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William Blake When attempting to penetrate into the deeper themes of William Blake 's cycle of poems "Songs of Innocence and Experience " it can be useful to recognize that the title of the poems , as well as the subsequent division into sections of innocence and experience carries ironic connotations . Blake 's intention in this cycle of poems , which he subtitled "Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul (Ostriker 1977 ,

.104 ) was to posit the relationship of individual freedom and self-determination as being at one with

Divine Will . Therefore , the state of innocence which is referred to in the cycle 's title as well as in the division of poems itself is meant to suggest -- not ignorance which leads to innocence -- but the innocence which is gained (or reclaimed ) by the experience of the Divine . In fact the first poem in the "innocence " cycle "Introduction " makes plainly manifest , Blake 's ironic use of the titular connotations of innocence and experience . The poem 's second stanza reads

Pipe a song about a Lamb

So I piped with merry chear

Piper pipe that song again---

So I piped , he wept to hear (Ostriker , 1977 ,

. 104 The subtlety of Blake 's theme here is so accomplished as to be almost invisible when one reads the lines without carefully probing each word for its connotations . Special attention must be given to each word-choice to extract from the sing-song pleasantness of the poem , the resounding and profound thematic ideas which lay beneath the poem 's surface . The word "Lamb " for example is capitalized not only to emphasize the mythic and religious ideas which are an intimate part of Christian symbolism , but to inform the reader that "Lamb " is , indeed the theme of the entire poem . The repeating of the word "piped " is intended to show that the Divine voice is always trying to break through to humanity the line "So I piped , he wept to hear " reveals that this song of "innocence " is , in fact , a song of experience : the knowledge that humanity is blind to , or in this case , deaf to , the Divine voice

While Blake emphasizes a state of idealism in his "Songs of Innocence and Experience " nowhere does he proffer the idea of passive acceptance of the world 's injustices or pain . In fact , passivity to the world 's suffering is defined not in the poems of "innocence " but in a poem of "experience " where Blake 's verdict on the lack of empathy in the modern world could be made no more certain or clear . His poem "London " is a lament for precisely this idea of passive acceptance of world injustice and suffering

In ever cry of every man

In every Infants cry f fear

In very voice in every ban

The mind-forg 'd manacles I hear (Ostriker , 1977 , 128 In these lines , the capitalized word "Infants " denotes a connection to the "Lamb " of th other poems : in Blake 's "Songs of Innocence and Experience...