English Literature / Unit 12 ENL 1107 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Captions available
The idea
Songs of Innocence appeared in seventeen eighty-nine; in seventeen ninety-four Blake joined it to Songs of Experience, subtitled Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul. Many poems come in matched pairs, and the anchor stresses the two states coexist as contraries.
In practice
Paired poems, two contrary states.
Where people slip
Read each poem against its pair.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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