Discuss innocence and experience in William Blake’s poetry
William Blake wrote poems that were initially engraved as songs but later printed out as books of poems. In most of his innocence and experience poems, he talked about the experience of the less fortunate in society by giving out illustrations through stories. In most of the stories, he uses the character of children. Normally children are seen as innocent and vulnerable, and through he figuratively establishes innocence in his poems. He also uses different races of children to illustrate the racism in Europe.
He uses the experience of different characters to show how marginalized groups suffered under white supremacy. He gives out detailed examples and illustrations to show the disadvantages of being a minority in Europe. His poems challenge the civilization of Britain, where most of the marginalized groups languish in poverty. He uses the metaphor of children to demonstrate the innocence of these groups and how they should be experiencing such misery as it is not by choice that they are different.
In his poems, he uses experience to demonstrate that as human beings advance in life, they get a chance to experience life differently. Through the experiences they gain with time, they are able to change their perception of things. In one of his poems, he illustrates how human beings transition from the innocence of a child to the knowledge of life. He shows how the joy of being innocent as a child is important in one’s life. Therefore, the poet has succeeded in using innocence and experience to talk about the issues in society.