Introduction to Songs of Innocence by William Blake | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The very first poem of the illustrative poetic collection Songs of Innocence by William Blake is titled ‘Introduction.’ In this poem, the poet explains the purpose and inspiration behind the poetry that he wrote for the book. Songs of Innocence is the first part of the later enlarged poetic collection Songs of Innocence and Experience; the two contrary states of the human soul. The whole theme of the poetic collection is that though a human being is innocent and pure during his infancy and childhood, he is prone to corruption and falls into the corrupt ways of the world as he grows old. Songs of Innocence is written in a pastoral setup. In the introductory poem, the narrator is described as a piper. He is happily piping when he sees a child on a cloud. The child asks him to pipe a song about a lamb, and when he does sing, the child weeps on hearing it. Again, the child asks the piper to sing and he sings the same song. The boy begins laughing with joy. The boy then demands that the narrator write his songs down so that "every child may joy to hear" them. Such fluent, creative joy, the poem suggests, is part of what innocence is all about. But darker notes in the poem remind readers that childlike innocence must also confront a world of pain and suffering.

Contrasting the figure of the Piper of Songs of Innocence, the introductory figure of Songs of Experience is the Bard.

Structure of Introduction to Songs of Innocence:

The poem is written in the form of a lyric. It is a 20-line poem set in five quatrains (four lines each). Some of these quatrains are written in heroic stanza form. The poem is written in trochaic tetrameter. There is no fixed rhyming scheme. Stanzas 1 and 4 follow the “ABAB” pattern, while stanzas 2, 3, and 5 use an “ABCB” pattern. This nursery rhyme shape suits a poem of childlike glee and creative inspiration.

It is the frontispiece of Songs of Innocence and works as the preface of the collection, giving a brief idea of the whole collection. In Hear Thy Voice (Introduction to Songs of Experience) the speaker describes his conversation with the Bard. Introduction to Songs of Innocence is structured as a dialogue between the narrator and the boy of vision which is described by the narrator to his audience. The poet has used Imagery, Symbolism, Allusion, Repetition, and Metaphor in the poem.

Summary of Introduction to Songs of Innocence:

Stanza 1 and 2 Lines 1-8

“Piping down the valleys wild

Piping songs of pleasant glee

On a cloud I saw a child.

And he laughing said to me.

Pipe a song about a Lamb;

So I piped with merry chear,

Piper pipe that song again—

So I piped, he wept to hear.”

The poet envisions himself as a shepherd who happily pipes the songs of happiness “down the valleys wild.” While doing so, he sees a vision of a boy sitting on a cloud. The poet feels that the child is admiring the song he is piping. The boy requests the shepherd to pipe another song about a Lamb. Blake used Allusion here. The ‘Lamb’ also refers to God, alluding to the innocence and the sacrifice made by Jesus Christ on the cross. The ‘valleys wild’ symbolizes the poem's rural, rustic, pastoral setting. The piper was happy finding an audience so he piped the song cheerfully. The boy asked him to pipe the song again and the piper obliged. But this time, the boy was sad as he thought about the sacrifice made by Jesus Christ on the cross.

Stanza 3 Lines 9-12

“Drop thy pipe thy happy pipe

Sing thy songs of happy chear,

So I sung the same again

While he wept with joy to hear ”

The narrator gets enchanted by the boy of vision. The boy requests again to sing the song about the Lamb. He asks the piper to “Drop his pipe” and sing his “songs of happy chear.” The shepherd realizes the divine nature of the boy from vision and he immediately obeys the request made by the boy. When the piper sings the song of Lamb, the child weeps again but this time, it is the cry of joy. The boy is too happy by the beauty of the song.

Stanza 4 Lines 13-16

“Piper sit thee down and write

In a book that all may read— 

So he vanish'd from my sight. 

And I pluck'd a hollow reed.”

In the stanzas 1-4, the narrator explains the inspiration and purpose of his writing the songs and poems that he wrote for the collection. He describes his conversation with the boy of vision that he saw sitting on a cloud. This conversation ends in the fourth stanza. The boy, after hearing the cheerful song of the piper, suggests him that he should “sit down and write” the songs he has created. The child suggests that he write them down “In a book that all may read”. The purpose is to spread the innocence and peity of these songs to a greater audience. The piper obliges again. The piper picks a hollow reed to use it as a pen.

Stanza 5 Lines 17-20
“And I made a rural pen,

And I stain'd the water clear,

And I wrote my happy songs

Every child may joy to hear”

The piper picked up a ‘hollow reed’ and used it as a ‘rural’ or not sophisticated pen. He used the clear water as stained ink. Here the poet used allusion again. Using the reed for a pen and stained water for the ink alludes to the act of creation to nature. The easily acquired tools provided by the natural world serve to emphasize the spontaneity of the works in Songs of Innocence. The narrator explains his purpose is to let every child have the joy of hearing these songs of innocence.

The poet also employed Parallelism in the poem. The shepherd's progression from piping, to singing, and finally to writing parallels the poet's own progression from inspiration, the music, to the initial composition of the poem, the lyrics, and finally the creative act of putting the words in poetic form.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!