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Section 3

Episode 3 of the William Blake podcast, hosted by G.K. Chesterton, titled "Section 3" was published on November 13, 2023 and runs 28 minutes.

November 13, 2023 ·28m · William Blake

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Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake (1757 - 1827) LibriVox William Blake’s volume of poetry entitled Songs of Innocence and Experience is the embodiment of his belief that innocence and experience were “the two contrary states of the human soul,” and that true innocence was impossible without experience. Songs of Innocence contains poems either written from the perspective of children or written about them. Many of the poems appearing in Songs of Innocence have a counterpart in Songs of Experience, with quite a different perspective of the world.The disastrous end of the French Revolution caused Blake to lose faith in the goodness of mankind, explaining much of the despair found in Songs of Experience. Blake also believed that children lost their innocence through exploitation and from a religious community which put dogma before mercy. He did not, however, believe that children should be kept from becoming experienced entirely. In truth, he believed that children should indeed become experienced but through their own discoveries, Poems of William Blake by William Blake Loyal Books Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul are two books of poetry by the English poet and painter, William Blake. Although Songs of Innocence was first published by itself in 1789, it is believed that Songs of Experience has always been published in conjunction with Innocence since its completion in 1794. Songs of Innocence mainly consists of poems describing the innocence and joy of the natural world, advocating free love and a closer relationship with God, and most famously including Blake’s poem The Lamb. Its poems have a generally light, upbeat and pastoral feel and are typically written from the perspective of children or written about them. Directly contrasting this, Songs of Experience instead deals with the loss of innocence after exposure to the material world and all of its mortal sin during adult life, including works such as The Tyger. Poems here are darker, concentrating on more political and serious themes. Throughout both boo Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake Loyal Books “Tiger, tiger, burning bright/In the forests of the night/ What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” These often quoted lines are part of The Tiger in William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience.In 1789, William Blake released a limited edition of the book. Being a gifted artist, poet and printmaker, he undertook to personally publish all his work himself through a very painstaking but highly artistic process of etching, thereby transferring his drawings and poems individually onto copper plates by hand. He himself inked each plate and printed each individual page, hand painted the illustrations and bound the pages to create each single volume. As this was extremely laborious and time consuming, there were very few editions of each book.Blake's works pose an unusual problem. Since he displays both his art and his literary skills together and himself considered them inseparable, it was not easy to review his books as literature or art alone. Additionally, h Tiger, The by William Blake (1757 - 1827) LibriVox LibriVox volunteers bring you twelve different recordings of The Tiger, by William Blake. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of December 3rd, 2006.
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