William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Task and instructions
Your teacher will give you a pair of Blake’s poems to work on (one poem
will be from ‘Songs of Innocence’ and the other will be from ‘Songs of
Experience’).
Think about and make notes on the following questions, with a view to
feeding your ideas back to your class.
 Which poem is innocence and which is experience? How do you know?
Jot down some notes or annotations to help you.
 Do the illustrations add to the poems or detract from them? What
ideas do the illustrations give?
 Compared to the poems you’ve studied in previous weeks, do you
prefer these or find them less interesting/accessible? Who is your
favourite poet or poem from this unit so far? Why?
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 1 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Plate 24, "The Lamb" (Bentley 8), 1789 to 1794
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1667987
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 2 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
The Lamb
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
By the stream & o'er the mead:
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Little Lamb I'll tell thee,
Little Lamb I'll tell thee;
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb.
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb God bless thee.
Little Lamb God bless thee.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 3 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Plate 42, "The Tyger" (Bentley 42), 1794
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1667389
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 4 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
The Tyger
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!
When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 5 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Plate 4, “Introduction” (Bentley 4), 1789 to 1794
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1668006
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 6 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Introduction
Piping down the valleys wild
Piping songs of pleasant glee
On a cloud I saw a child.
And he laughing said to me.
Pipe a song about a Lamb;
So I piped with merry chear.
Piper, pipe that song again –
So I piped, he wept to hear.
Drop thy pipe thy happy pipe
Sing thy songs of happy chear,
So I sung the same again,
While he wept with joy to hear
Piper sit thee down and write.
In a book that all may read –
So he vanish’d from my sight
And I pluck'd a hollow reed.
And I made a rural pen,
And I stain’d the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs,
Every child may joy to hear.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 7 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Plate 34, “Introduction” (Bentley 30), 1794
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1667382
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 8 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Introduction
Hear the voice of the Bard!
Who Present, Past, & Future sees
Whose ears have heard,
The Holy Word,
That walk'd among the ancient trees.
Calling the lapsed Soul
And weeping in the evening dew:
That might control.
The starry pole:
And fallen fallen light renew!
O Earth, O Earth return!
Arise from out the dewy grass:
Night is worn,
And the morn
Rises from the slumberous mass.
Turn away no more:
Why wilt thou turn away
The starry floor
The watry shore
Is giv'n thee till the break of day.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 9 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Plate 28, “Infant Joy” (Bentley 25), 1789
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1667377
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 10 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Infant Joy
I have no name
I am but two days old –
What shall I call thee?
I happy am
Joy is my name –
Sweet joy befall thee!
Pretty joy!
Sweet joy but two days old.
Sweet joy I call thee;
Thou dost smile
I sing the while
Sweet joy befall thee.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 11 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Plate 39, “Infant Sorrow” (Bentley 48), 1789 to 1794
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1668005
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 12 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Infant Sorrow
My mother groand! My father wept.
Into the dangerous world I leapt:
Helpless, naked, piping loud:
Like a fiend hid in a cloud
Struggling in my fathers hands:
Striving against my swaddling bands,
Bound and weary I thought best:
To sulk upon my mother’s breast.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 13 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Plate 7, “The Chimney Sweeper” (Bentley 12), 1789 to 1794
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1668025
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 14 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
The Chimney Sweeper
When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry ‘weep!’ ‘weep!’ ‘weep!’ ‘weep!’
So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.
There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,
That curled like a lamb’s back, was shav’d, so I said,
Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare,
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.
And so he was quiet, and that very night,
As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight!
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack,
Were all of them lock’d up in coffins of black.
And by came an angel who had a bright key
And he opened the coffins and set them all free.
Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,
And wash in a river and shine in the Sun.
Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind.
And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
He'd have God for his father, and never want joy.
And so Tom awoke and we rose in the dark,
And got with our bags and our brushes to work.
Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm,
So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 15 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Plate 41, "The Chimney Sweeper" (Bentley 37), 1789 to 1794
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1668008
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 16 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
The Chimney Sweeper
A little black thing among the snow,
Crying ‘weep!’, ‘weep!’ in notes of woe!
Where are thy father and mother? say?
They are both gone up to the church to pray.
Because I was happy upon the heath.
And smil'd among the winter's snow:
They clothed me in the clothes of death.
And taught me to sing the notes of woe.
And because I am happy & dance and sing.
They think they have done me no injury:
And are gone to praise God and his Priest & King,
Who make up a heaven of our misery.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 17 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Plate 10, "Holy Thursday" (Bentley 19), 1789 to 1794
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1667970
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 18 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Holy Thursday
Twas on a Holy Thursday their innocent faces clean
The children walking two & two in red & blue & green
Grey headed beadles walkd before with wands as white as snow,
Till into the high dome of Pauls they like Thames waters flow
O what a multitude they seemd these flowers of London town
Seated in companies they sit with radiance all their own
The hum of multitudes was there but multitudes of lambs
Thousands of little boys & girls raising their innocent hands
Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song
Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of Heaven among
Beneath them sit the aged men wise guardians of the poor
Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 19 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Plate 38, "Holy Thursday" (Bentley 33), 1794
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1667386
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 20 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Holy Thursday
Is this a holy thing to see,
In a rich and fruitful land,
Babes reducd to misery,
Fed with cold and usurous hand?
Is that trembling cry a song?
Can it be a song of joy?
And so many children poor?
It is a land of poverty!
And their sun does never shine.
And their fields are bleak & bare.
And their ways are fill'd with thorns.
It is eternal winter there.
For where-e’er the sun does shine,
And where-e'er the rain does fall:
Babe can never hunger there,
Nor poverty the mind appall.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 21 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
The Blossom
Merry Merry Sparrow
Under leaves so green
A happy Blossom
Sees you swift as arrow
Seek your cradle narrow
Near my Bosom.
Pretty Pretty Robin
Under leaves so green
A happy Blossom
Hears you sobbing sobbing
Pretty Pretty Robin,
Near my Bosom.
Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Plate 20, "The Blossom"
(Bentley 11), 1789 to 1794
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1667983
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 22 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
The Sick Rose
O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm.
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret
love
Does thy life destroy.
Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Plate 48, "The Sick Rose"
(Bentley 39), 1789 to 1794
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1668016
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 23 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Songs of Innocence, Plate 22, "Nurse's Song" (Bentley 38), 1789
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1667953
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 24 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Nurse’s Song
When the voices of children are heard on the green,
And laughing is heard on the hill,
My heart is at rest within my breast,
And everything else is still.
Then come home my children, the sun is gone down,
And the dews of night arise
Come, come, leave off play, and let us away
Till the morning appears in the skies.’
No no let us play, for it is yet day
And we cannot go to sleep
Besides, in the sky, the little birds fly
And the hills are all cover’d with sheep
Well well go and play till the light fades away
And then go home to bed
The little ones leaped & shouted & laugh’d
And all the hills echoed.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 25 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Plate 37, "Nurses Song" (Bentley 38), 1794
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1667385
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 26 of 27
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Comparing pairs of poems
Nurse’s Song
When the voices of children are heard on the green,
And whisperings are in the dale,
The days of my youth rise fresh in my mind,
My face turns green and pale.
Then come home, my children the sun is gone down,
And the dews of night arise;
Your spring & your day are wasted in play:
And your winter and night in disguise.
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
22864
Page 27 of 27