Songs of Innocence-the title of the first part, which appeared by itself in 1789- might seem a fairly innocuous title, like the famous Songs and Sonnets which begin the full title of Tottel’s Miscellany (1557 Shakespeare has Falstaff refer to it that way). The title itself has had an enormous effect on ways of thinking about poetry. The book, beautifully and delicately illustrated by Blake, has been vastly influential, determining, for example, the opening poems in William Butler Yeats’s book The Rose (1893), which contrasts “The Song of the Happy Shepherd” with “The Sad Shepherd:” (The second Song of Innocence is called “The Shepherd.”) The contrast, and the very idea of the song, harkens back to Blake. Songs of Innocence and of Experience contain William Blake’s best-known and most widely read works, including what is perhaps his most famous poem, The Tyger. Analysis of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experienceīy NASRULLAH MAMBROL on Febru
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