William Blake's Songs of Innocence & of Experience

by Harold Bloom (Editor)

149 pages, Library Binding

First published September 1, 1987

About the author

Harold Bloom was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world." After publishing his first book in 1959, Bloom wrote more than 50 books, including over 40 books of literary criticism, several books discussing religion, and one novel. He edited hundreds of anthologies concerning numerous literary and philosophical figures for the Chelsea House publishing firm. Bloom's books have been translated into more than 40 languages. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1995.
Bloom was a defender of the traditional Western canon at a time when literature departments were focusing on what he derided as the "school of resentment" (multiculturalists, feminists, Marxists, and others). He was educated at Yale University, the University of Cambridge, and Cornell University.

Reviews

[Susan Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

The edition I read is a facsimile of the original, engraved and illustrated by William Blake and published in 1794. It was published by the Tate Enterprises in 2019, with an introduction by Richard Holmes. There are many lessons to be learned in reading Songs of Innocence & of Experience as Blake presented them. For instance, The Songs of Innocence are handwritten in a kind of printing. The Songs of Experience more like cursive writing. This was Blake at his most brilliant: rhyming, yet profound, metaphysical, far-seeing.