Assignment 2

In William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, Blake suggests contrasting ideas that result from innocence and experience, the elimination of innocence. Poems from Songs of Innocence such as The Chimney Sweeper and The Divine Image have counter parts from Songs of Experience, The Chimney Sweep and The Divine Image, respectively. Each pair of poems presents a different view of one topic.

In The Chimney Sweeper from Songs of Innocence, Blake explains that the lot of the little chimney sweeper was a hard one, “So your chimney’s I sweep and in soot I sleep…” It was very hard work but religion promised happiness and rest in the ever-after, “And the Angel told Tom if he’d be a good boy/ He’d have God for his father, and never want joy.” This line follows the general Christian belief that even if life is full of hardship now, the afterlife with God will make up for it. Even Karl Marx called religion the “opium of the people.” It inspired people to keep hustling and bustling through their humdrum lives. This is clearly shown through the line, “So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.” This line represents the idea that many people believed to be true; that God would provide if not now, then in the afterlife.

In the Chimney Sweep from Songs of Experience, Blake shows the reality of the situation. No matter how long, hard, or religiously you pray, it does not make life actually better. Your faith may sustain you and give you hope but it is more of a psychological trick of the mind not unlike the placebo effect. In this poem, even though the chimney sweep kept happy despite his hard life, his parents subjected him to an even hard life of ashes and soot. This is implied in the lines, “And because I’m happy and dance and sing/ They think they have done me no injury.” The parents of the little chimney sweep do not recognize the hardship being placed upon their child because he still dances and sings. They go to Church “And are gone to praise God and his Priest and King/ Who make up a heaven of our misery.” This implies that the heaven that these people are supposed to believe in comes from the misery in which they live.

The Divine Image from Songs of Innocence starts off by explaining that when things aren’t going the way we would like, we pray. We pray for Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love, among other things. These things are God. Blake says, “For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love/ Is God, our father dear…” In short, these virtues are the essence of God. These things are Man, too, “And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love/ Is man, his child and care…” These virtues are found in mankind because the belief is that we are created in God’s image and likeness. Here, Blake may be alluding specifically to God made Man, Jesus. Then Blake says that these four virtues are in the human makeup, too, when he says, “For Mercy has a human heart…” This can be interpreted two ways, either that mercy is a human creation or that while mercy is an inherent part of what it means to be “humane” it also is subject to the mentality a person carries. Then Blake says, “Pity has a human face.” We find ourselves pitying other when we look into the faces of those less fortunate that we, and if we have mercy in our hearts. Blake furthers this analogy with, “And Love, the human form divine.” Here, Blake could be referring to our calling to love others; to show it to those miserable cretins who lack love in their lives. He finishes this particular analogy with, “And Peace, the human dress.” This can be loosely interpreted as peace can be equated to our appearance, or body language. If we present ourselves in an open manner and in a positive light, peace will follow. God is the origin of these virtues that we can find in mankind, no matter whom or where we are because, “In heathen, turk, or jew, /Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell/ There God is dwelling, too.” This comes right from the Christian belief that God‘s spirit is in each and every one of us.

The Divine Image from Songs of Experience is a much shorter poem than its counterpart but is no less profound. Those vices, Cruelty, Jealousy, Terror, and Secrecy, which contrast with Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love, are also part of the human makeup. This new way of looking at the topic begins when Blake says, “Cruelty has a human heart.” Just as mercy dwells in the heart, so does, its antithesis, cruelty. Blake also says, “And Jealousy a human face.” We experience jealousy when we look into the face of someone more fortunate than we. Blake furthers the analog with “Terror the Human Form Divine.” This can be translated as the terror you feel in your heart (which is prone to drop into your stomach in the face of sheer dread) can be symbolized in one person, (i.e. For German Jews in the 1930s, Hitler was a terror). Although peace can be derived from openness in dress, dress also can hides which is indicated in the line, “And Secrecy the Human Dress.” It is what we fail to show that keeps us from one another. Blake also associates strong imagery with these four ideas and all allude to an inferno. These words are ones such as “fiery Forge,” “forged Iron,” “Furnace seal’d,” and “hungry Gorge.”

Innocence can sometimes be synonymous with ignorance. When you don’t know any better, things are easy; simple. Experience opens our eyes. It widens the tunnel we see our lives through. It broadens our horizons. Experience can eradicate innocence. If we allow innocence to be synonymous with purity, experience defiles us. It soils our clean and clear cut view of the world and the people whom we share it with.

As children, we are relatively innocent. We act out of selfish cause-and-effect logic. We never mean to harm anyone. Decisions are black and white. As far as moral complexities are concerned, one thing is good the other is bad. Life is easy.

On the contrary, as we grow up and experience more of life, we lose our innocence. We are able to see the far reaching effects of our actions and other’s actions and how they affect us. Lines cross, become blurry, or simply disappear. We become aware of the vast expanse of gray between the black and white of a situation. Moral complexities are very present and leave you with complexes. Nothing is really as it seems.