Songs of Innocence
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About this ebook
William Blake
William Blake (1757-1827) was a nonconformist who associated with some of the leading radical thinkers of his day, such as Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft. A skilled engraver and illustrator, his illustrated poetry collections resembled the illuminated books of the Middle Ages.
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Reviews for Songs of Innocence
68 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Echoing Green is an excellent poem by William Blake. It is a great meditation on the playful nature of youth and the inevitability that, eventually, we all do grow older and age. It has good metaphorical imagery and demonstrates different elements of poetry extraordinarily well, such as rhyme scheme and slant rhyme. However, I am unsure if children in the 4th-5th grades will be able to really attach themselves to it. The language is very archaic and slightly verbose. If children had the opportunity, as an activity of some sort, to put this poem into their own words, I think it would prove to be very beneficial in the classroom.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oh my God, you guys, did you know William Blake didn't have any children? The author of "Infant Joy" and "Laughing Song," of lines like "Pretty joy! / Sweet joy, but two days old. / Sweet joy I call thee: / Thou dost smile, / I sing the while, / Sweet joy befall thee!" That is the most heartbreaking thing I hope to hear today.Anyway, the lyric power of Blake's short, thumping lines makes for a lot of instantaneous tear-jerkers here, although these poems could also have done with a dash of his mystic philosophy: I'm all for the innocence of children, but the worldview on display here is sort of carpingly simplistic for the most part. Where it rises above is in the first previews of Songs of Experience, like "The Chimney-Sweeper"--which I refuse to read as anything other than proto-Marxist--where the towheaded children are lost in a deeper sense than their peers who are lucky enough to get found by lachrymose lions and angels, and there's no happy reunion with M and P. Where it sinks below is in poems like "The Little Black Boy," which though well-constructed and doing som enice play with the heat of the African sun and the heat of God's love still just fights racism by making the black boy's soul white and is thus a cut below "Am I not a man and a brother?" Anyway, this is good for people who aren't given to sentimentality to dip into in their sentimental moments.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Being a handsome reproduction which includes Blake's lettering and illustration. The texts in plain typeface are appended for a little easier reading. If one enjoys the poems and Blake's art, this is a good edition to own.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5It was interesting to see the earlier work of a famous poet, especially reproduced with all the original art and settings. Unfortunately, there's a good reason that I encountered Blake's later in school and not his early stuff. Some of the entries were stronger than others, but none of them made me want to memorize them.
Book preview
Songs of Innocence - William Blake
LOST
SONGS OF INNOCENCE
On a cloud I saw a child.
INTRODUCTION
PIPING down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me :—
Pipe a song about a lamb
:
So I piped with merry cheer.
Piper, pipe that song again
:
So I piped; he wept to hear.
" Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe,
Sing thy songs of happy cheer " :
So I sung the same again,
While he wept with joy to hear.
" Piper, sit thee down and write
In a book that all may read "—
So he vanish’d from my sight;
And I pluck’d a hollow reed,
And I made a rural pen,
And I stain’d the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear.
THE SHEPHERD
How sweet is the shepherd’s sweet lot ;
From the morn to the evening he strays;
He shall follow his sheep all the day,
And his tongue shall be filled with praise.
For he hears the lambs’ innocent call,
And