William Blake was born in London in 1757 into a lower-class family. He wrote his first collection of poetry, Songs of Innocence, in 1789.
In 1794 he published his Songs of Innocence and of Experience; in a combined volume. Blake elaborated a complete view of the world in a complex mythology. Blake chose to accept poverty and obscurity rather than compromise his artistic vision. He died in 1827.
Blake's poetry mark the beginning of the Romantic Age. He reacted against all forms of control over the individual. He was in favour of both the French and American revolutions. Many of Blake's poems, such as The Chimney Sweeper, are a criticism of the suffering of the poor and the oppressed. He attacked the Church of England and the monarchy.
Blake's poetry is difficult because of his use of complex symbols . On the other hand, his language and syntax are fairly simple with plain vocabulary, as well as repetitions, refrains and regular stress patterns, which are typical of ballads, children’s songs and hymns.
Songs of Innocence and songs of experience were songs intended for children, but they show‘the two contrary states of the human soul’.
The world of innocence is full of joy and happiness , like a Garden of Eden, populated by such figures as the lamb and the child - both symbols of Christ. On the contrary, in the Songs of Experience, the world of experience is full of selfishness, cruelty and social injustice . Its symbol is not the lamb but the tiger.
Innocence offers one point of view, experience another, and they can never be reconciled. For Blake this tension or dialectical opposition is essential. He finds in man and the universe the | presence of good and evil, purity and corruption.
Imagination for Blake is the'only source of true knowledge and denied the truth of sensorial experience. He thought that imagination enabled man to see beyond physical reality.