Songs of Innocence & Songs of Experience
William Blake
“Poet, painter, engraver, and visionary William Blake worked to bring about a change both in the social order and in the minds of men. Though in his lifetime his work was largely neglected or dismissed, he is now considered one of the leading lights of English poetry, and his work has only grown in popularity” (poetryfoundation.org). Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are collections of illustrated poems which explore childhood innocence, its threats, and the effect of being subject to the sins of the world.
Major thematic elements: childhood, loss of childhood, fear, social, political, and religious corruption
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IB Literature and IB Language and Literature Connections
Place of publication: England
Language: English
Era: 18th Century
Genre: Poetry
Author: Male
Readers, writers and texts | Time and space | Intertextuality: Connecting texts
Identity | Culture | Creativity | Communication
Perspective | Transformation | Representation
Full text, basic summaries, and overviews
Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience | Full text | Project Gutenberg
Read the full text and view the illustrated pages from Blake’s original printings.
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William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience | Tate Museum
This page presents images of the original text, the transcribed poem, a summary and analysis of the poem. 8 poems in total are examined, with links at the bottom of the page to additional Blake-related resources.
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Poems of William Blake — Full Audiobook - Songs of Innocence and of Experience & The Book of Thel | YouTube | Greatest Audiobooks | 55:10
See video description for time stamps for beginning of Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Time stamps for each poem are in the comments section. | Listen here
William Blake’s Songs of Innocence - Introduction | YouTube | Alan Tyler | 1:06 - 3:13 per poem
This playlist has audio for each poem posted separately. | Listen here
Songs of Innocence | Various Sources | Links to read the poems online
Songs of Innocence: Introduction, The Shepard, The Echoing Green, The Lamb, The Little Black Boy, The Blossom, The Chimney Sweeper, The Little Boy Lost, The Little Boy Found, Laughing Song, A Cradle Song, The Divine Image, Holy Thursday, Night, Spring, Nurse’s Song, Infant Joy, A Dream, On Another’s Sorrow
Songs of Experience: Introduction, Earth’s Answer, The Clod and the Pebble, Holy Thursday, The Little Girl Lost, The Little Girl Found, The Chimney Sweeper, Nurse’s Song, The Sick Rose, The Fly, The Angel, The Tyger, My Pretty Rose Tree, Ah! Sun-flower, The Lily, The Garden of Love, The Little Vagabond, London, The Human Abstract, Infant Sorrow, A Poison Tree, A Little Boy Lost, A Little Girl Lost, A Divine Image, A Cradle Song, To Tirzah, The School Boy, The Voice of the Ancient Bard
Songs of Innocence and of Experience | Study Guide | Course Hero
This study guide includes overview, context, characters, poem summaries, quotes, symbols and themes.
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Songs of Innocence and Experience | Study Guide | SparkNotes
This study guide includes summary and analysis of the most popular poems from both collections, key quotes, and a full book analysis.
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About the author
William Blake: British Writer and Artist | Britannica.com | Biography
This biography covers Blake’s life, including his visions of eternity, religion, career as an engraver and artist, last years and reputation and influence. This biography includes hyperlinks to other relevant pages on Britannica.com for students looking for more information.
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The William Blake Archive
This website archives Blake’s illuminated books, commerical book illustrations, separate prints and prints in series, drawings and paintings, manuscripts and typographic works, and works in preview. Images are high quality and viewers are able to zoom in to explore finer details within them.
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William Blake: The Misunderstood Artist of the 19th Century | Jeannie Campe, Minnesota State University | 2004 | Undergraduate Essay
This essay examines the “artistic vision of William Blake as well as his impact on literature.”
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Articles, essays, and videos about Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience
British Libraries | Articles related to William Blake
British Library’s Blake-related articles include an introduction to “The Tyger,” “Blake’s two chimney sweepers,” “Perceptions of childhood,” “William Blake and 18th-century children’s literature,” “William Blake’s radical politics,” and more.
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The Industrial Revolution in England | Various Sources
The Industrial Revolution | British Library | Article with images | Read more
Timeline of the Industrial Revolution | Historic-uk.com | Jessica Brain | Timeline with images | Read more
The Industrial Revolution: Crash Course European History #24 | CrashCourse on YouTube.com | 17:05 | Watch here
Chimney Sweepers | Various Sources
What It Was Like to Be a Chimney Sweeper in the Victorian Era | Weird History on YouTube | 10:36 | Watch here *note: at 6:13 the video discusses the prevalence of testicular cancer in chimney sweeps. Preview the video to determine if it’s a good fit for your class.
Chimney Sweeps and Climbing Boys | Historick-uk.com | Jessica Brain | Article | Read more
British Romanticism | Poetry Foundation
This short article introduces British Romanticism and links the works of prominent writers at the time including Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, and more.
