William Blake, Painter and Poet

by Richard Garnett

Generally speaking, the Songs of Experience may be said to answer to their title. They exhibit an awakening of thought and an occupation with metaphysical problems alien to the Songs of Innocence. Such a stanza as this shows that Blake’s mind had been busy:—

Nought loves another as itself

Nor venerates another so;

Nor is it possible to thought

A greater than itself to know.

These ideas, however, are always conveyed, as in the remainder of the poem quoted, through the medium of a concrete fact represented by the poet. Perhaps the finest example of this fusion of imagination and thought is this stanza of the most striking and best known of all the poems, “The Tiger”:—

When the stars threw down their spears

And watered heaven with their tears,

Did he smile his work to see?

Did He who made the lamb make thee?