Innocence vs Experience

Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience)
               William Blake

Is this a holy thing to see
    In a rich and fruitful land, -
Babes reduced to misery,
    Fed with cold and usurous hand? 

Is that trembling cry a song?
    Can it be a song of joy?
And so many children poor?
    It is a land of poverty!
  
And their sun does never shine,
    And their fields are bleak and bare,
And their ways are filled with thorns,
    It is eternal winter there.
  
For where'er the sun does shine,
    And where'er the rain does fall,
Babe can never hunger there,
    Nor poverty the mind appal.

 

             As famously known, William Blake is a poet who is fascinated with innocence and experience. Therefore, he incorporates innocence and experience in his poems to convey his beliefs. He ultimately believes that neither innocence nor experience is superior to the other. Yet, I am certain that Blake places more importance on experience in his poems. I have noticed that he puts more detail and deep analysis in the poems that deal with experience. For example, The poem “Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience)” epitomizes his preference for experience. At first glance, the poem is short which gives off an impression of indifference and curtness. However, Blake purposely shaped this poem this way in order to portray a contrast between the innocence and experience poem. The innocence poem is longer and richer in language which is a contrast with the short and curt experience poem. But as many people say, “Actions are stronger than words.” Hence, the poem of experience embodies action depicting itself as vitally significant. For instance, the first stanza asks a short question that is full of highly emotional charged diction. Words such as “misery” (Line 3) and “cold” (4) give off a depressing and negative feeling which elevates the gravity of the situation. Also, the image of “babes reduced to misery/ fed with cold and usurous hand” visually illustrates the sadness and tragedy of this ritual. He further on depicts his strong feelings toward this seemingly harmless ritual by describing charity as being paraded. The young orphans/babes are paraded by their beadles by singing a “trembling cry” to the public (5). Blake further heightens the gloomy atmosphere by asking a rhetorical question, “can it be a song of joy?” (6). He obviously knows the tragic answer but asks the question to delineate his melancholy towards experience. What is really important to point out is that the poem of experience comes after the poem of innocence. The poem of experience is essentially the ending/conclusion of these two poems which makes it important. The two complementing poems always begin with innocence and end with experience. The fact that the poem always end with experience indicates that experience dictates what life will become of. In other words, experience is responsible for people’s actions, words, and thoughts. Blake does not deny that innocence plays a significant role in people’s lives but he believes that experience is a stronger force. Experience guides and unites us until death like how the poem of experience unites the two poems together at the end of the poem. I have always believed that poets are subjective in their works so I was naturally led to disagree with the belief that Blake equally paid close attention to innocence and experience. Blake most likely valued innocence for its beauty and purity but he could not deny the stronger force of experience. Through his experience, he was able to write the poems that united his identity and his sense of the world. It is evident that poems embody the poet's spirit and thoughts.

