Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience

These poems are deceptively simple. Some of them sound a bit like nursery rhymes. But don't be deceived: Blake has a something very serious to say to his audience.

Blake narrates the two Chimney Sweeper poems from a child's point of view. In the one from Innocence, the child is innocent and unaware of the world's evil; and in the one from Experience the child is experienced and well aware of the evil and hypocrisy that causes his suffering.

In the nineteenth century, houses depended on fireplaces for heat; fireplaces burned coal which collected in deposits inside the chimneys. If the chimneys weren't cleaned and "swept," the smoke would back up into the houses. Children were cruelly employed to crawl up into the tall chimneys to sweep them out. The children were either sold by penniless parents to Chimney sweeping businesses or were picked up, orphaned, off the streets. They were kept in dormitories and fed very little to keep them small. Not only did they often fall to their deaths but they contracted lung disease and died very young. The Chimney Sweepers represent the evil and cruelty of working conditions, fostered by the Industrial Revolution, in England. Blake hopes to gain the reader's awareness of the cruelties of life. Do we really think about the sweat shops in China that make Gap clothes. The women in these factories are not treated much better than the chimney sweepers in a past age.

"The Lamb" and "The Tyger" from Innocence and Experience, respectively, articulate a religious problem for Blake and for many readers. The Lamb represents the good in the world and the Tyger (Tiger) represents the evil. Blake's question is, "Did the same God make both?"