page, creating a group of poems written from the perspective of an innocent soul. Songs of Experience: Introductory Summary"Introduction" in Songs of Experience sets a very tonedifferent. While “Introduction” to Songs of Innocence shows the Piper finding inspiration for his poems from the meek demands of an angelic child's song, the “Introduction” in Songs of Experience begins with the speaker asking, “Hear the voice of the Bard! / Who Sees Present, Past and Future". Unlike the state of innocence in which present joys remain a singular concern, the Bard sees past events, present reactions, and possible futures. The Bard's voice differs from the Piper's descriptive tones and takes on an imperative quality signifying the desire to find meaning and create change in the chaos of experience. Instead of composing a song about a lamb, the Bard actually "heard / The Holy Word / That walked among the ancient trees", a direct reference to God seeking out Adam and Eve after they committed original sin. Northrop Frye indicates that "the 'Bard' is thus found in the tradition of the Jewish prophets, who draw their inspiration from Christ as the Word of God." Inspired by the word of God and "crying in the evening dew," the Bard's lament about the fall of humanity contrasts with the child's innocent cries of joy to the song about Christ. "Calling the lapsed Soul," the Bard hopes to inspire all human souls to overcome their fallen state and exercise the power of the imagination allowing man to "control / The starry pole, / And the fallen, fallen light renew itself." Where Blake celebrates his vision of innocence in the Introduction to Songs of Innocence, the Bard of Experience mourns humanity's first departure from innocence into the abyss of fragmentation that separates humanity from God and man from humanity man. Inspired by the voice of God, the Bard calls to the earth: Arise from the dewy grass; The night is spent, And the morning arises from the sleeping mass. The "sleeping mass" to which the Bard refers constitutes both the earth and humanity enveloped in the infinite chaos of fragmentation and separation from God. The "Night" has lasted since in the Old Testament when God cursed humanity and separated earth from God and will persist until the Bard's commands for the souls of humanity are resurrected from their material prisons with the dawn of a new post-apocalyptic millennial era, the "morning." Frye concludes that "the fallen light, [.. .] is the alternation of light and darkness of the world we know, the unfallen light would be the eternal light of the City of God"; thus "the prophet sees in every dawn the image of a resurrection that will elevate the world to a completely different state of being." The Bard implores both earth and man to resurrect from their fallen fragmented forms and to achieve, through the awakening of the imagination, a higher state of proven innocence. The "fallen soul", which remains ensconced in the state of experience, binds itself within the earthly sphere. material kingdom circumscribed by the "starry floor" and the "watery shore". These boundaries inhibit man's ability to transcend the material realm of experience and reunite the fragmented segments of human experience with “the dawn,” ending the cycle of light and darkness and ushering in the new millennial era in which God and all men are once again united together in love and understanding. Songs of Innocence and of Experience presents poems in the form of illuminated panels, adding an artistic depth to the lyrics themselves through the decorations' contribution to the theme of the poems. The "Introduction" in Songs of Innocence features text decorated on both sides with images "derived from a medieval manuscript illustrating the Tree of Jesse" (Keynes 132-3), showing Christ's genealogical descent from David, the son of Jesse. Blake's song in the opening version of the "Introduction" is about Jesus, making Christ's lineage a backdrop>.