Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience

William Blake was a visionary artist whose 1794 Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience revolutionized poetry. The verse works of Songs of Innocence describe childhood states of naturalness and purity in delicately beautiful lyrics that reveal a child's unspoiled and beatific view of life and human nature. In Songs of Experience the mood and tone darken, the poems suggesting the bitter corruptions and disillusionment that await the innocent.