Themes and Styles in Songs of Experience Essay - 3271 Words

Themes and Styles in Songs of Experience With reference to at least four poems, show how they are representative of themes and styles in Songs of Experience. In the Songs of Experience â€Å"Innocence† has progressed towards â€Å"Experience†, but it is important to remember that Blakes vision is essentially dialectical: â€Å"Innocence† and â€Å"Experience† are co-related as the road to â€Å"experience† begins from â€Å"innocence†. The poems in Songs of Experience are darker in tone and outlook, affirming a bleaker (or more realistic) view of creation than their â€Å"Innocent† counterparts. Blake manifests the themes of cynicism, corruption, oppression, disillusionment and cruelty through the use of stylistic devices such as mirroring, juxtapositions,†¦show more content†¦It is as though Blake is mocking this sort of selfless love- that it is like a doormat, and this innocence is only an illusion, that it can be walked all over. Despite all this, the â€Å"clod of clay† is still a stoic and innocent in the sense that it remains optimistic through its pain. Blake also uses imagery to illustrate the â€Å"pebble of the brook†. He gives the readers the impression that the pebble is weathered, worn and impermeable. The themes of cynicism and disillusionment are highlighted in the poem. The â€Å"pebble of the brook† is implied to be hardened and cold. Blake also personifies the archetypes of the clod and the pebble. Both the clod and the pebble are mouth pieces that voice the contrasting extreme views on love. Blake also uses the technique of mirroring stanzas. At first, this seems to the reader as a common identity and similarity between the two halves of the poem. However, it really highlights the vast differences between the two qualities of love described. The structure also imitates the literal position of Heaven and Hell. In the first stanza, the love described is one that is great enough to â€Å"build a heaven in hell’s despair†, and in the last stanza love is describes as so selfish that it could â€Å"build a hell in heaven’s despite†. Perhaps Blake by splitting the middle stanza into exactly half for â€Å"the clod† and half for â€Å"the pebble†, he is implying that a balance between the two needs to be reached. He could alsoShow MoreRelatedSitcom : A Sitcom Or Situation Comedy1357 Words   |  6 PagesAnyone who owns a television had watched a sitcom of some kind. Ether it’s a good episode of Big Bang Theory or a whole season of How I Met Your Mother we all had experience a sitcom. A sitcom or situation comedy is a kind of genre that forces on a set of characters in a certain environment. Each episode would have an event that will affect the characters in the show, and then those characters will react in a comical way. 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