The Songs of Innocence-Blake’s Intuitive Flights into the Realm of the Absolute

Abstract

Just like William Wordsworth who came a little later William Blake was known for an absolute sincerity, a mystic renunciation and a boldness of spirit. His originality and individuality, both of which were of a high order, came in the way of his public acceptance and acclaim. His drawings bear the stamp of a “characteristic and inimitable vision”. His poetry is marked by the utmost subtlety of symbolism and the skill with which it is sustained is truly matchless. The philosophical framework of his poetry is no more than a series of “intuitive flights into the realm of the absolute, soaring with tranquil and imperious assurance”. In Blake’s view the world of children, which is not contaminated by experience, is almost heavenly. In fact childhood is like a compensation for the loss of Eden. In the poems of Blake, the divine that is described is Jesus Christ who, even like human children, was a child once and spoke of the merciful and compassionate heavenly father, God. Children are free from cares and conflicts and always in a state of happiness and harmony with the human society around them and nature.