William Blake (1757-1827)

Song of Innocence (1789

Song of Experience(1794)

Blake use of symbols, imagery and concerns in his poetry.

Symbol
 Lamb: Symbol of Jesus, innocence, ‘mild’ and ‘meek’. Lamb connects religion to human
and natural world.
 Pastoral Life: the pastoral paradise of ‘The Lamb’ away from the industrial furnace of
‘The Tyger’.
o Associated with innocence and serenity of simple life.
o pastoral represents freedom and innocent unmarred by nature, welcoming friendly
 Christianity:

Concerns
 Blakes poetry as a response to the collapse of traditional values in the 18 th century.
 Amalgamation of energy, poetry, God as the form of eternal innocence.
 Enslavement of imagination by reason as experience.
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