#10 in Poetry
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
- 85
- Pages
- about 1.5 h
- Reading time
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Our view
William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and of Experience” is a slim, carefully paired collection in which songs of hope meet darker counterparts. The two sets, bound together in 1794, are meant to be read against each other, the later poems shadowed by pain and mortality. Some readers find the childlike voice hard to warm to, while others return to a handful of favourite poems. At under a hundred pages, it invites rereading.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Songs of Innocence and of Experience is a collection of illustrated poems by William Blake. Originally, Blake illuminated and bound Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience separately. It was only in 1794 that Blake combined the two sets of poems into a volume titled Songs of Innocence and of Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul. Even after beginning to print the poems together, Blake continued to produce individual volumes for each of the two sets of poetry.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.0 across 80 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 35% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Poetry average of 8.0. That is how 8.0 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 9.6 | 5 | 6% |
| Hardcover | 7.9 | 75 | 94% |
Frequently asked
How long is Songs of Innocence and of Experience?
It has 85 pages — shorter than 82% of the ranked books in Poetry.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Poetry — with scores between 7.7 and 8.4, closest to this book.
