Symbolism of Songs of Innocence and Experience

Also Read

Introduction :

      Blake used his symbols which are to be found even in some of the juvenalia in 'Poetical Sketches' to express increasingly subtle and complex intellectual distinctions. As the system developed, however, he found it necessary or convenient to reinforce the symbolism with an elaborate and ca cophonous mythology that does not explain itself as the symbols usually do. At the same time the symbols become increasingly esoteric and he introduces a technical vocabulary of his own. The north, for example, stands for reason, the south for desires, the east for wrath and the west for pity, and the new key words such as 'spectre', 'opaqueness', 'mundane shell', 'emanation' and like are almost as unintelligible 'ultra', 'Golgonooza' and Sololon. As F.W. Bateson points out they can be learned by heart, but the non-professional resents having to do so. True the use of symbols is one of the most striking features of Blake's poetry. Indeed, many of his poems gain in beauty because of rich symbolism. However, there are some instances where the symbolism is unnecessarily complex and thus obscure.

William Blake

Symbolism Reminiscent of the Bible :

      There is scarcely any poem in Songs of Innocence and of Experience which does not have a symbolic or allegorical or allusive implication. Though these poems are rendered in the simplest possible language, they also have almost unfathomable meaning. The language of these poems is somewhat scriptural simple and profound at the same time. The Biblical allusions add prodigious significance to his poems when for example, we read the 'The Shepherd' it commemorates Christ as the Good Shepherd and reminds us that the parables are clad in pastoral elements. Without reference to the Bible the poem, 'The Shepherd' is meaningless and insignificant. Furthermore, Blake makes use of Biblical phrases too, as we see in the poem The Lamb.

I a child and thou a lamb.

We are called by His name.

      Christ is the lamb of God and figuratively, we often call the child a little lamb.

Symbolism Growing out of Personal Crisis :

      Blake in his letter to Thomas Butt says: Allegory is addressed to the intellectual powers, while it is altogether hidden from the corporeal. Understanding is my Definition of the Most Sublime Poetry." C.M. Bowra opines that during the period in which Blake wrote his songs, he was frustrated by some factors. partly in politics, partly in domestic life Blake seems to have discovered that his central and most cherished beliefs were not shared by others but were the objects of hatred and persecution. At some date in these years the common world was revealed to him and he found it more frightening than he had ever suspected. From this discovery the songs were born.

      Blake's crisis, involves spiritual values, and for this reason he has to speak of it in symbols. What he describes are not actual events as ordinary men see and understand them, but spiritual events which have to be stated symbolically in order that they may be intelligible. In Songs of Innocence, Blake's symbols are largely drawn from the Bible, and since he makes use of such familiar figures as the Good Shepherd and the Lamb of God there is not much difficulty in seeing what he means; but in Songs of Experience, he often uses symbols of his own making, and his meaning is thus more exclusive. Indeed, some poems in this section are fully understood only by reference to symbols which Blake uses in his prophetic books, and since the meaning of most symbols tends to be inconstant, there is always a danger that we may make his meaning more emphatic or more exact than it is. However, it is clear that Blake anticipates those poets of hundred years later who forged their own symbols in order to convey what would otherwise be almost inexpressible. After all adequate words do not exist for the unnamed powers of a supernatural world."

      Since by Corporeal Understanding Blake means the perception of sense-data, and by 'Intellectual Powers' the imaginative spirit which is the only reality it is clear that in his view poetry is concerned with something more than the phenomenal world, and that the only means to speak of it is what he calls allegory. It is true that elsewhere he sometimes speaks disparagingly of allegory, but that is because he distinguishes between true and false allegory: for him allegory in the true sense is not the kind of one - one correspondence which we find in Pilgrim's Progress, but a system of symbols which presents events in a spiritual world.

Symbolism in Songs of Innocence :

      In Songs of Innocence, the symbols convey a special kind of existence or state of the soul. In this state human beings have the same kind of existence or state of the soul. In this state human beings have the same kind of security and assurance as belongs to lambs under wise shepherd or to children with loving parents, nor is it untrue to say that both the shepherd and the father of Blake's poems is God. It is He who is Himself a lamb and becomes a little child, who watches over sleeping children and gives his love to chimney-sweepers and Iittle black boys. In the fatherhood of God Blake's characters have equal rights and privileges. But by it he means not quite what orthodox Christians do. Blake, despite his deeply religious nature did not believe that God exists apart from man.

