laceblade | Songs of Innocence and Experience

Perhaps you readers are familiar with William Blake's songs of innocence and experience. In these collections, he would take various themes and write about them first from an innocent perspective, and then from one of experience. The more experienced views tended to be darker. For my English class, we had to mimic this style, including the rhyming format (generally abcb). Naturally, both of mine ended up generally dark. I hate rhyming, but I think these turned out semi-alright. I'm not a good rhymer, but here they are.

Innocence: overwhelmed at nine

I feel sad, tonight.
My homework is through
and I’m so very bored
but there’s nothing to do.

Someone in my English class
made fun of me
because I’m reading a big book.
I hate when people make fun of me.

I’m not skinny
and name brands aren’t what I wear.
I read too much
and I’m the one with frizzy hair.

I’ll never have a boyfriend,
and my friends will always be in a fight.
I’m bored and there’s nothing to do.
How awful, poor me, now I’ll turn out the light.

Experience: overwhelmed at nine

I feel dark, tonight
and I can’t work any more at all,
Even though my work’s not finished.
Every night at nine, I just hit my wall.

Every night at nine, I start remembering things
Like when Brianna left and when Matt died
and when I had to tell why Christine was crying in my room
and all the other things at which I’ve cried.

I wish that all that hurt
was my lack of a boyfriend
or the occasional teasing.
Because then it’d be easier to get around this bend.

But instead, I clench my fists
and rise up off my scraped knees
and with my small candle, I’ll keep going forward.
Blind faith and foolish hope: you are my keys.

Songs of Innocence and Experience

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