Songs of Innocence and Experience - William Blake - The simple and beautiful eloquence of William Blake's poetry is exemplified here in "Songs of Innocence and of Experience." This collection of forty-six poems is actually two volumes in one. After first completing and publishing "Songs of Innocence" in 1789 Blake would, some five years later, add "Songs of Experience" to the volume in an effort to show "the two contrary states of the human soul."