Songs of Innocence and of Experience
William Blake
Read Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/tob-4047.txt.
Description
William Blake published Songs of Innocence and of Experience as paired poems showing two contrary states of the human soul. Innocence sings of the Lamb, laughing children, and a piper piping joyful songs. Experience answers with the Tyger's burning symmetry, poison trees, and chimney sweepers whose waking misery indicts the world that made them.
Blake etched and hand-illuminated the originals himself, wedding text and image as one visionary work. The same titles recur transformed across the divide, a child of joy becoming a voice of accusation. Deceptively simple in form, the Songs remain the most visionary children's poems for adults in English, short enough to memorize and deep enough to argue over for life.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | William Blake |
|---|---|
| COLLECTION | BOOKS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 30 KB |
| LICENSE | Project Gutenberg License |
| RIGHTS | PUBLIC DOMAIN |
| SOURCE | Project Gutenberg |