William Blake Research Paper

There has been a long running psychological argument throughout time of whether or not humans are innately good. Are humans born neutrally but later influenced by their environments? Or are they strictly born good or evil? William Blake, an English poet born in 1757 and died in 1827, first published Songs of Innocence in 1789 and Songs of Experience in 1794, presenting a juxtaposition between innocence, purity, and virtue with maturity, immorality, and corruption. Blake takes a more unconventional method of producing his works, etching art alongside with his poetry. With his illustrations, not only does the reader gathering information from the poem itself, but they also gain another dimension through the art. William Blake’s poems use imagery …show more content…
The poem consists of a piper, “piping songs of pleasant glee” to a child (4). The poem overall has a very relaxing and innocent tone. Visually, the illustration could be seen as taking place sometime during the day. In contrast to the introduction to the Songs of Experience, where it immediately starts the poem with “Hear the voice of the Bard!” (30). Wherein the introduction to the Songs of Innocence had a very calm and childish tone, the introduction to the Song of Experience sounds very harsh and almost demanding. Visually, the illustration takes place during night, with stars in the background. This could be symbolic in numerous ways. One way it could be symbolic is that the time of day is visually changing, wherein the introduction of Songs of Innocence takes place during the day and had characters such as a child, in the introduction of Songs of Experience, it is night time and it consists of only one, serious, entity speaking in the poem. This progression and passage of time is akin to the growth of an individual. The morning is the beginning, characterised as a child, innocent in tone and lots of time to play or pipe a cheery tune, whereas the night is the result of the passage of time, grown up, short on time, and the need to be heard. This is the first deposition of William Blake’s work that can be seen that shows that the through the passage of time, there is a change to be seen in the attitude of the

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