If you look at the Songs of Innocence and the Songs of
Experience, one of the most notable differences is the absence and presence of hope and
the power of God's love. In the songs of experience, William Blake uses moods of gloom
and despair. The contrast between the two
For example, in
"The Chimney Sweeper" there is a poem version for both the song of innocence and the
song of experience collections. The Chimney Sweeper in the Song of Innocence notes in
the fifth stanza:
"Then naked and white, all their bags left
behind,
They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind;
And the angel
told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
He'd have God for his father, and never want
joy" (Blake).
This quote,
after detailing the difficult life of a chimney sweep in the previous stanzas, notes
that even though the boy "weeps" as a bald-headed boy, he knows that God will reward the
small children in heaven after the little boys' deaths. There is hope for the small boys
here. In the complementary poem, The Chimney-Sweeper in the Song of Experience, William
Blake portrays those who employ the boys in a harsh job as being God-praisers. They go
off to church and "make heaven of our misery" illustrating that there is something
corrupt and gloomy about their faith. Belief in a caring God is what those who are
innocent believe, those who have experienced life know better than to believe in such
naive views.
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