William Blake - Innocence represents the ideal state and experience represents the reality

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Abbie Taylor

‘Innocence represents the ideal state and experience represents the reality’. Discuss this statement in the light of the poems you have studied so far.

Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience juxtapose the innocent, pastoral world of childhood against an adult world of disappointment and corruption. Yet, the two contrasting states are never fully separated in his poems – suggesting it is not possible to be either innocent or experienced.

          The introduction to Songs of Innocence has a rural background and much pastoral imagery such as ‘valleys wild’. The piper, on the request of a child sitting on a cloud translates his music onto paper, in the form of poetry. Utensil he uses for writing is borrowed from nature (a reed), which reflects the close, ‘innocent’ relationship between music, poetry and nature. However, the poem is not entirely innocent, there is some reference to experience – the adult is experienced in knowing how to write. Yet this does not seem to prevent him from being innocent.

          The Shepherd has two stanzas. The first stanza reveals the idyllic state of innocence. Once again, it contains much pastoral imagery, and biblical symbolism, with the lamb and the shepherd, suggesting the human race is being looked after. However, the second stanza has a sense of foreboding. ‘He is watchful while they are in peace’ suggests that their peace is a temporary state – there is a threat of things changing. This indicates, that whilst innocence may seem like the ideal state, one cannot be innocent forever. Things will change, experience will come and with it will come the consequences of experience. Even a poem of innocence cannot hide away from this truth.

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          Infant Joy tells the story of a newborn – the best human representation of innocence. This child is free as he/she has not been named and therefore has not got a parent holding any kind of control over him/her. However, use of the negative sounding word ‘befall’ suggests that the world of experience, and thus the reality of constraint is inevitable, this is emphasised through the repetition of the word.

          The Ecchoing Green is written from the perspective a child and is an idyllic description of the state of innocence. ...

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