Mystical elements in "Songs of Innocence and of Experience."

Mystical elements in "Songs of  Innocence and of Experience."

William Blake is considered a spiritual poet. There are a lot of mystic elements in his poems. From his childhood, he deals with Angels, Prophets, and Gods several times. His prophetic books were dictated by spirit. Blake's major poems involve religious mysticism.

They often use obscure prophetic and bold, unusual symbols to glorify the divine energies of work in the universe. The obscurity of his mysticism becomes clearer when one understands a frantic attempt to portray the soul through the images of his imagination.

His Songs of Innocence" speaks the heavenly mysticism, the spiritualization of vision. On the other hand, in the “Songs of Experience, he draws harsh realities of life but still then he is not devoid of vision.

On Holy Thursday we get a picture of little children sitting with radiance and raising to Heaven. In Holy Thursday the vision of heaven has a solid foundation in the actual facts of life.

The Divine Image again shows the mystical note. Here the poet sees divine attributes in human beings. Mercy, pity, peace, and love are virtues to be found in human beings of all lands. But these are the attributes of God, it means that God lives in every human form.

Introduction to the "Songs of Experience" contains the prophetic Bard's call to Earth to rise and embark upon a new era in her life.

Earth's Answer leaves no doubt in our minds regarding Blake's pessimism as regards the presence of mankind. Both these poems are written in the form of visions.

The first is more striking mystical because of its references to the holy word and Christ or God walking among the trees of Eden and in the second poem Blake's mysticism is found on a clear understanding of the actual facts of human life.

The Tiger is a marvelous poem. It combines a vivid realism with strong visionary quality. "Tiger! Tiger!, burning bright. In the forest the night"-these lines are true literally and metaphorically.

Literally, the poem refers to the fiery quality of the Tiger's eyes and the tiger's glittering skin in the dark forests. Metaphorically, they refer to the violent, terrifying, and destructive nature of the tiger. These ideas developed the mystical quality of this poem.

Thus we find there are enough elements in the Songs of Innocence and Experience to call Blake a mystic poet.