Blakes Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience with Walt Whitmans Essay

Blakes Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience with Walt Whitmans Leaves of Grass - Essay Example In order to draw the relation of contrast and comparison between Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience and Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, it is quintessential to learn that both William Blake in his â€Å"Songs of Innocence and Experience† and Walt Whitman’s â€Å"Leaves of Grass† serve as a critique of their respective societies during the contemporary frame of time. However, Blake’s approach towards societal institutions was very much different from that of Whitman and upon this paradigm the discourse of contrast can be woven effectively for both the works. For example, if Blake’s view upon religion verses man and Whitman’s propositions upon the same area are taken into consideration, one can draw the effective conclusion that Whitman believed that existence of God is in everything and therefore God is equal to all the existing features around. To explicate this, he writes in the poem ‘Song of Myself’, â€Å"I he ar and behold God in every object, yet I understand God not in the least, Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself†. For Blake, the concept of God revolves round the unification of man with God which is more for the purpose of redeeming mankind rather than seeking the existence of God unlike Whitman, Blake had an exclusive Christian vision pertaining to the unification of God with human soul and pondered much upon the hypocrisy of religion in the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.... ion verses man and Whitman’s propositions upon the same area are taken into consideration, one can draw the effective conclusion that Whitman believed that existence of God is in everything and therefore God is equal to all the existing features around. To explicate this, he writes in the poem ‘Song of Myself’, â€Å"I hear and behold God in every object, yet I understand God not in the least, Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself† (Whitman 72). For Blake, the concept of God revolves round the unification of man with God which is more for the purpose of redeeming mankind rather than seeking the existence of God unlike Whitman, Blake had an exclusive Christian vision pertaining to the unification of God with human soul and pondered much upon the hypocrisy of religion in the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. In poems such as â€Å"Holy Thursday† and â€Å"The Little Vagabond†, Blake criticizes the religion as an institution by vehemently attacking the spiritual leaders who have used wrongly or more precisely abused their religious authority. The men who should guide their followers as shepherds take care of their flocks, in the eyes of Blake are actually practicing and making space for the reinforcement of a socio-economic and socio-political system that are dehumanizing small innocent children into chimney sweepers and follow a repressing action in order to curb and curtail the human emotions of love and creativity among adults. In ‘Holy Thursday’, Blake writes, â€Å"Is this a holy thing to see,   In a rich and fruitful land,   Babes reduced to misery,   Fed with cold and usurous hand?   Is that trembling cry a song?   Can it be a song of joy?   And so many children poor?  (Gillham 18) With regard to the societal criticism