Downfall of Human Spirit in William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience - Essay Example

Introduction William Blake, the of the Songs of Innocence and Experience has been regarded by the critics for his exceptional expression of ideas and being creative for the themes that he developed. Blake was influenced by various artists but still, he retained his originality as he was characterized by his works. Blake was incomparable indeed because of his masterpieces in poetry and paintings. As an English poet and a painter, Blake was considered to be an influential figure in the fields of visual arts and poetry during the romantic period. He produced a number of poetry which depicts the existence of human. He largely catered to the symbolic interpretations of his literary and made sense in understanding some aspects of the human soul. Of his works, it notably considered that Songs of Innocence and Experience made a great distinction between the contrary states of the human soul. Primarily, it is said that Songs of Innocence is different from the Songs of Experience which apparently combined and made as one. Songs of Experience is published in 1794 which is a poetry collection. It is the second book and some parts are moved to the first book which is the Songs of Innocence.1 Through the literary collection, the author contested the two books wherein on the Songs of Innocence, he showed the flourishing of human spirit with its freedom while on the other book, he showed the downfall of the human spirit after it had been forced to obey the rules. The beliefs of the author for freedom depicted his literary works such as opposing to the belief of the Anglican Church in suppressing thyself to the church’s beliefs. It is merely reflected to the book of Songs of Experience.2 Blake described the contrary of soul through the two books that signifies different themes for each. Discussion The first book, Songs of Innocence is comprised of poems that depict the innocence and happiness of the world that highlights freedom and love. It believes that being close to God means joy and enlightenment of the human soul. The author generally maintained a light theme in order to catch its readers that basically points out to children. One of the poems in the book is The Divine Image, where in Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love are the main topic. Accordingly, those are found in human with the presence of God. Through the faith to God, it is said that people can get joy and happiness that brings unity to each.3 Blake’s representation of the four virtues has been vital to the objects that cause human to be in a chaotic situation. But, this can be responded through the prayers and praise for God in order to feel comfort and receive God’s blessings. Although the poem was quite depicted in a darker side of tone, it conveys a message of taking God as the conclusion for the following virtues. Abstraction has been in the poem with the way Blake conceptualized his ideas of describing the other side of the human soul but is ended up in a clear and explicit identification of regarding a good way of life through freedom and enlightenment from God.4 The second book, which is the Songs of Experience, depicts the other side of describing the human soul. If the first book conveyed a light description of the human soul through abstractions of the four virtues, the second one is more on the experiences of human. And this largely attributes the dark side of the human soul. It apparently deals with the maturity of the descriptions in the first book where in innocence has been abruptly vanished through the experiences in the material world. Being exposed into the material world, it involves commitment of sins especially during the stage of discovering adulthood in a person’s life. Describing the ‘Two Contrary States of the Human Soul’ may mean a vital depiction for the author as he variedly distinguished the two books in an opposite manner. During his period, authors are seen to write in a contradicting way where in dualism is reflected in the form of the art.5 As such, the dark and light side are always included in the theme in order to clearly express their idealistic and creative interpretation of what they perceived. Dualism can be accounted for describing the contrary between the human souls as how Blake made a depiction on his poems. The poems in the second book significantly correspond to the poems in the first book as the result of losing innocence through the experiences that men have been exposed to. Blake used a strong back up for the human spirit as he catered to how it evolves around the maturity and stages until it commits a mortal sin in the second part of the book. The dualism showed the probabilities of adhering to the idea of criticisms between the acceptance, praises, suppressions and other important feelings that may arise in the human spirit. [Human] has the power to manipulate it and be able to control what acts [he or she] might do, hence it possesses two kinds of souls whether good or bad. This is what the author is trying to convey on the messages of his poem. Each and everyone is exposed to cruelty even the children. At the first stages of life where children seems to be as innocent as lambs, there comes a time that it matures and acquire the worldly possessions that will start to pollute the human brain as well as its thinking.6 Considering the dualism as the main focus of how Blake depicted the two contrary states of human soul, it can be compared to the ideas of philosophy and theology.7 It relates to how human apply God on its journey to life and the art of logical thinking. Poetry can be an instrument to connect different aspects of one’s life in order to comprehend to the changes that happen through discovering the essence of life. The style of Blake is not just centred to the abstraction of the important virtues that the human spirit needs in order to account for the probabilities of losing innocence throughout the experiences in the future, it also reflects hoe inseparable and important the contraries are. Accordingly, it is said that a development will not exist if there are no contraries or arguments on a particular topic. Just like describing heaven and in the latter part, hell will enter into the scene. The relationships between the contradicting ideas come in pair more often than not. It is a difficult task to explicitly describe the negative assumptions like what the author creatively wrote but it calls for the reality of dualism. Songs of Experience excellently acted as the counterpart of the Songs of Innocence, where the human soul is clearly defined with regard to the contrary state of the human soul.8 Conclusion Combing the innocence of human and experience results to the ‘contrary states of the human soul’ which is used by Blake in order to describe the two faces of a man. This is the nature of a man and the author is prompting the men to adhere to the following contraries as it occurs without any notice and no one can choose between the two states. The two contraries exist in pair and human spirit should know how to react to this kind of changes. Joy and happiness seem to be the perfect mood for the human spirit if faith and belief to God will be strengthen but still every joy accompanies sorrow that serves as God’s trial to test how strong the faith to him one has. The complexities of the experiences that human might have in life is the main influencer of having a matured thinking and where innocence starts to vanish as the person grows old. Songs of Innocence is the visualization of infancy where joy and happiness is the only tone depicted while the second book starts to visualize sorrows in life. Thus, Blake had a good grasped of what the realities of life presents in each stage of life just like how the experiences are nurtured by the human spirit. Blake, though, is also attempting to pursue having faith to God means joy and retaining this attitude could help human to develop spirituality. This can dissent negative effects of the experiences that humans might have. Word count: 1500 Bibliography Blake, W. "Songs of Innocence and of Experience." Magill Book Reviews. Salem Press, 1995. eNotes.com. 2006. [30 Mar. 2009] ‘Explanation of: “The Divine Image, From Songs of Innocence” by William Blake.’ LitFinder Contemporary Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2000. LitFinder. Gale. UNIV OF SOUTH ALABAMA. [accessed 30 Mar. 2009] Fairer, D. ‘Experience Reading Innocence: Contextualizing Blakes “Holy Thursday”’, Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 35, No. 4 (Summer, 2002), pp. 535-562 Hasted, N. “Songs of Innocence and Experience”, The Independent, (2000) [29 Mar. 2009] Hunter, P. ‘Songs of Innocence and of Experience’, Ariadne, 36 (2003), [accessed 31 Mar. 2009] Read More