Back أغاني البراءة والخبرة Arabic Zpěvy nevinnosti a zkušenosti Czech Canciones de Inocencia y de Experiencia Spanish Songs of Innocence and of Experience French Az ártatlanság és a tapasztalás dalai Hungarian Söngvar sakleysisins og Ljóð lífsreynslunnar Icelandic Songs of Innocence and of Experience Italian 無垢と経験の歌 Japanese 순수와 경험의 노래 Korean Songs of Innocence and of Experience Malay

Songs of Innocence and of Experience

This article is about William Blake's poems. For albums by this name, see Songs of Innocence and of Experience (disambiguation).

Songs of Innocence and of Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul title page

Songs of Innocence and of Experience is a collection of illustrated poems by William Blake.[1] Originally, Blake illuminated and bound Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience separately.[2] It was only in 1794 that Blake combined the two sets of poems into a volume titled Songs of Innocence and of Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul.[1] Even after beginning to print the poems together, Blake continued to produce individual volumes for each of the two sets of poetry.[2]

Blake was also a painter before the creation of Songs of Innocence and of Experience and he engraved, hand-printed, and colored detailed art to accompany each of the poems in Songs of Innocence and of Experience.[3] This unique art helps tell the story of each poem, and was part of Blake's original vision for how each poem should be understood.[4] Blake was heavily inspired by children's literature and juvenile education in his creation of Songs of Innocence and of Experience, and his analysis of childhood as a state of protected innocence rather than original sin, but not immune to the fallen world and its institutions, would soon become a hallmark of Romanticism.[2][5]

Notably, there has been an abiding relationship between Songs of Innocence and of Experience and musical artists. Poems from the collection have been set to music by a variety of musicians, and band U2 titled two of their albums Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience in an homage to this volume.[6][7]

  1. ^ a b "Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy C, 1789, 1794 (Library of Congress): electronic edition". www.blakearchive.org. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  2. ^ a b c Leader, Zachary (11 August 2015). "Reading Blake's Songs". Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315675121.
  3. ^ Tate. "William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience". Tate. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  4. ^ Zhao, Sinan (19 April 2023). "The Comparison and Fusion of William Blake's Poetry and Paintings". Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences. 12: 78–82. doi:10.54097/ehss.v12i.7602. ISSN 2771-2907.
  5. ^ The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Age of Romanticism. Broadview Press. 2010. ISBN 978-1-55111-404-0.
  6. ^ Hutchings, Kevin (2007). "William Blake and the Music of the Songs". Romanticism on the Net (45). doi:10.7202/015815ar. ISSN 1467-1255.
  7. ^ Greene, Andy (20 September 2017). "Bono on How U2's 'Songs of Experience' Evolved, Taking on Donald Trump". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 16 February 2024.

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