When I read the publisher’s note that prefaces Blake’s Songs of Experience, I wondered what would be missing from the experience given that we cannot also read Songs of Innocence. It’s interesting that the two collections of poetry are seen as being related to one another, and I was wondering about not only the relation of text and image within one book, but the relations of the two texts, or the two series of images, or the text-image relation as it spans both Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Certain poems appear in both works, but I wonder if the images are different; the note mentions that there are distinct changes in Blake’s coloring technique from book to book. The relationship between the two books intrigues me, since they are meant to be approached as distinct yet paired or intertwined, which raises the question of what each text, each image, and the relation therein in one book has to offer for the other book.
Looking deeper into Songs of Experience, I noticed that this trend of treating texts as partners or pairs is really pervasive. The first poem, “Introduction,” calls out to the Earth. Then in the next poem, the Earth responds. Elsewhere, poems like “The Little Girl Lost” are answered by “Little Girl Found,” which is even more interesting given that “The Little Girl Lost” also appears in the earlier collection, Songs of Innocence. Then to add to that partnering there is the fact that, later in Songs of Experience, there is “A Little Girl Lost”- though it’s possible that this poem is similarly-titled but unrelated. The structure reminds me in a way of call-and-response songs, where certain verses set up a subsequent response, either as a constant pattern or as a gradual build to some kind of climax. I am not sure yet if Blake is working towards a climactic point or establishing a pattern of repetition. Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that Blake saw ‘innocence’ and ‘experience’ as ‘contrary states of the human soul.’ The arrangement of the collections into stages with a clear chronology- first innocence, then experience- leads me to believe that Blake might have seen these poems as progressing representations of the state of the human soul. Chronologically, the girl is lost then found in Innocence, then lost and found again in Experience, each stage of the cycle progressing Blake’s themes and commentary. The progress might be a contrast that demonstrates how ‘contrary’ the two states are, or it might be a transition that mirrors the growth from innocence into maturity; without the accompanying text it is difficult to say. But what interests me about this is the fact that Blake is working across media by incorporating text and image as intertwining units, and then locating those relationships within the scheme of a larger relationship within the individual text and across the partnered texts. Like a rhizome in structure, the multiplicity of partnerships and pairings, and the use of the texts as progressing stages of life and development, create a complex system of conversation between the individual pieces of art and poetry.
This post is incredibly insightful! I think you did an excellent job pointing out the “conversation” between art and poetry and the relationship between partnered texts. It is interesting how various motifs and themes seem to work their way into different works both within and between media. These motifs may be a result of the author, or of the time period. Artists often paint the same things, and the same characters may even show up in more than one painting. I don’t have a lot of experience with art history, but in high school I spent some time looking at various paintings by French painters. As a part of our exams, we were asked to identify the painter of a painting we had not seen before based solely on style and motifs. For example, when our teacher showed us a painting of dancers, we identified the author as Degas. I understand that there is a lot more to be known about these painters than what I learned in my high school french class, but I think studying these painters showed me how stylistic motifs pervade through the work of artists. Similarly, particular styles can be attributed to the time period from which the paintings are from. A more modern example of motifs which run across many different works is Disney films. Disney hides many so-called Easter eggs throughout films. Indeed, it is not unusual that the Beast from Beauty and the Beast is in the background of Alladin, or that Nemo is seen swimming in a river in Brother Bear. Obviously, these examples I have given don’t do justice to the brilliant interweaving of motifs and themes through repetition accomplished by Blake, but I think it is an interesting comparison. Here is a link to a Buzz Feed article that points out some of the “Easter eggs” in Disney films:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/briangalindo/27-disney-movie-easter-eggs-you-may-have-seriously-never-not#.cu3MDYpz7
I also think comparing Songs of Experience and Songs of Innocence would be valuable to see the differing color palettes used for the same prints. One thing that stood out to me from our class discussion was the different coloring styles of the prints and that there was no standard version to look to for how it was meant to be made. I found this intriguing since printmaking is an art that allows for the production of exact duplicates. The two versions of The Sick Rose we viewed in class had distinctly different colors and gave very different feelings to the piece. Seeing these differences is very insightful into Blake’s thoughts are style.