      In Songs of Innocence, Blake accepts Lamb and child to symbolize innocence. Moreover, they also stand for Jesus Christ. While, the oak tree of 'The Echoing Green' symbolises old age. the poem, as a whole, may be considered to symbolise the life of man. In 'The Chimney-Sweeper' the cloud and the grave Stand for the physical body of man.

      In Songs of Experience, traditional symbols are given different connotations. Thus, by the Sunflower Blake represents the yearning of youth for freedom in love. The lily connotes the purity of love, and also naturalness and open heartedness in love without the need of secrecy. Unlike the traditional significance of the rose Blake's 'Sick Rose' is the symbol of a mysterious evil that attacks the human heart. The Tiger is the anti-type of the lamb of innocence. It represents the violent and energetic aspect of human soul. God's purposes are esoteric, diverse and strange. The same hand that gives birth to the lamb goes to create just the opposite - a tiger. But the beauty that lies in the creation and the created object (tiger) is a testimony to God as a master craftsman. The lion described in the poem 'Night' offers an interesting contrast to the tiger of Songs of Experience. Both the beasts seem dreadful and horrible but the lion, like the beast of a fairytale, is mesmerized into a good and gentle creature, the tiger remains a figure of we and 'dread'. In the world of experience the violent and destructive elements in creation must be faced and accepted. It is also to be admired likewise. In the two poems which tell the story of Lyca, wild beasts like leopards, tigers and lions symbolize the human passions or energies. The lion in these poems is majestic and divine and appears, at the end, as a spirit of love. 'The Little Girl Lost' and 'The Little Girl Found' together form an elaborate allegory which proves and supports the validity of passions of a growing young girl who will soon become a woman.

Symbols of Experience :

      In the world of Experience, Urizen dominates at large. He is Blake's symbol for all that is negative, such as reason, cruelty, jealousy and hypocrisy. Though he does not mention Urizen anywhere in Songs of Experience we can feel his presence in the poem called 'Earth's Answer' where he is mentioned as Starry Jealousy and Cruel, jealous, selfish fear. He keeps the earth bound in oppressive measures, chains her, imprisons and guards over her. In 'The School Boy' it is the school teacher who symbolises undue authority, with the result that

Under a cruel eye outworn

The little one spends the day

In sighing and dismay

      In 'The Chimney-Sweeper', the parents, priest and the king are symbolic of authority and it is they.

Who make up a heaven of our misery

      In the poem 'London' oppression and tyranny are symbolised by the king (who is responsible for the soldier's blood being shed), social institutions like loveless marriage and the 'mind-forged manacles.' In a 'Little Boy Lost', the priest who is responsible for the burning of the child symbolizes the cruel thoughtless unimaginative authority of the Church. The priest acts in the name of the mystery which here. as also in 'The Human Abstract,' symbolizes institutional religion. 'The Clod and The Pebble' is another manifestation of cruelty. Here the 'Pebble' symbolises those men and women whose love is tyrannical. All these - kings, priests, parents, nurses, school teachers, selfish lovers - are thus the agents of Urizen whose aim is to bind, hinder, fetter, imprison and freeze human beings ar every step and phase of life.

      'The Blossom' is supposed to have sexual connotations. The blossom repre sents the female and the sparrow denotes the male. The sparrow that flies like an arrow is the male before their consummation of love; after the fulfilment the female blossom finds him a creature subdued, but still endeared to her.

      Likewise, 'The Garden of Love' and 'A Poison Tree' are two allegories dealing with different subjects. 'The Garden of Love' censures the undue curbs placed by conventional religion on tender human emotions such as love. In this poem, the tombstones and graves stand for death, the priests stand for the authorities of conventional religion, the garden epitomizes love and Thou shalt not symbolizes the rigorous codes of orthodox religion that rules out love and sex. In 'A Poison Tree' the tree hints at the repressed wrath, the apple symbolic of the fruit of deceit which here results from repression. This deceit leads the speaker to lay the death-trap for his enemy. What the poem means is that it the aggressive feelings are suppressed, they may grow to dangerous dimensions which could consume everything and jeopardize personal relations. 'My Pretty Rose Tree' symbolically expresses the incurable jealousy of women. In it, the poet describes how his wife mistook him and got angry with him when he told her about the offer of love from another girl and his subsequent rejection of it.

Conclusion :

      In Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Blake's symbols are not as obscure or abstruse as we find them in his other poems. In his later poems (Prophetic Books) they are rather incomprehensible. The principal symbols used by Blake have been classified by critics as innocence symbols, energy symbols, sexual symbols, corruption symbols and oppression symbols. Many of these, of course, overlap, and among themselves weave a richness into Blake's poetry.