37 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when childhood wonder meets a world of hunger, fear and cruelty?
William Blake sets two ways of seeing side by side in this collection of short poems. Songs of Innocence opens with a piper, a valley and a child on a cloud who asks for a song about a lamb. Play and trust fill this world, but shadows fall across it too.
Songs of Experience answers with anger and doubt. Its opening Bard calls to the fallen earth, and Earth speaks back. Across the collection, The Lamb faces The Tyger, while paired versions of The Chimney Sweeper reveal different views of suffering. Blake asks you to feel both innocence and experience, without choosing a simple winner.
What you’ll discover
- Wonder with a shadow Meet children, lambs and pipers in poems where trust does not keep suffering away.
- Two ways of seeing Explore innocence and experience as contrasting views of the same troubled world.
- Poems that answer back Read the paired Holy Thursday and Nurse's Song poems for echoes across the divide.
- A child's hard world Hear the small chimney sweeper whose father sells him into work and soot.
- Music in short lines Read aloud to feel the strong beats, simple rhymes and echoes between poems.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy short poems with simple music, if you like seeing one idea from two sides, or if you read poems aloud to children or friends.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Innocence sings of lambs, play and care
- God and kindness live close to children
- Even in Innocence, hardship shows through
- Experience asks harder questions of the same world
- The best-known poems of Experience: tiger, rose, garden
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 37 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 4 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
eBooks and audiobooks open right away. Download EPUB or PDF, or send the book to your Kindle. Every printed copy is made when you order it and shipped worldwide; shipping is shown at checkout.
How it works
- Start free. Nothing to pay today; the eBook of this book is yours to keep.
- Read, listen and print. 200,000+ classics as eBook, large-print eBook, audiobook and 15-minute summary, and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print, 5 accounts for the price of one.
- We remind you first. Free for 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment. Then 0,14 USD a day in your first year on the yearly plan and 0,27 USD a day after, or 0,66 USD a day on the monthly plan. Cancel online in two clicks.
Bought on its own? Every eBook, audiobook and printed book you buy without the plan carries our 30-day money-back guarantee.
25 languages, side by side
Read and hear Lieder der Unschuld und der Erfahrung in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Lieder der Unschuld und der Erfahrung
by William Blake · 1794
A piper, a lamb and a tiger sit side by side in poems that see one world through two pairs of eyes.
Medium levelUnder 2 hours to read25 languages
Excellent
- Read or listen
- 25 languages, side by side
- Print and large print at cost
- 5 accounts for the price of one
Free for 3 months · starts right away, on any device
Read free3 months free · cancel anytimeFree for 3 months, then 0,14 USD a dayCancel anytimeHow it works
In short
Why does a lamb sit beside a tiger in one small book? Songs of Innocence and of Experience gives you shepherds, sweeps, roses and tigers, and shows how the same subject changes when the viewer does.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Innocence sings of lambs, play and care
The first set opens with a piper in the valleys who meets a child on a cloud. The child asks for a song about a lamb, and then asks the piper to write his songs in a book so that all may read. The poet makes a pen from a hollow reed, and the collection begins.
The poems that follow are bright and trusting. In The Shepherd, the keeper hears his flock's calls, and the sheep know when he is near. In The Echoing Green, children play until sunset while Old John laughs with the old folk, and the little ones gather round their mothers' laps, ready for rest.
Free for 3 months · Cancel anytime
Free gifts
580 USD in free gifts when you start
Every book in every format and in 25 languages, 5 accounts for the price of one. Nothing to pay today.
- 200,000+ classic eBooksIn 25 languages, side by side
170 USDFREE - Every audiobookIn 25 languages, any device
120 USDFREE - 15-minute summariesRead or listen, in 25 languages
60 USDFREE - Print at cost, no markupPaperback, hardcover, large print
60 USDFREE - 5 accounts for the price of oneA shelf for everyone at home
170 USDFREE - A part in rebuilding the libraryNew languages and books for all
FREE
Questions about Lieder der Unschuld und der Erfahrung
Can I read it free?
Yes. The first key idea of the 15-minute summary is free with no sign-up. Start free and the whole book is yours for 3 months, with the eBook to keep, plus 200,000+ more classics and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print. Nothing to pay today: we email you 7 days before your first payment, and you can cancel online in two clicks.
Can I buy the printed book?
Soon. The paperback, hardcover and large print editions are being prepared. Choose Paperback or Hardcover above, leave your email, and we tell you the day you can order it, printed at cost.
How many accounts do I get?
Five, for the price of one: you and 4 more people, each with their own login, shelf and their own place in every book.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Cancel online in two clicks at any time and nothing more is charged. Nothing is charged in your first 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment.
What is Songs of Innocence and of Experience about?
It is a pair of poem collections by William Blake. Songs of Innocence views the world through trust and play, while Songs of Experience views the same world through awareness of suffering, rules and power.
What does The Tiger mean?
The poem asks who could make a creature of such fierce beauty. It sets the tiger against the lamb and leaves the question open, inviting wonder about the nature of creation.
Who are the chimney sweepers in the poems?
They are the poor boys sent up London chimneys to clean them. Blake writes about them twice, once in each book, to show a child's hope and then a child's hard treatment.
The author
William Blake
1757–1827 · English poet and artist
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. He was born in London in 1757 and died there in 1827. He also lived in Felpham, Sussex, from 1800 to 1803. He published Songs of Innocence in 1789 and Songs of Innocence and of Experience in 1794.
More by William Blake
All 2 booksMore like this
Our mission
The library burned once. We are building it back.
Every great book, in every language and every format, for every family. Every plan helps pay for new languages, new audiobooks and books for readers who have never had them. Join the movement.
Read our story- Every language25 languages today, side by side, and more every year
- No wastePrinted on demand: no warehouses, no unsold stock, no pulped copies
- For everyonePaperback, hardcover and large print at the cost of printing
