Selections from

William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience

for ENG 234

Copy AA

Copy C

Introduction

Blake first published Songs of Innocence in 1789, a collection of 23 short poems that he not only wrote but also illustrated himself. Although ostensibly a collection of poems for children, Blake's Songs raise challenging theological, philosophical, social, and political questions, and from the beginning they were read by adults as well as children. Over the next few years, Blake also composed Songs of Experience, a companion volume to Innocence containing another 21 poems (or so), and beginning in 1794, he most often published the two collections together in a single volume, as Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Showing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul.

There are a few important things you should know before reading these poems. First of all, every copy of these poems was originally printed and illustrated by hand, and Blake took advantage of this opportunity to make every copy unique, reordering the sequence of the poems nearly every time, moving some poems back and forth between the Innocence and Experience sections, making changes to the printed text and illustrations by hand, and coloring each printing differently, and often radically differently, in every single copy. This means that there is no single definitive edition of the Songs, and thus each of the few dozen surviving copies of Innocence and Experience presents a unique reading experience and carries unique meanings.

Secondly, we should acknowledge that, unlike most canonical poetry, Blake's poems employ their illustrations as a vital component of their meaning, not merely as decoration, and so it is important that the poems be read in conjunction with their "illuminations" to understand them adequately. I've included an illuminated version with each poem below that I've borrowed from the incredible William Blake Archive, so that you can see how the text of the poems interacts with their illustrations. I've also created a second page here that selects illuminated pages from alternate copies of the Songs so that you can see how these poems vary from copy to copy.

Thirdly, many — though by no means all — of the poems in Experience are written as "companion pieces" to poems in Innocence, and to facilitate comparison between these companion pieces, I have decided to lay them out below in two columns so that they might be read side by side. This, by the way, is entirely my editorial choice, and not Blake's: he groups all of the Innocence poems first and then all of the Experience poems second. In any case, you can choose to read all of the Innocence poems (on the left) first and the Experience poems (on the right) second, or else you can alternate between them if you prefer. But do make sure that you give some thought to: a) how the Innocence poems are related to one another; b) how the Experience poems are related to one another; and c) how the Innocence poems are related to the Experience poems, since this relationship of Innocence and Experience is what we're going to focus on in class.

Lastly, I decided to modernize and regularize Blake's spelling and punctuation in my transcriptions to make it easier for you to get at his meaning. Normally I'd object to this sort of thing, since the ambiguities and the difficulties of Blake's language are an important feature of these poems, but since we're only taking a brief look at Blake, I made it a priority to make this material as accessible as possible for you.

Above all: enjoy!

-- Rob

 

 

Copy C

Copy C

Copy AA

Copy F

"Introduction" [to Innocence]

Piping down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me,

"Pipe a song about a Lamb!"
So I piped with merry cheer.
"Piper pipe that song again!"
So I piped; he wept to hear.

"Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;
Sing thy songs of happy cheer!"
So I sung the same again,
While he wept with joy to hear.

"Piper sit thee down and write
In a book that all may read!"
So he vanished from my sight,
And I plucked a hollow reed,

And I made a rural pen,
And I stained the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear.

Copy L

"Introduction" [to Experience]

Hear the voice of the Bard!
Who Present, Past, and Future sees;
Whose ears have heard
The Holy Word
That walk'd among the ancient trees,

Calling the lapsed Soul
And weeping in the evening dew;
That might controll
The starry pole
And fallen fallen light renew!

O Earth, O Earth, return!
Arise from out the dewy grass!
Night is worn
And the morn
Rises from the slumberous mass.

Turn away no more:
Why wilt thou turn away?
The starry floor,
The watry shore,
Is given thee till the break of day.

Copy Z

"The Lamb"

Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life and bid thee feed
By the stream and o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?

Little Lamb, I'll tell thee;
Little Lamb, I'll tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek and he is mild;
He became a little child.
I a child and thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb, God bless thee;
Little Lamb, God bless thee!

Copy L

"The Tyger"

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat
What dread hand? and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

 

Copy Z

"The Echoing Green"

The Sun does arise
And make happy the skies;
The merry bells ring
To welcome the Spring;
The sky-lark and thrush,
The birds of the bush,
Sing louder around
To the bells cheerful sound;
While our sports shall be seen
On the Ecchoing Green.

Old John with white hair
Does laugh away care,
Sitting under the oak
Among the old folk.
They laugh at our play
And soon they all say,
"Such such were the joys
When we all, girls and boys,
In our youth-time were seen
On the Ecchoing Green,"

Till the little ones, weary,
No more can be merry.
The sun does descend
And our sports have an end.
Round the laps of their mothers,
Many sisters and brothers,
Like birds in their nest,
Are ready for rest,
And sport no more seen
On the darkening Green.

Copy AA

"The Garden of Love"

I went to the Garden of Love
And saw what I never had seen:
A Chapel was built in the midst
Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And "Thou shalt not..." writ over the door,
So I turned to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore,

And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be,
And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys and desires.

Copy Z

"The Chimney Sweeper" [from Innocence]

When my mother died, I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry, "Weep weep weep weep!"
So your chimneys I sweep and in soot I sleep.

There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head
That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved. So I said,
"Hush Tom, never mind it! For when your head's bare,
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair."

And so he was quiet, and that very night
As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight
That thousands of sweepers —Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack —
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black;

And by came an Angel, who had a bright key,
And he opened the coffins and set them all free.
Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing, they run
And wash in a river and shine in the Sun.

Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind.
And the Angel told Tom if he'd be a good boy,
He'd have God for his father and never want joy.

And so Tom awoke and we rose in the dark
And got with our bags and our brushes to work.
Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm:
So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.

Copy Z

"The Chimney Sweeper" [from Experience]

A little black thing among the snow,
Crying "Weep, weep" in notes of woe!
Where are thy father and mother? Say?
"They are both gone up to the church to pray."

"Because I was happy upon the heath,
And smiled among the winter's snow,
They clothed me in the clothes of death,
And taught me to sing the notes of woe."

"And because I am happy, and dance and sing,
They think they have done me no injury,
And are gone to praise God and his Priest and King
Who make up a heaven of our misery."