Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy AA, 1826 (The Fitzwilliam Museum) - SE -Intro

Introduction to the ''

Songs of Experience ''Songs of Innocence and of Experience'' is a collection of illustrated poems by William Blake. It appeared in two phases: a few first copies were printed and illuminated by Blake himself in 1789; five years later, he bound these poems with a ...

'' is a poem written by the English poet

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

. It was etched and published as part of his collection ''

Songs of Innocence and of Experience ''Songs of Innocence and of Experience'' is a collection of illustrated poems by William Blake. It appeared in two phases: a few first copies were printed and illuminated by Blake himself in 1789; five years later, he bound these poems with a ...

'' in 1794.

Context and interpretation

The poem is etched on a single plate and placed immediately after the title-page of the

. The text has not been found in any draft or manuscript version. Its subject is closely connected with the poem '' The Voice of the Ancient Bard'' in the ''

Songs of Innocence ''Songs of Innocence and of Experience'' is a collection of illustrated poems by William Blake. It appeared in two phases: a few first copies were printed and Illuminated manuscript, illuminated by Blake himself in 1789; five years later, he b ...

''. "The Voice of the Ancient Bard" immediately precedes the Introduction to "Songs of Experience" in some copies of the ''Songs'', and ''

Earth's Answer Earth's Answer is a poem by William Blake within his larger collection called ''Songs of Innocence and of Experience'' (published 1794). It is the response to the previous poem in The Songs of Experience-- ''Introduction (Blake, 1794)''. In the ...

'' follows in all copies. In the poem, Blake's narratorial voice acts as the Ancient

Bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise t ...

and the

Prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...

, who hears

Jehovah Jehovah () is a Latinization of the Hebrew , one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament. The Tetragrammaton is considered one of the seven names of God in Judais ...

speaking to

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

in the

Garden of Eden In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden ( he, גַּן־עֵדֶן, ) or Garden of God (, and גַן־אֱלֹהִים ''gan-Elohim''), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the Bible, biblical paradise described in Book of Genesis, Genes ...

. Geoffrey Keynes says that Blake, as the prophet "calls the Fallen Man to regain control of the world, lost when he adopted

Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, ...

(the 'starry pole') in place of

Imagination Imagination is the production or simulation of novel objects, sensations, and ideas in the mind without any immediate input of the senses. Stefan Szczelkun characterises it as the forming of experiences in one's mind, which can be re-creations ...

.”G. Keynes, p. 143. Earth symbolizes the Fallen Man within the poem. Blake ('the voice of the Bard') calls him to awake from the evil darkness and return to the realm of Imagination, reassuming the light of its previous 'prelapsarian' state. Reason (the 'starry pole') and the Sea of Time and Spece (the 'watr'ry shore') "are there only till the break of day if Earth would consent to leave 'the slumberous mass'".G. Keynes, p. 143. The illustration shows a big cloud in a night sky and scattered stars. The text is placed on the cloud. There is a nude female with long hair and a halo above her head, reclining on a couch on a cloud below the text. This is probably the image of Earth addressed by "the voice of the Bard".

Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake ...

marked the poem with the symbol “H” that meant “still greater” than just “gave me pleasure”. Anonymous Blake's contemporary reviewer ( C. A. Tulk? 1830) wrote: Robert F. Gleckner in his review (1957) notices that Blake hints at the correct reading by means of the ambiguity of the first two stanzas, introducing actually two voices in the poem, the Bard's and the Holy Word's, “calling the lapsed Soul” (line 6). This dual purpose of the poem is to introduce to the state and the songs of experience, “in which the Holy Word of Jehovah is hypocritical, selfish, and jealous, thinking and acting in terms of the physical phenomena of day and night and the earthly morality of rewarding and punishment”, and the same time the Bard being mortal is prophetically imaginative, who “thinks and acts by eternal time and according to eternal values.”R. Gleckner, p. 534-35.

Kathleen Raine Kathleen Jessie Raine CBE (14 June 1908 – 6 July 2003) was a British poet, critic, and scholar, writing in particular on William Blake, W. B. Yeats and Thomas Taylor. Known for her interest in various forms of spirituality, most prominently P ...

in her ''Blake's Debt to Antiquity'' (1963) speaks about Blake's idea that “souls who enter the created world from beyond the galaxy become subject to the demiurge”. She says that “Blake reminds the fallen soul that she herself comes from eternity, and ‘might control / The starry pole / And fallen, fallen light renew.’ But in this world she is subject to ‘Starry Jealousy’, who, like the Hermetic demiurge, ‘containing the Circles and Whirling them about, turned round as a Wheel his own Workmanships, and suffered them to be turned from an indefinite Beginning to an undeterminable End’.” Here Raine cited the ''Divine Poemander'' attributed to

Hermes Trismegistus Hermes Trismegistus (from grc, Wiktionary:Ἑρμῆς, Ἑρμῆς ὁ Τρισμέγιστος, "Hermes the Thrice-Greatest"; Classical Latin: la, label=none, Mercurius ter Maximus) is a legendary Hellenistic figure that originated as a Syn ...

in the ''

Corpus Hermeticum The is a collection of 17 Greek writings whose authorship is traditionally attributed to the legendary Hellenistic figure Hermes Trismegistus, a syncretic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. The treatises were orig ...

