Customer Reviews

Songs of Innocence and Experience: Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul, 1789-1794 (Worlds Classics)

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4 star:		(5)
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I was recently lucky to see the Gutenburg to Gone With the Wind Exhibit in Austin, Texas recently. At that marvelous exhibit I got to see one of Blake's original editions of Songs of Innocence. After that, I (of course) had to find a copy with the amazing poems and the amazing artwork by Blake. This edition satisfied both criteria well. First of all, the poems are brilliant. Everybody has read such works as "Little Boy Lost," "Little Boy Found," "The Shepherd," "The Lamb," and "The Tyger." These poems are just as good as they are made out to be. Each poem is excrutiatingly simple (in the style of children's verse), and each has such depth. The artwork is all in this edition, too, and it is fabulous. The colors are exactly like those of Blake's. I really think that the poems should never be read without Blake's engravings. This is a marvelous book for poetry lovers to own. It is high quality and affordable. Any fan of Blake's should own this book.

There are larger, more luxurious graphical editions of Blake's two most popular works but the Oxford SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE is perhaps the most affordable and convenient.

After a short introductory piece which makes the reader expect a pastoral mood, SONGS OF INNOCENCE opens with "The Shepherd", and the reader is immediately acquainted with Blake's style: deceptively simple, but filled with metaphor and allusion. Many of the poems speak of the solace of Christianity, but Blake shows a more universal and tolerant tranquility found through appreciation of simple human virtues. In "The Divine Image", he writes: "And all must love the human form, / in heathen, turk, or jew. / Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell, / there God is dwelling too."

Even within SONGS OF EXPERIENCE, the most pessimistic and cynical half, Blake maintains a his childlike style in order to bring the truth of human experience to anyone at all, young and old. In "A Poison Tree" he writes: "I was angry with my friend: / I told my wrath, my wrath did end. / I was angry with my foe: / I told it not, my wrath did grow", concisely summarising the effects of pride and ill-will on one's soul.

Blake was by profession an engraver, and his engravings for SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE are so closely bound to the text of the poems that a photocopy edition is really the only way to enjoy the poems as they were meant. In this paperback edition, the original engraving can be seen along side a typeset text, presented in a size large enough that the words can be relatively easily made out and, perhaps more importantly, the reader can see Blake's mythological characters. These personages, such as Urizen and Lothos, are key to understanding Blake's larger metaphysical work, for which the Songs present a good introduction.

This edition is especially valuable as it contains a photocopy of the engraving of "A Divine Image", a poem intended for SONGS OF EXPERIENCE which Blake subsequently left out because of its savage pessimism. The poem survives on an uncolored plate which is not found within many collections of the poet's work.

If you are intrigued by poets who transcend mere beautiful words to present a complete worldview, Blake is certainly worth reading. The Oxford Paperbacks edition is, in my opinion, the best place to get started with this deep and tricky, but fulfilling and fascinating poet.

While most people remember Blake for "Tyger, tyger, burning bright" and "Little Lamb, who made thee?" his other poems are wonderful as well. The point of the poems doesn't seem to be that aging brings experience, but that experience changes innocence, to some degree. For instance, the Chimney Sweep is about children who work as chimney sweeps but dream of heaven. Many of the poems have symbolic and religious meanings. The imagery is beautiful and poignant. I recommend Blake's poems to people who appreciate meaning and depth in poetry.

William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are both filled with amazing poetry. In Songs of Innocence, Blake reveals the true innocent and peaceful ways of a person's childhood. One of the most famous poems from this book is "The Lamb." This particular poem tells the story of a young boy asking an innocent lamb,"Who made thee?" "The Lamb" is religious and is very pleasant to read. Songs of Experience is a book filled with deceitful and cruel poems. The book's poems are based on the hardships of the "real" world. "The Tyger" is a famous poem from Songs of Experience. This is a contrary poem to "The Lamb." "The Tyger" also speaks of God the Creator of all things, but the poem has a dark theme and setting unlike "The Lamb." Songs of Innocence and Experience are two enjoyable works to read, and I would recommend them to anyone who enjoys poetry!

Sorry, all, I'm not much of a poetry fan. I like "Tyger," "Garden of Love," and a few others, but I can't add to the scholarship on his verse.

I am, however, fascinated by his use of relief etching in creating these pages. It's a rare process even now, and was revealed to Blake in a vision (plus a lot of painstaking experimentation). It's the process by which he shaped each letter, reversed, in the printing plate, plus much of the 'illumination' on each page.

The preface is vague and the reproduced images are hard to read, but Blake printed the lettering and line work on each page, then hand-decorated with watercolors. The preface says that Blake went on to create color printing processes, but what they were or whether they're used here is not explicit. I tend to think not, unless a few pages were printed with one or two more plates to emphasize the dark areas. If these illustrations really are true size, then inking on the plate would have been tedious, imprecise, and would not have given the results seen here.

There's much to say about his illustration. That includes an odd conflict, between figures fully drawn even under clothing and the androgyny or sexlessness of so many, an ambiguity that appears in the poems as well. I'll leave that commentary to others, though. The thing that impresses me about these editions is their artistic intensity. Each individual copy of the book was printed and decorated on demand, for a specific buyer. Blake had full control of every part of the creation, the words, images, and reproduction.

It is a rare mind that can master visual and verbal arts, both, then the craft of creating the book that carries them. Perhaps I miss parts of the presentation, but I very much admire the parts that I understand. Four stars because better reproduction would have served his visual art and craft much better.

//wiredweird

Beautiful facsimile of Blake's 1794 Songs of Innocence and Experience Showing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul. Orion Press/Trianon Press France 6 and 8 color offset press printing. Blue boards in Blue slipcover.

William Blake: The Complete Illuminated BooksBlake's Songs of Innocence and ExperienceBlake]]The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: A Facsimile in Full Color Beautiful, affordable copies of William Blake's originals.

Gorgeous poetry and illustrations by Blake. A must have for your library and a treasure to share with your children.

William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are both filled with amazing poetry. In Songs of Innocence, Blake reveals the true innocent and peaceful ways of a person's childhood. One of the most famous poems from this book is "The Lamb." This particular poem tells the story of a young boy asking an innocent lamb,"Who made thee?" "The Lamb" is religious and is very pleasant to read. Songs of Experience is a book filled with deceitful and cruel poems. The book's poems are based on the hardships of the "real" world. "The Tyger" is a famous poem from Songs of Experience. This is a contrary poem to "The Lamb." "The Tyger" also speaks of God the Creator of all things, but the poem has a dark theme and setting unlike "The Lamb." Songs of Innocence and Experience are two enjoyable works to read, and I would recommend them to anyone who enjoys poetry!

I bought this book for a friend's birthday. At home, I read it through, soon experiencing the shameful thought that I wanted to keep it for myself. I didn't keep it, but I quickly found my own copy.

Fool that I am, I have never appreciated poetry much. This book opened my eyes. I write this review in the hope that someone may be encouraged to read it, and experience the wonder that it brought to me.

No words can do justice to these poems. I just marvel at how such seemingly simple compositions could contain so much meaning. Blake cuts straight to the spiritual essence of human existence. There are very few books that I could say have deepened my faith in God. This is one.