Here the Children are uninhibited, and showing their passion and creativity through a performance. The children put on a play for a carefree old man, “Old John with white hair/does laugh away care,/ Sitting under the oak,/Among the old folk,/They laugh at our play,” (ln. In this poem, the creative mode is a play, shown through action. Since Blake is a poet himself, her focuses on the manifestation of innocence through creative modes. He shows that with his portrayal of the action of the poem as well. Already there is this sense of welcoming, specific to the open mindedness that comes with the innocence perspective.

This evokes imagery that is fresh and welcoming the bright new day and all that it has to offer. It begins with setting the scene of a serene morning, “The Sun does arise,/And make happy the skies./The merry bells ring/To welcome the Spring.” (ln. There is no mention of religion in the poem, its peaceful and focuses on the beauty of nature and the company of others. In Robert Rix’s article “‘In Infernal Love and Faith’: William Blake’s ‘The Marriage ofHeaven and Hell'”, he writes how Blake interprets spirituality, “Blake evidently sees true worship of God to be one person’s active grace towards another” (111). The Poem “The Echoing Green” is representative of not only the grace towards one another, but toward nature as well. These poems contrast those ideas of innocence and experience, while calling attention to how organized religion in the eighteenth century suffocated the people of England by enforcing the moral law of religion. This is most evident in his poem “The Echoing Green” and its companion piece “The Garden of love”, along with their illustrations done by Blake. To be innocent is to open yourself to the creative world around you, while experience shuts you off from the playful freedom that comes with innocence. These perspectives are not necessarily linear, or based on age, rather they are based on this idea of open mindedness. He stresses two perspectives: innocence and experience.

In William Blake’s poetry collection Songs of Innocence and of Experience, he examines the ways in which people relate and interpret the world around them. Portrait of William Blake by Thomas Phillips

William blake innocence