Infants and William Blake

            The poet William Blake focuses on the themes of innocence and experience in the poems “Infant Joy” and “Infant Sorrow”. His analysis of these two contrasting poems reveals the tragedy of innocence and experience and its similarity to Grendel. Blake first depicts the tragedy of innocence in “Infant Joy”. He first starts out with a loving conversation between mother and baby. Positive diction such as “sweet joy” (6) and “pretty joy” (8) elevate the baby as pure and innocent. However, the tragedy of innocence is quickly emphasized when the mother states “sweet joy but two days old” (8). It can be inferred that the mother is expressing her idea that her baby is too young and naïve to understand the world. She further ominously foreshadows the tragedy by stating “sweet joy befall thee!” (12). The verb “befall” (12) connotes a negative feeling supporting the foreshadowing of the fall of innocence. Meanwhile, Blake also depicts the tragedy of experience in “Infant Sorrow”. First, the title “Infant Sorrow” connotes a negative feeling because of the word “sorrow”. Sorrow is usually associated with sadness, oppression, death and disappointment. Second, the poem is now narrated only by the baby who has transformed into an experienced individual. The baby is aware of “the dangerous world” and describes himself as a “fined [hiding] in a cloud” (4). He realizes that the world is a cruel, dangerous place capable of making innocent people butter and possibly evil. Furthermore, the baby’s hopeless feelings towards his parents delineate his shift into experience. He “struggles in [his] father’s hands” and “sulk[s] upon [his] mother’s breast” because he wants to escape the constraint of reality (5 and 8). His parents represent reality due to their groaning and weeping (refers to line 1) about the realization that they are obligated to raise their son in a responsible manner. Blake hopes to bring into light the prevalence of losing innocence and achieving experience. Because Blake stresses the theme of innocence and experience, the novel Grendel is closely relatable to it. Grendel also struggles with the aspect of innocence and experience throughout his whole life. Like Blake, he does not view innocent or experience as superior over the other. He rather believes that innocence and experience brings him to tragedy. For instance, Grendel’s curiosity towards the world and his identity leads him to lose his innocence and realize the meaninglessness of life. Through his experience (reaching enlightenment), Grendel becomes a bitter and lonely individual who often exclaims “I am alone” (56). Furthermore, Grendel’s interaction with humans broadens his experience but also deprives him of happiness. Humans label Grendel as a “brute existent” and continuously ostracize him (74). Therefore, Grendel is driven to believe that his death will be a blessing because he will not need to wonder about the meaninglessness of life. For Grendel and Blake, innocence and experience serve as a tragedy but also as an important aspect of life. Without innocence and experience, people will be deprived of reminiscence, wisdom and insight.

Are You a Hero?

What qualities define one as a hero? The poem “Beowulf” and novel Grendel both debate on this issue with contrasting characters. In “Beowulf”, the fierce Geat leader, Beowulf, is portrayed as the dauntless hero. He supposedly possesses the strength of thirty men and is able to defeat three powerful monsters: Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and a dragon. Yet in the novel Grendel, Grendel and Wealtheow are characterized as heroes. Grendel is defined as a hero because he goes through the journey of descent and enlightenment. He reaches his descent when he gets stuck between two trees and is attacked by a ram.  In other words, he loses his innocence by realizing “that the world [is] nothing: a mechanical chaos of casual, brute enmity which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears” (Gardner 21 and 22). Grendel later reaches the final point of a hero’s journey when he encounters the dragon. The dragon, who symbolizes Grendel’s subconscious, convinces Grendel that he is “mankind, or man’s condition” providing a purpose to Grendel’s life (73).  The dragon/Grendel’s subconscious deliberately takes advantage of Grendel’s craving for purpose in life. Therefore, Grendel becomes enlightened by the encounter with the dragon and becomes a “brute existent” (73).  By becoming a “brute existent”, Grendel believes that he is improving and shaping humans into intelligent, thinking creatures. He basically considers himself as a god who enlightens people. (Grendel’s “enlightening” actions can be considered ironic since he even confesses that he found himself “killing [humans] on and on and on, as if mechanically, without contest” (81). Basically, he is killing humans without even thinking about the consequences. In my opinion, he is not as “enlightened” as he claims to be.)In contrast, Wealtheow is portrayed as a hero due to her sacrificing acts and her ability to unite people. Wealtheow is depicted as a sacrificing individual who “surrendered herself with the dignity of a sacrificial virgin” to Hrothgar (100). Wealtheow willingly sacrifices her innocence and virginity to prevent the battle between the Helmings and Danes. It can be also said that she represents a Christ figure because she willingly faces loss of innocence for a greater purpose. Furthermore, Wealtheow has an extraordinary ability to unite people which is a commonly found characteristic in heroes.  For instance, she unites people in the meadhall by carrying a “mealbowl from table to table” which magically silences and unites the Danes (102). The mealbowl represents an object of unity and a new beginning. Therefore, Wealtheow carries this object around the Danes to remind them of peace and comitatus.  So far we have analyzed three heroes who are considered extremely unlike each other. Yet, I have found a common ground between these heroes. All of them desire to be surrounded by people. Beowulf wishes to save the Danes from Grendel in order to earn respect and their loyalty. Grendel “enlightens” the humans because it serves as an opportunity of social interactions with humans. Wealtheow represents a Christ figure who wishes to unite people for faith and comitatus.