Songs of Innocence and of Experience

First published together in 1794, William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience brings two contrasting visions of human life into a single, intricately imagined poetic world. The Songs of Innocence evoke childhood, pastoral beauty and the possibility of divine protection, while the Songs of Experience confront suffering, oppression, hypocrisy and the loss of innocence. Through deceptively simple lyrics, memorable figures such as the lamb and the tiger, and the contrasting voices of children, labourers and prophetic observers, Blake questions how society shapes the human spirit.

Subtitled “Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul”, the collection is central to Blake’s distinctive fusion of poetry, painting and spiritual philosophy. His illuminated books unite words and images in works of extraordinary imaginative freedom, challenging the institutions of church, state and industrial society while searching for a vision of human liberation. Both tender and unsettling, these poems invite readers to look beyond appearances and recognise the contradictions that exist within individuals and the world they inhabit.

From the book

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower”

— William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

On Songs of Innocence and of Experience

“Blake’s innocence has a quality that makes it poignant – its capacity to be blighted by society.” 

— Jean H. Hagstrum, literary critic