| Songs of Innocence ("The Lamb") is a collection of songs given in illuminated printing. In this collection, he recovers the spontaneous joy and innocence of childhood. Blake associated the joy of ecstatic vision with the condition of childhood. The original state of happiness, self-enjoyment, and unity, he tells us in these poems, is in childhood. The enfranchised adult returns to it. He declares: "Lest ye become again as a little child ye cannot hope to enter the kingdom of Heaven." Songs of Innocence is a reaffirmation of New Testament doctrine and this is reflected in his use of pastoral Christian symbols (the Christ child, the lamb, the shepherd and the flock.) The poet has left out all art, all moralizing, all pretending. The theme of loss and finding runs through the songs and the gaiety of laughter of children fills them. |
