Textual History: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Songs and Innocence and of Experience by William Blake has come a long way from being printed at the end of the 18th century to making its way into university curriculum. Blake’s printing and illumination of the collection of poems can be traced due to the preservation of these original texts. The subsequent printings of the text also provide insight toward the various changes that Blake made to each version of these volumes. Through an analysis of the diction of the poem “The Sick Rose”, the historical context of specific words become more clearly defined. There are also many scholarly articles to which the original text can be compared. These articles provide a deeper understanding of the historical context of “The Sick Rose” and in turn, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. The importance of understanding the historical origins of a text is paramount as this knowledge allows for a realization of the context of its creation and how it deserves its placement in the literary canon.
First of all, the original texts that make up the Songs of Innocence and of Experience were originally printed from etched plates containing poetry and images related to the text which Blake created himself. “In the Songs of Innocence, the marriage of the poems and designs was complete, and matter and form (poetic and artistic) attained an almost complete identity.” (Langridge) Initially, Songs of Innocence was printed by itself as a solitary volume. Songs of Experience was added in later volumes and printings. While each of these parts was printed as one codex, the texts were also available as two separate volumes. Blake printed every copy and painted the accompanying details and illustrations that filled the margins of every page. There are many surviving copies of this text from its original printing in 1789. Four copies of the original printings can be found at the British Museum, the Library of Congress, the Yale Center for British Art, and the Huntington Library. By visiting these institutions it is possible to see these manuscripts. These texts, along with later publications of the Songs, are all available for viewing online through The William Blake Archive.
Secondly, subsequent publications of the Songs of Innocence and of Experience and their history are myriad and varied. As the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience were printed both separately and combined, the publication history is complicated with many different combinations of the individual volumes with different printings of individual pages. In the case of the page with the printing of the poem “The Sick Rose”, there are no discernable differences in the text of the poem itself across many publications. There are however a few noticeable variations in the illuminations in the margins of the page. At the bottom of the page of the poem, there is an image of a woman emerging from the center of a bloomed rose. This image is consistent across all different printings of this page. The difference across the pages is depicted in the details pertaining to the woman emerging from the rose. In the original printing from 1789, the woman is coming out of the rose by herself. In Copy E of the page, which was printed in 1795, the woman is intertwined with a worm. This key difference notes the emphasis on the diction of the poem. The inclusion of the worm in the details of the illumination convey how the imagery of worm mentioned in the poem is important to the reader. “Combined Songs Copy E also consists mostly of impressions from these print runs, but appears to have been assembled or at least recolored c. 1806 for Blake's patron Thomas Butts.” (The William Blake Archive) As this copy was recolored for a specific patron, it is possible that the different image stems from this. This minute detail focusing on the differences of a single page is only one of the many changes across the text’s publication history. Blake added or removed different pages from subsequent publications, sometimes replacing plates of the same poems or even using older plates in newer printings. He also arranged the poems differently, sometimes moving poems from Songs of Innocence to Songs of Experience and vice versa.
Third, the works can be found across many different poetry collections and literary anthologies. While previous editions of the text have been reserved for patrons of illuminated manuscripts the current printings that reside within the aforementioned collections are meant to educate readers on the English literary canon. The diction within the poem, “The Sick Rose” has straightforward meaning. All the words retain the same meaning that they do in today’s lexicon. There is an exception to this as the word worm can be considered a double entendre in this case. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word worm was widely used in the late eighteenth century to describe reptilian or serpent-like creatures. “A serpent, snake, dragon. Now only archaic.” (OED) While the word worm in the poem pertains to the invertebrate creature confirmed by its visual representation in Copy E, the biblical nature of Blake’s writings along with a description of a serpent conveys the idea of a deceptive character within the poem’s narrative. The serpentine description of the worm parallels the story of the Garden of Eden. In the story, a serpent manipulates a woman, Eve, into eating a forbidden fruit. In the poem, the worm is representative of men and the rose represents women. The narrative of the piece unfolds as the worm manipulates its way to get what it wants from the rose. According to Nathan Cervo’s article, “Blake’s the Sick Rose”, “The worm is the Other and serves to existentialize the Rose, that is to bring the Rose into real and significant danger.” (Cervo) This parallelism makes it all the more appropriate that Blake chooses to use this word knowing its archaic context.
The original text of the poem, “The Sick Rose” has no discernable differences from the 100 Best Loved Poems text used in class. There is no variance in the scholarly edition of the text found in The Blake Archive either. The original text published in 1794 seems to have remained completely intact across all iterations of the poem’s publication. This lends itself to the simplicity in Blake’s diction across all of his poetry. There has not been any need to alter or translate the texts for a modern audience.
Furthermore, there are a few scholarly articles that discuss the historical context and inspirations for “The Sick Rose”. In the article, “The Sickness of Blake’s Rose”, author, Michael Srigley, describes in detail his perceived analysis of the worm and the sickness mentioned in the text of the poem. The worm is mentioned to be the impure thoughts of a sexual imagination. In this case, Srigley states that the word worm is defined as a maggot or larvae. This definition implies the unwanted invasive nature of these thoughts. “The poem is essentially a distillation of the Paracelsan teaching concerning the transmission at a distance of passionate imaginings from one person to another, as found primarily in De Origine morborum invisibilium but also referred to in other works by Paracelsus. The sickness of the Rose has been caused by the fantasizing of a lonely young man as he conjures up an image of a woman and imagines making love to her.” (Srigley) He discusses how the creation of the poem and its specific diction can be attributed to Blake’s familiarity with the works of Swiss philosopher Paracelsus. The titular illness attributed to the rose is sexual desires of men toward women. This proves that Blake was conscious of philosophical ideologies and decided to include them within his works.
In the article, “The “insidious poison of secret Influence”: A New Historical Context for Blake’s “The Sick Rose”’” author, Jon Mee, discusses the inspirations for “The Sick Rose” through an historical criticism of the poem. The article discusses how corrupt politician and journalist George Rose serves as the inspiration for the poem as he became an infamous figure in London newspapers. “The covert nature of the topicality of Blake’s “The Sick Rose” is as much the product of this climate of fear as it is of a defiantly prophetic rhetoric. Indeed that rhetoric itself had long been shaped as a political language if not necessarily by the experience of defeat then at least by a knowledge that repression and censorship were always barriers to idealized notions of the public sphere.” (Mee) This indicates that Blake’s writings also served as topical social commentary enhancing the imagery within his literature by grounding the sublime prophetic nature of most of his poetry.
In conclusion, the history of Songs of Innocence and of Experience provide insight toward what made up the works and how readers are experiencing the texts today. From the elaborate original printings to the mass produced texts in 100 Best Loved Poems, the interpretations of a singular poem have changed and evolved. This is a testament to the dynamism of literature as a whole. Only through the historical analysis of these works can readers experience the transformation and development surrounding these important pieces of the literary canon.
