There is certainly a change in mood and style between Blake’s ‘Songs of Innocence’ and ‘Experience’. Throughout the former of these Blake champions imagination as well as freedom and tolerance, ideas which formed the backbone of the French Revolution and the Romantic poet’s view of it. However in ‘Innocence’ Blake takes a much more prophetic [...]

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 [...]

Whilst writing his second series of poems “Songs of Experience”, Blake included several reflections of poems which were a part of his “Songs of Innocence”. These poems often used exactly the same title and commonly made use of similar phrases. This is the case with the two poems entitled “The Chimney Sweeper”. The two sides [...]