Ans: Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are wonderful works of William Blake. Blake has shown two stages of human life in these collections of poems. Innocence and Experience are two contrary states of the human soul or of human life. Both are complementary to each other. They are essential for the existence of complete cycles of life.
In “Songs of Innocence”, Blake expresses the pure joys of childhood in complete harmony with God and Nature. But although the state of innocence is wonderfully charming, it can’t last long. This very state is the state of childhood, of simplicity, of undisturbed joy, of purity and virtue unclouded by the vices while the Experience is a state of viles and vices, of divisions and dissensions, of defilement and decadence, of corruption and the treachery, of cruelty and tyranny.
The poems in Blake’s “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience” show the emotional conflicts between two contrary states. In the “Songs of Innocence”, Blake expresses the happens and innocence of a child’s life whereas the poems in the “Songs of Experience” record the wounds and cruelties of the civilized world.
The poem “Introduction of “Songs of Innocence” deals with a piper who wants to sing the songs of innocence and happiness to make everyone happy. But in “Introduction” of “Songs of Experience”, the speaker is the Bard whose note is that of caution and worry. The piper’s point of view is prevailingly happy, he is conscious of the child’s essential divinity and assured of his present protection. Both the Piper and the Bard are singers but the Piper uses ‘mild and gentle numbers’ and the Bard more terrific tones.
The nurse in “Songs of Innocence” is a poignant contrast to the nurse in “Songs of Experience”. The nurse in the section on Innocence is very careful, kind, and generous. It is her duty to take the children home and protect them from the enclosing darkness. But she gladly allows the children to play more until they are tired, and satisfied, and till the sun sets. The nurse in the section on Experience on the contrary thinks that the children waste precious hour playing. She keeps a constant watch over the children and chides them. To her, life is aimless, a useless waste of time in childhood and in old age, a shame. Thus she offers a sharp contrast to the nurse in the section on Innocence.
The contrast between the lamb of Innocence and the tiger of Experience is vivid and striking. These two animals make us aware of two contrary qualities of the human soul. The lamb is a fit symbol of life-mild, innocent and beautiful, and to the mind which has experienced the disappointment, sorrows, and injustice of life. But the tiger is a fit symbol of restless, strong remorseless, and beautiful. The lamb symbolizes the soft aspects of life while the tiger symbolizes energy and vigor. The beauty of the lamb is mild whereas the tiger has terrific beauty. Because of the sharp contrast, the poet wonders whether the same God has created both these contrasting qualities of human life. The poet says —
“Did the God who made the lamb also made the tiger?”
“The Chimney Sweeper” of “Songs of Innocence” reflects the innocence and content of the chimney sweepers even when the conditions of their work were not satisfactory. For example, Tom, a chimney sweeper dreams of an Angel setting all the chimney sweepers free from the dungeons. The poet says —
“And by came an Angel who had a bright key
And he opened the coffins and set them all free.”
But no such deliverance takes place in “The Chimney Sweeper” of “Songs of Experience”. The poem reflects the pathetic outburst of the suppressed suffering of an innocent chimney sweeper.
In conclusion, we may say that in the opinion of Blake, innocence and experience are co-existent in human life. In both of these collections of poems, Blake expresses that life has to be looked at as a whole. There is no doubt to declare that the poems of Blake are illustrations of two contrary states of mind.