Songs of Innocence and of Experience

A little darker than other children's poetry collections, but still offers some lovely poems. The poems are more religiously oriented than I usually tend to and are dated in some of their themes. It does provide a nice intro to the poetry of the time. ( )

Illustrated poetry, mostly on religious topics.

1.5/4 (Meh).

"Songs of Innocence" is trite garbage about how Jesus loves you. "Experience" has a lot more craft, but still basically just pushes immature philosophy. And I really do not understand what people see in the art. Is it just that it was expensive to reproduce (and therefor fancy) for a couple centuries? ( )

Csak a tigrisről szóló verset ismertem, azt is más fordításban. Így egyszerre elolvasni kissé sok(k) volt, de az eredeti illusztrációk oldották a hangulatot. Hasznos tapasztalat volt olvasni az eredeti szövegeket és a fordítást együtt - nézni, hogyan változott az eredeti nyelv és milyen eszközökkel lehet ezt érzékeltetni a magyar szövegben. ( )

Well, one lousy review can't do Blake's poems any justice, not unless you're flush with time and the soul of a poet, yourself. :)

I can say, however, that the title kinda gives the whole gig away. :) The first section is rife with allusions to Jesus and the second is full of wry and rather sarcastic religious revolutionary insights that I *clearly* appreciate much more than the innocent ones. :)

Yes, love should be shown! No, life should not be this dreary and repressed thing. :)

I particularly love how Blake uses limited PoV narrations, from a little child or an old bard. The mirroring of both characters and themes really does a big number on both types of poetry. I only wish I was reading it with the engravings. :)

Such classics! Well worth the Experience. Everyone should Experience it. :) ( )

Visionary and prophet; he saw angels in trees, but wisely acknowledged they were in his own head. I remember at choir practice a few years ago, a young man rubbishing the words of “Jerusalem”: “And did those feet in ancient time walk upon England’s mountains green? Obviously not!” Ah, but there is poetic truth, the mythos, and logical everyday truth, the logos. Blake is referring to an old legend, and inviting us to ponder how we might behave if this were true. But you could argue for ever with these commonsensical folk who call a spade a spade and see no further than the end of their own noses. What can you do with a guy who looks at his mobile phone all through the intercessions…. Favourites are: “Night”, “Eternity”, "Mock on, mock on" and “Auguries of Innocence”. We still need Blake to remind us of how we should treat creation.