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A Question of Identity: God and the Human Crisis in William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Songs of Innocence and Experience | The Corinthian, V. 19, A. 5 | Hannah R. Lindquist
In these works, “Blake explores traditional constructs and philosophies of good and evil challenging the status quo and criticizing the way that humankind treats their fellow men. Additionally, Blake points out errors in the man-made social and religious structures and institutions, and, the consequences—both good and bad—of these said structures and institutions.”
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A Psychoanalytic Reading of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience | Southern Illinois University Carbondale | Serenah Minasian
It’s possible that much of this paper will be to much for the average student, but Minasian does an excellent job contextualizing Blake’s history and writing and articulating what a psychoanalytic analysis entails. The paper is broken into sections: childhood (page 10), innocence (12), imagination/fantasy (14), dreams (16), and religion (19),
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Protective Pastoral: Innocence and Female Experience in William Blake’s Songs and Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market | Colby Quarterly V. 30, I.2 | June Sturrock
This essay looks at the way Blake and Rossett “seem to exploit fully the protective implications of pastoral in connection with the early stages of maturation” associated with childhood within the context of Romantic and Post-Romantic preoccupation with human development. This essay has great examples of how lines of text an be pulled from a larger work and closely examined in terms of word choice, allusion, historical context, and more.
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Of Politics in Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience | California State University, Northridge | Marc B. Goldstein | Masters Thesis
”This thesis examines the manner in which Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience expose the oppressive ideologies of British institutions by critiquing both the religious institution, as represented by the Church of England, and the political institutions, as represented by the British Monarchy and the Parliament.”
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Lesson plans and other teaching resources
Mr. Hoye’s IB Website | William Blake
This teacher website includes links to individual poems, lots of background information on Blake, and links to additional articles and websites.
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William Blake and the Industrial Revolution | Oak Teacher Hub
In this lesson, students are introduced to Romantic poetry, William Blake, the Industrial Revolution, his poem “The Chimney Sweeper” and related information about Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Robinson.
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William Blake’s “Chimney Sweeper” Poems and Industrial Age | climatescienceteaching.org
This website combines the analysis of poetry (including understanding background and context) with the environmental impact of the Industrial Revolution. Lessons are broken down into 15 minute chunks so you can choose the parts that are most valuable to you.
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Child Labor and Protest Poetry | California Educators Together | onelearningplatform.com
This lesson includes five activities and a summative assessment. Total time for lesson: 55 minutes.
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Blake Teaching Project | William Blake Reloaded | Teacher Website/Blog
This page includes instructional reflection on teaching William Blake and analysis of some of the poems. Also available is student analysis of poems including “Infant Joy,” “Infant Sorrow,” “Nurse’s Song” (both versions), “The School Boy,” and “The Chimney Sweeper.”
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Resources for Teaching Individual Poems
Songs of Innocence: Introduction, The Shepard, The Echoing Green, The Lamb, The Little Black Boy, The Blossom, The Chimney Sweeper (another option here, and another), The Little Boy Lost, The Little Boy Found, Laughing Song, A Cradle Song, The Divine Image, Holy Thursday, Night, Spring, Nurse’s Song, Infant Joy, A Dream, On Another’s Sorrow
Songs of Experience: Introduction, Earth’s Answer, The Clod and the Pebble, Holy Thursday, The Little Girl Lost, The Little Girl Found, The Chimney Sweeper, Nurse’s Song, The Sick Rose, The Fly, The Angel, The Tyger, My Pretty Rose Tree, Ah! Sun-flower, The Lily, The Garden of Love, The Little Vagabond, London (another version here), The Human Abstract, Infant Sorrow, A Poison Tree (another option here), A Little Boy Lost, A Little Girl Lost, A Divine Image, A Cradle Song, To Tirzah, The School Boy, The Voice of the Ancient Bard
How to Study Poetry | IB English Guys
The IB English Guys have a YouTube channel and a website with tons of great resources for studying poetry, and you don’t need to be part of an IB program to find them useful or valuable. We recommend starting with this video: “IB English: Lighting Up Poetry.” In the description box for the video, you’ll find links to the following documents: How to Read a Poem, Poetic Terms, SPEC FILMS Acronym for Breaking Down Poetry, and Tone and Mood Words. All of these resources are great and will give you a solid foundation for teaching or studying poetry by any writer.
The IB English Guys have several videos on poetry. We also like “IB English - Paper One - Poetry” and “IB English - Individual Oral - Zooming In 2.0 with Poetry.”
Annotating Poetry | Ms. Anderson
This Google Doc outlines ten steps to annotate a poem with five questions to answer after completing the annotation. Page 2 includes an example of what the annotation could look like.
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Shopping List
Texts and other resources you may find helpful.
As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience
(Dover Thrift Editions)
Paperback on Amazon.com
William Blake: Selected Poems
Oxford World's Classics
Paperback on Amazon.com
The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake:
With a new Forward and Commentary by Harold Bloom
Hardcover on Amazon.com
Selected Poems of William Blake
Penguin Classics
Paperback on Amazon.comBack to Browse by Title | Browse by Author
