They celebrate two contrary states of human soul – innocence and experience.

“The Lamb” and “The Tyger” are both representative poems of William Blake. This could perhaps be the influence of the French Revolution, as Blake is depicting these seemingly powerless children as having unrealised power, as in the future they could make great changes.A Comparative Study of The Lamb and The Tyger

In innocence, the children and 'like a mighty wind', making 'harmonious thunderings', suggesting the children are making their presence felt and implies a passage of time and power, foreshadowing whispers of a potential revolution, although the children seem collectively unconscious of this. Blake further depicts innocence and experience differently with imagery of their futures. However, a deeper reading of innocence could suggest a darker childhood, as the image of 'clean faces' alludes to Dante washing his face when he came out of hell, therefore implying that the children's real situation in the workhouse is hellish. Experience, by contrast, suggests a bleak view of childhood, as 'babes reduced to misery' implies they have nothing positive in their lives and have therefore become the embodiment of misery. In innocence, they are describes with 'their innocent faces clean', which focuses on their innocence and suggests they are well-looked after. Experience is more explicit in its criticism, innocence focus' on specific children to bring the reader emotionally closer and at face value innocence appears positive and celebratory, perhaps implying the innocent have no idea of what's to come.īlake distinguishes between innocence and experience in 'Holy Thursday' with how children are depicted. Overall, there is little difference between the two, as both innocence and experience explore the treatment of children, condemn authority figures and criticise the church however, there is some distinction. Although most poems in Blake's 'Songs of Innocence and Experience' can be paired together, the two 'Holy Thursday''s and 'The Chimney Sweeper''s are perhaps best placed to directly compare Blake's depictions of innocence and experience.

Innocence and experience