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Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake

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imme_van_gorp's review against another edition

4.0

|| 4.0 stars ||

This collection of poems is parted into a happy / naive side (sectioned under innocence) and a more sad / realistic side (sectioned under experience). This divide and obvious contrast between both sides really adds a lot of weight to the overall message and thoughts portrayed in this collection. It was very interesting.
I can definitely get behind most of the criticisms and observations expressed by [a:William Blake|13453|William Blake|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1199069675p2/13453.jpg] in a lot of these poems. He seems like a pretty cool and moral dude, especially for his time. Good for him.

There are quite a few poems in this collection I really really like, and one of my favourites is probably The Clod and the Pebble:

Love seeketh not Itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care;
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a Heaven in Hells dispair.

So sang a little Clod of Clay,
Trodden with the cattles feet:
But a Pebble of the brook,
Warbled out these metres meet.

Love seeketh only Self to please,
To bind another to Its delight:
Joys in another loss of ease,
And builds a Hell in Heavens despite.

This poem is kind of simple and actually quite straightforward, but it really resonated with me and thus, felt special. I also like that ‘innocence’ and ‘experience’ meet half way and that each show their different views. It displays the intriguing contrast of both sides and is in this way quite representative of the collection as a whole.

rui11224's review against another edition

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emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

I don’t read much poetry so I thought I’d give this a try, and I liked it. I have a favourite too (I took a picture to save it to my phone). I do think to properly enjoy it you need to mull over the poems and read into them, which it didn’t do deeply, I only read the light analysis at the end. Still, I definitely enjoyed this foray into poetry.