William Blake: Innocence and Experience Presentation

“Title page for Songs of Innocence” from Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy A, 1795 (British Museum)

"Title page for Songs of Experience" from Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy A, 1795 (British Museum)

Above are the original covers of the songs of innocence and experience. Blake makes a connection between innocence and children, and between experience and loss. Ideas of children and the concept of childhood changed greatly in the Romantic period. The concept of childhood as something that should be appreciated was a Romantic idea. The Romantic poets saw children as being the symbol of innocence and having a unique, important viewpoint because of their closeness to nature and not yet being affected by experience. They had not yet learnt to rationalize, so could see the world for what it really was and identify what was important. Whilst William Blake initially published Songs of Innocence on its own, he never published Songs of Experience on its own. This suggests that he believed that one cannot understand experience without first having innocence. Innocence can exist on its own, but experience is defined by the loss of innocence.

Blake handmade every copy of the Songs of Innocence and Experience published in his lifetime. Each book is unique. If we agree that the illustrations around a poem affect our reading of it, then the reading of a poem will differ slightly depending on the manuscript. With "Little Black Boy", The colors differ between each copy of the book which raises the question of whether Blake’s conception of race was changing with each etching he made. Also how is our reading of the poem affected by the images we see.

“Little Black Boy” from Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy A, 1795 (British Museum)

Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy B, 1789, 1794 (British Museum)

Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy C, 1789, 1794 (Library of Congress)

The concept of a future society, usually a heavenly one, in which inequalities are resolved, is very common of Blake in his Songs of Innocence. Blake focuses on the fact that Christ “became a little child,” suggesting that adults, men and women, must return to a childlike state to regain the innocence that was stripped away by the social cruelties of the world.

In this poem, the black child narrator speaks of a longing for validation from the white opposition. The line “but O! my soul is white,” conveys this longing and despair for recognition and understanding. This is seen again in the last line, “And be like him and he will then love me.” He is truly seeking the love of the white boy.    

The first two stanzas describe the past, stanzas 3-5 is the mother speaking in the present, and the last two stanzas are the black boys words that he will say to the English boy in the future. The poem progresses as a timeline from past (the learning), to the present (the lesson itself), and then to the future (the practical outcome of the lesson).

The equality of people is the main message of this poem – portrayed by the image of God creating the world; the sun in particular that shines and warms everyone – a readiness for the light and heat that is His love.

The poem has a sense of hopefulness in relation to the black boy envisioning a heaven where he is equal to the English boy when they are in heaven together. Not only does the little black boy lack “light” in regard to his skin color, even though he has accepted God, the poem gives a sense that his soul is automatically judged by others to not have a holy “light” or redemption, all based on the color of his skin. This slightly ties into slavery and racism; the superiority of whites – which Blake dissolves in his works with the idea that we will all be the same in the end.

In the third stanza, the mother tells her son that God lives, and gives his “light” and heat away to all things – nature and men alike. This is the point that Blake is trying to convey through the little black boy; although he is black, he is not excluded from God’s “light” and love. Once the little black boy learns to love himself, and their souls learn to bear the heat God gives, the cloud, like a shady grove, will disappear and they will hear Gods voice tell them to come from the grove and rejoice with him in His “light” and His love. 

Sources

Black, Joseph, ed. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature- The Age of Romanticism. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Pr, 2010. Print

"Songs of Innocence and Experience." Blake Archive http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/work.xq?workid=songsie&java=no