Notes
1 Considerable space might
be devoted to the contraries implicit in Blake’s illuminated print-making
technique—in which he was compelled to design and to write his plates
backwards—as well as the historical split in Blake scholarship between
the verbal and visual interpretation of the Songs, but we have
not the space here and besides, others, such as Joseph Viscomi, do so
better than I ever could. I refer the reader to Viscomi and Essick’s “An
Inquiry into Blake's Method of Color Printing.”
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2 Some critics, such as E.D.
Hirsch, vehemently resist such a term as applied to Blake. Hirsh contends
that “Innocence and Experience were two mutually exclusive states of his
own soul corresponding to two different periods of his life”(6). While
I would obviously not argue that the Songs of Innocence and the
Songs of Experience were composed during two very different times
in Blake's life, I believe it indefensible to suggest that even though
he put the two books together, and made changes in the plate order and
tinting to make the pairings more significant, Blake did not intend for
the two books to be read in relationship with each other.
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3 An interesting analogue to
Blake's immersive image/texts are Tibetan mandalas, which are used in
conjunction with a meditative practice that engenders a trance-like state
in which the mandala becomes a three dimensional space that the meditator
enters, and where he/she is spiritually transformed. I would suggest that
Blake is striving for a similar effect.
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4 Such modern musical eminences
as Benjamin Britten and Ralph Vaughn Williams have set Blake's Songs
to music; many others, including the Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, have attempted
more "amateur" settings.
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5 It seems astounding that
Blake originally included this somewhat risqué plate in The
Songs of Innocence. It was only later, after the creation of The
Songs of Experience, that he moved it to that book.
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