Blake’s exploration of the two contrary states of the human soul, innocence and experience, often focus upon the theme of imagination. Through his “Songs of Innocence”, Blake champions the imagination, and shows how it should be free to bloom and flourish. On the other hand, in his “Songs of Experience”, Blake often portrays the repression of imagination in the stifling environment of the physical world; how the “mind forg’d manacles” enslave everyone’s imaginations.

In his “Songs of Experience” Blake describes the oppressive nature of the church, and how institutionalised religion of the time was limiting people’s beliefs and free will. In his poem “The Garden of Love” Blake describes priests “binding with briars my joys and desires”, a very literal image of the church’s oppression. This is further suggested in “A Little Boy Lost”, when a child is “stripped… bound… And burned” merely for having opinions which go against the teachings of the church. These teachings only seem to limit and restrict people with “‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door”. Any free thinking imagination seems to be punished in a similar way.

Blake’s own views on religion are free from this oppression and much more imaginative. Throughout his “Songs of Innocence” Blake uses the symbol of the lamb, with “softest clothing woolly bright”, to represent Jesus. This representation of divinity as being innocent and bright seems in direct contrast to his descriptions of institutionalised religion. Blake also believed God to be like an artist himself, full of imagination, creating all creatures. “Could frame thy fearful symmetry”, a line in “The Tyger” where artistic terms are mentioned. This poem is an epitome of Blake’s imaginative creation; the forging of this beast straight from the imagination in the “furnace”. This was also a reaction by Blake against the Industrial Revolution, which he believed to be crushing the souls of the population. Machines and factories producing identical items and creating monotonous jobs were things which Blake was against completely. This is shown by the traditional methods he used to create his own publications; with each song bearing a unique painted image, reproduced slightly differently each time. Blake champions the imagination through the images he created too, a reaction against painters from the Age of Reason, who reproduced exactly what they saw. Rather than this, Blake painted what he imagined and envisaged. His brightly coloured work contains elaborate floral decorations, angels and other creations of the imagination.

These creations also feature in his writings, and not only in his “Songs of Innocence”. Blake’s use of symbolism and imagery are also particularly imaginative. In “The Sick Rose” the unnatural image of “The invisible worm / That flies in the night” is used to represent male sexuality. The landscape in this poem is also different to his other, set in “the howling storm”. This contrasts to his “Songs of Innocence”, which are frequently set in “gardens”, “green woods” as in the “Laughing Song” or “hills… covered with sheep”. This shows an imaginative range of landscapes in his writing.

Blake often uses angels as positive symbols in his poems also. For example in the imaginative scene in “The Chimney-Sweeper” (Innocence) in which the angel arrives with “a bright key” and frees all the dead children from their black coffins. This direct assault on the churches oppression, even in death, has been reinforced using Blake’s imagination. Angels are also used in Experience to signify the repression of imagination which adults employ. In “The Angel” the subject “armed my fear / With… shields and spears” so when the angel returns to comfort him, “he came in vain”. Through this Blake suggests that through losing Innocence, people also lose their sense of imagination and freedom of the mind.

The personae Blake adopts throughout his songs, especially in Innocence, suggest that he is a poet of the imagination. His first person narrative in “Infant Joy” puts him in the place of a “two days old” child. Even the concept that a child this young could communicate, and name itself is quite imaginative. In “The Angel” Blake also dreams that he is “a maiden queen”, whilst not actually assuming this character, it shows that Blake crosses the gender boundary in the subjects of his poems. Blake also imagines himself as “The Little Black Boy” in the poem of the same name, assuming the persona of another culture completely.

Therefore, Blake can be said to be a poet championing the imagination through all his work, both poetical and artistic. His “Songs of Innocence and Experience” explore imagination in different ways, with Innocence focussing on the benefits of having a free mind and Experience showing how the imagination has been suppressed in various ways. However, Blake also uses a very imaginative writing style to portray his ideas, attracting the interest of the reader and rebelling against the thoughts of the period in which he lived.

_{Grade achieved: 16/20 (A-)}

_{Teacher’s comments: Refer well to poetry and express ideas effectively. More on the rebellion aspects of ‘The Tyger’ would be even better.}

_{References: “Songs of Innocence and of Experience” by William Blake and the relevant York Notes.}