Blake’s vision of innocence as a form of protest Anonymous 12th Grade

Despite Blake’s asserted protest in his dual collection, ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’, the role of protest in his vision of innocence, itself, is more debatable. Arguably, Blake’s protest is constructed only through the contrasts that arise between ‘Songs of Innocence’ and ‘Songs of Experience’; therefore, the vision of innocence does not itself act as a protest. However, Blake’s emphasis on the naturalness of physical pleasure subverts conventional doctrines and establishes an implicit protest against his society. Thus, although Blake’s attack may be more effective and multifaceted when placed alongside ‘Songs of Experience’, his vision of innocence is arguably still itself a protest.

Blake foregrounds the contrasting perceptions of innocence and experience and, arguably, through this, forms his protests against both a single vision and the repressive teachings of the Church. Possibly, without the contrary vision of experience, Blake’s vision of innocence cannot be considered, itself, to be a protest. Indeed, for example, it is the contrast between the vision of innocence in ‘the Echoing Green’ and that of experience, in ‘the Garden of Love’, that reveals Blake’s attack on the Church. In ‘the Echoing Green’, the reader...