Reading Response: "Point of View and Context in Blake's Songs"

          Robert F. Gleckner's “Point of View and Context in Blake's Songs” interprets the recurring symbols, points of view, and symbolic action present in Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Gleckner believes that Blake's method of poetry uses the concept of states and their symbols so a reader can see what he saw, imagine what he imagined, and recreate what he created. Gleckner claims that innocence, experience, and higher innocence are the major symbols Blake uses to impact his readers, and minor, contributory symbols are present in every individual poem. The reader must interpret these symbols to fully understand the true meaning in Blake writing. Blake carefully selects each word in a poem to give the symbols their existence, and then builds each minor symbol into a poem, a series, and eventually progressing to the states of innocence and experience. Constant awareness of the state the poem is written for is required for an accurate interpretation because each state is built from a series of poems, and all must be evaluated to produce the full true meaning of any single poem. Individually, each song has little meaning and may be interpreted differently than Blake's intentions, but when associated with other songs in a series, form symbolic patterns that have greater meaning. Gleckner conveys that an accurate determination of the speaker and their perspective will also produce a correct interpretation. Observation of the reactions of various characters to the same symbolic act, object, or character is important, for their actions and symbols will reveal the major symbolism present. All of Blake's characters are imaginative and see the imaginative and symbolic significance of all the activity in the poem. Blake said that one must “rouze his faculties to act,” meaning one must always use their mind's full imaginative capabilities when considering the imaginative view point of his characters. Once a major symbolic pattern is derived from a series of poems, character actions will also obtain patterns, and will intensify the value and significance of other characters. Every poem Blake writes in a series has both a specific and greater meaning, and a pattern must be acknowledged to grasp Blake's teachings, for “his songs were not merely written for our enjoyment, or even our edification, but for our salvation”(Gleckner).

         When reviewing poems in both the Songs of Innocence and Experience, I easily followed the guidelines Gleckner proclaimed, through the symbols and states he suggests. While skimming the index of both books, I discovered corresponding titles. After reading a few poems with these titles, the connections between the two books were lucid. The introduction to both books contain narrator's perspectives that are opposite to each other. When “Piping down the valleys wild,” the first line of the introduction of the Songs of Innocence, is compared to; “Hear the voice of the Bard,” the first line of the Songs of Experience's introduction, a reader can easily distinguish between one who is inexperienced, and one who is exceedingly experienced. The narrators of the Songs of Innocence share a childish, care-free view on the world around them, while the narrators of the Songs of Experience share a knowledgeable, excessively cautious view. When the simple views of the characters in the Songs of Innocence are added to the mature views of the characters in the Songs of Experience, two halves of Blake's views are conjoined and a reader can more readily be taught his lessons. I believe that the instructions entailed by Gleckner in this article will produce one who can fluently translate Blake poetry, and grasp its true meaning. I do not agree with Gleckner when he says that “many of Blake's symbols are recurrent.” I believe that Blake wrote each poem in a series as a duet, having an opposite, and combining to only express a single view. Poems expressing similar ideas and having the same symbolism could not be accounted for within the series. Only the same major symbolic groups that Gleckner suggests, innocence, experience, and higher innocence or religion, was relevant to all the poems in the series. With the help of Gleckner's article and specifications, one begins to fully understand Blake's work and the meaning behind it.