Product Description

William Blake subtitled his Songs of Innocence and Experience 'Shewing Two Contrary States of the Human Soul'. His overall vision of the human condition is one where good and evil exist interdependently and this is an idea reflected in Blake's coloured engravings of the poems, examples of which are included in this collection. This edition has comprehensive notes on the poems and an Approaches section offering commentary and activities on key themes and techniques, such as Blake's political beliefs and the role of imagery within his poetry.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #164175 in Books
• Published on: 1990-10-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Customer Reviews

A must for all Blake fans
I was first introduced to Blake's art as an A'level art student and found his work to be beautiful and highly detailed. However at the time I did not fully appreciate the extent of Blake's tallent as I was somewhat unaware of his poetry. I bought this particular text on the advice of one of my tutors when studying degree English and I have to admit that he was correct when he stated that I would get more out of this beautifully illustrated copy than I would a standard copy of Blake's poems. The illustrations aid the readers understanding of the poems as well as show the works in their original forms. The illustrations lift the written word to greater heights and intensify the words of Blake. This is a must for any lover of Blake's work, and is also a fantastic introduction to both the poet and artist for those who know little if anything about William Blake.

Tyger, Tyger, burning bright...
Do forgive me if this review doesn't make much sense. I go all inexpressive when I try and put into words how brilliant I find Blake to be, you see. I shall keep it short and sweet - this book contains some of the greatest poetry ever written ("The Tyger", "The Little Boy Lost", "The Human Abstract", both versions of "Holy Thursday"... in fact I'm looking through the contents page of it at this moment and practically every one is truly memorable). Blake's paintings were, at times, phenomenal - the ones to accompany his poems, however, were sometimes comically childish (the tiger which stands underneath the poem of that name looks more like a child's stuffed toy). To see his best artwork, find it in the galleries in London.

I originally tried to find a nice, hardback, lavishly printed edition of this book with the prints all reproduced in the original size - then I discovered that this edition does, in fact, contain the originaly size prints - a suprise, because they're tiny. But unless you want to pay God knows how much (for they've not come on the market in my lifetime, as far as I'm aware - not that I could afford it) for one of the six surviving hand-printed-by-Blake-himself first editions, this is your next best bet. The introduction by Geoffrey Keynes is good as well, and if your interest in the man himself (Blake, not Keynes) is piqued, I recommend Peter Ackroyd's "Blake" - one of the best biographies or autobiographies I've read.

Just get this book. Read each poem in depth a million times and you still won't come close to getting every possible interpretation. Absolutely extraordinary.

William Blake? Yeah, he's pretty great
William Blake is one of the most influencial poets in history, and would make my list of top five poets ever any day of the week. 'Songs of Innocence and Experience' is his most famous and highly regarded set of poems, and rightly so too. 'Innocence and Experience' is unique in so far as there are a lot of poems with duplicate titles, but both poems will be from a completely different viewpoint, a different time in life; the poems from 'Innocence' will often reflect happiness and optimism etc, whereas the counterpart 'Expreience' poem will refelct completely the opposite, this allows Blake of course to make rather poignant comments on the corruption of innocence, as well as a lot of rather biting observations on 17th century society and in particular on the concept of organised religion, as whilst Blake himself was, and evidently from many of his poems is, a very religious man, but often makes clear statements out against the oppressiveness of the church. I would say the best poem for illustrating this is 'The Garden of Love,' which I consider one of his best poems. I would also draw attention the the 'experience' version of 'Little Boy Lost', which is as far as I'm concerned, the most powerful poem of all the one's in the collection.

But unlike someone like Milton, Blake's poetry is accessible to everyone, his style is by no means complex, and 'Songs of Innocence and Experience' is something that just about anyone can enjoy and at least get a feel for what the writer is trying to do. I urge you to buy this now.