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Art and literature is widely considered a valued part of all types of society regardless of where you come from. Both can express the sentiments of an age, idea, or movement which is something William Blake sought to do. As a young boy, Blake was sent away to study art and later used it as a way to enhance his literary works such as Songs of Innocence and of Experience. William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are representative of the author’s personal development as well as commentary on the early Victorian crimes against the most vulnerable population.

Songs of Innocence is Blake’s commentary on the value of maintaining one’s purity while also pointing out the injustice against the working class and children. After William Blake’s brother died at the age of 24, it influenced Blake to want to recapture the innocence one has during childhood. “The Lamb” shows this desire to be more innocent like a little lamb. The tone is reflective of the overall concept of the poem where the lamb, like children, aren’t fully aware of what is going on around them which is evident in the lines, “Dost thou know who made thee? Gave thee life & bid thee feed, by the stream & o’er the mead” (Blake 83). In its innocence, the lamb chooses to only focus on the good because it is unaware of the corruption and evil in the world. While “The Lamb” focuses more on the purity of youth, “The Chimney Sweeper” takes a look at a young orphan who has to work as a chimney sweeper. The main character of the poem tries to comfort a fellow orphan chimney sweep who is crying because his head was shaved by saying, “Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head’s bare, You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair” (Blake 85). The soot is symbolic ...

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...lty has a Human Heart and Jealousy a Human Face, Terror, the Human Form Divine…” (Blake 97). This is the very quintessence of Songs of Experience since it discusses the cruelty and terror that is present in the real world in contrast with avoidance of this subject in Songs of Innocence.

Blake’s earlier works have an air of idealism and righteousness about them that seem to be lacking in his later works such as Songs of Experience. His works are reflective of the personal growth and change that Blake must have gone through throughout his life to inspire to write such honest and grim poetry after writing poems in Songs of Innocence that seem to make the reader feel as though there is hope for the world. Overtime, Blake’s reflection of his own life and trials and history in general came out in his Songs of Experience as a reaction to the harshness that he witnessed.