Prompt 3 - Songs of Innocence and Experience

Please respond to one of the following prompts for Thursday's class:

1. In "A Vision of the Last Judgment," Blake writes this about Imagination:

"This world of Imagination is infinite and Eternal, whereas the world of Generation, or Vegetation, is Finite and Temporal. There Exist in that Eternal World the Permanent Realities of Every Thing which we see reflected in this Vegetable Glass of Nature."

Paraphrase this argument in your own words and then explain how it might illuminate one or more of the poems in Songs of Innocence and Experience.

2. In poems, rhyme (both internal rhyme and end-rhyme) is often used to compare/contrast/juxtapose important words. Therefore, looking at rhyming words can often tell us much about a given poem. Take one of the poems from Songs of Innocence and Experience and write about the "meaning" that is contained in its rhymes. So, for example, if you were to write about "The Little Black Boy," you would discuss some, or all, of the following rhymes: wild/child, white/light, tree/me, day/say, live/recieve (Blake's spelling), away/day, etc.

3. The last line of "The Chimney Sweeper" (161) is a nursery rhyme-like truism that stands in sharp contrast to the realities expressed in the poem. Point to other examples from Songs of Innocence and Experience where Blake uses a line, or lines, that seem out of place in the context of the poem, and explain why you think he does this. Or, alternatively, compare the idea of God from "The Chimney Sweeper" in Songs of Innocence (161) to the way God is portrayed in the poem from Experience of the same name (174).

4. This prompt relates to the last part of #3. Find poems in Songs of Experience that revisit themes or images from Songs of Innocence and, using those themes or images, draw some conclusions about the way Blake's worldview may have changed during the five years between the two volumes. (Note: this may or may not be accurate, but I am not interested in accuracy per se; I am more interested in your ability to find points of comparison in the two volumes and respond to them.)

5. If you had to define "innocence" and "experience" based on Blake's poems, how would you define them? I'm not interested in a rehashing of the book's introduction to these poems. Instead, I'd like you to think about these terms and then refer to specific poems as you define them. You can define one or both, depending on how much space you have.

6. Blake was a visionary. He claimed to see God, angels, and prophets. His deceased brother's spirit visited him and, allegedly, gave him the idea for illustrated texts, or "Illuminated Printing" as he called it. Look at Color Plates 6-9 in your book (these are between pages 6 and 7). How would you describe Blake's engravings? how does your reading of a poem change when its text is part of a work of visual art rather than text alone? Your response should include a reference to "A Poison Tree," which appears here and in your book (181).

7. Use these lines from "The Divine Image" as a critical lens as you analyze another poem from Songs of Innocence and Experience:

For Mercy has a human heart
Pity, a human face:

And Love, the human form divine,

And Peace, the human dress.

8. Some critics have seen "The Sick Rose" as emblematic of all of the poems in Songs of Experience, which (they argue) are largely about lost innocence. Argue that the imagery of the poem amounts to more than a symbol of lost innocence.