Songs of Innocence and of Experience

William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, is a collection of forty-five poems. It is actually a two part piece, the first being Songs of Innocence, and the second being Songs of Experience. The first part has 19 poems, including some of Blake's most well known poems.  Some of the poems from each section connect into other poems. For instance, The Lamb shows the innocence part of what Blake was writing about, bu to go with it  The Tyger shows the other side, or the "experience" part. The original piece of this was  Songs of Innocence, but was later added to be Blake, to create the entire collection entitled  Songs of Innocence and Experience. This collection is what Blake is really known for. This collection of his works really made him what he is. By creating a book of works that was this controversial and also influencing, he was taking a risk. He did not worry about the risk and published them, he was argued against by other poets because of his views about religion, science, and math. His views come out strong in this collection. His other collection The Marriage of Heaven and Hell was his only other work that was more controversial and influencing. This collection of his really shows how he felt about his beliefs. Many people believe that he had a revolutionary mindset when he wrote this. 


The main thing he was trying to to convey when he wrote this was to show the two sides of human spirit. The first part about innocence, is showing a human spirit when it is young and also very free. It dose not need to obey rules and is not repressed by restrictions. The second part is showing what really happens to the human spirit when rules take over. I believe that these rules he is talking about is the belief that science and math can explain everything. William Blake hated science and math and did not believe it could explain the mind, and he also believed humans needed to reconnect to nature. The belief in math and science is a rule filled and very restrictive way for the human spirit to live. The way we should live is believing in the free nature minded way that are human spirits originally were living as.