'' that looks like a quotation from Blake himself.

Musical settings

Jean Coulthard Jean Coulthard, (February 10, 1908 – March 9, 2000) was a Canadian composer and music educator. She was one of a trio of women composers who dominated Western Canadian music in the twentieth century: Coulthard, Barbara Pentland, and Violet ...

(1908–2000): ''First Song of Experience'', for alto voice and piano, 1968. * John Edmunds (1913–1986): ''Hear the voice of bard'', for high voice and piano, 1938 (in ''Hesperides'': 50 songs by John Edmunds) *

David Farquhar David Andross Farquhar (5 April 1928 – 8 May 2007) was a New Zealand composer and professor of music at Victoria University of Wellington. Biography Farquhar was born in Cambridge, New Zealand, in 1928 but spent most of his early years in F ...

(1928–2007): ''Hear the voice of bard'', No. 10 from Blake Songs, for voice and piano, 1947-49 * Hayg Boyadjian (b. 1938): ''Hear the voice of bard''. No. 3 from ''Song Cycle on Poems of William Blake'', for soprano, flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, cello, and bass, 1978 *

John Harbison John Harris Harbison (born December 20, 1938) is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works. Life John Harris Harbison was born on December 20, 1938, in Orange, New Jersey, to the historian Elmore Harris Harb ...

(b. 1938): ''Introduction (Hear the voice of bard)'', No. 1 from ''Five Songs of Experience'', for 4 soli, SATB chorus, string quartet and percussions, 1971 * Gary Higginson (b. 1952): ''Introduction (Hear the voice of bard)'', No. 1 from ''Seven Songs of Experience'' (set no. 2), for SATB, 1981-2 * David Haines (b.1956): ''Introduction (Hear the voice of bard)'', No. 1 from ''Songs of Experience'', for high voice and piano, 1972–79, rev. 1984 * U2: Beautiful Ghost, from The Joshua Tree, Deluxe Edition, 2007 20th anniversary re-issue The Joshua Tree#20th anniversary remastered edition The list also includes works by: Joseph Charles Holbrooke, UK; Daniel Jenkyn Jones, UK;

Kelsey Jones Herbert Kelsey Jones (June 17, 1922 – October 10, 2004) was a Canadians, Canadian composer, pianist, harpsichordist, and music teacher. Early life Jones was born in South Norwalk, Norwalk, Connecticut, Norwalk, Connecticut; he grew up in Portlan ...

, Canada; Sharon E. Kanach, USA; Joan Anne Littlejohn, UK;

Otto Luening Otto Clarence Luening (June 15, 1900 – September 2, 1996) was a German-American composer and conductor, and an early pioneer of tape music and electronic music. Luening was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to German parents, Eugene, a conducto ...

, USA;

David Lumsdaine David Newton Lumsdaine (born 31 October 1931) is an Australian composer. He studied at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music (as it was then known). He moved to England in 1952 and for a while shared a flat with fellow expatriate, the po ...

, Australia/UK; Frank Mitchell (John Franklin Mitchell), USA; Gordon Myers, USA, Sarah l. Rogers, UK,

Sven-David Sandström Sven-David Sandström (30 October 1942, in Motala – 10 June 2019) was a Swedish classical composer of operas, oratorios, ballets, and choral works, as well as orchestral works. Life and career Sandström studied art history and musicology at ...

, Sweden; Paul Schwartz (1907–1999), USA/Austria;

Elie Siegmeister Elie Siegmeister (also published under pseudonym L. E. Swift; January 15, 1909 in New York City – March 10, 1991 in Manhasset, New York) was an American composer, educator and author. Early life and education Elie Siegmeister was born January 15 ...

, USA; and Leo Smith (1881–1952), Canada.Fitch, p. 259

Notes

Works cited

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Gallery

Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy B, 1789, 1794 (British Museum) - SE - Intro.jpg, Introduction (SE) copy B, 1789, 1794 (British Museum) Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy L, 1795 (Yale Center for British Art) - SE - Intro.jpg, Introduction (SE) copy L, 1795 (Yale Center for British Art) Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy Y, 1825 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) - SE - Intro.jpg, Introduction (SE) copy Y, 1825 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy Z, 1826 (Library of Congress) SE - Intro.jpg, Introduction (SE) copy Z, 1826 (Library of Congress) Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy AA, 1826 (The Fitzwilliam Museum) - SE -Intro.jpg, Introduction (SE) copy AA, 1826 (The Fitzwilliam Museum)

External links

A comparison of extant copies of Introduction (Songs of Experience)
from th
William Blake Archive

{{William Blake, lit 1794 poems Songs of Innocence and of Experience