In William Blake??™s Songs of Innocence and Experience, he contrasts the innocent, peaceful world of childhood against the world of corruption and impurity of adulthood. Blake is showing us two different perspectives on the world??™s value and limitations. Most of the poems that he written were set up as pairs, so the same situation or problem is seen in the eyes of the innocence first and then experienced. For example, ???The Chimney Sweeper???, it is seen by the innocent child but later, we see it again in the Songs of Experience with a different perspective in life of a chimney sweeper.
The Songs of Innocence dramatizes the naive hopes and fears of the children and the transformation of the child growing into adulthood. Some of the poems are written in the perspective of the children and others are about the children but in the adult??™s perspective. Many of these poems attract the positive aspects of nature human understanding the corruption and impurity of experience. In the Song of Innocence??™s ???The Chimney Sweeper, we have a corrupted society but we are given innocent purity thoughts for the character and speaker. In this poem, the main speaker is a small boy who was sold into the chimney sweeper business when his mother died. The speaker is telling the story of a chimney sweeper by the name of Tom Dacre. It starts off with Tom having a dream that the entire chimney sweepers are ???lock??™d up in coffins of black??? (169) and then an angel comes to release them from the coffins. Tom Dacre is given a message from the angel, if he is a good boy than the angel will lead him to his own paradise. In this poem, we see that the boys are suffering from the terrible life of a chimney sweeper. We are given the idea if the boys do the work that they are supposed to that they will get to their own paradise when they die. We have moved away for this era, have seen that what the society has done to these children has made them believe that what they are doing is okay because they have a better future in their afterlife. All these children know that they are going to have it good when they are done, they don??™t know that what they are doing is that humanity acceptable in the society of the 21th century. But we are seeing is hope of find paradise and fear of being locked in a black coffin or chimney for the rest of their life.
The Songs of Experience works parallel and contrasts to lament the ways in which the harsh experiences of adulthood destroyed what was good and innocence which weaken the innocent perspective that Blake create in the Songs of Innocence. In these poems, we are confronted with repressive effects of jealousy, shame, and secrecy, which ends up corrupt the only innocent love that is left. In the Songs of Experience??™s ???The Chimney Sweeper???, we see a different perspective but similar situation. In this poem, the speaker is the boy but also giving different point of views. The poem starts with the boy crying in front of a church. When he is asked where is parents are and he answers by saying, ???They are both gone up to church to pray??? (179). His parents are praying like they have done no wrong to him that they put him in the chimney sweeping business because he was happy and that he is not emotionally damage from their decision. The child has just experience the different of poverty and riches. The child believes that God will create some vision of paradise for him although he won??™t live to see adulthood. The boy is the only innocent thing in the poem but makes it more of an experience is that the child knows what going on and feels ashamed for himself. The innocence is slow fading away because the child is not truly happy but faking how he trust feel to pleased his parents.
The Songs of Innocence and Experience gives you wonderful examples of different perspective of life and experience of the adulthood. Blake gives us two different poems with the same situation but with different perspective. William Blake show extraordinary contrasts of the innocent, purity world of children against the corrupt, little of any innocents of the world of adulthood.
