Extant copies:
Songs of Innocence: 26 copies
Songs of Experience: 4 copies
Songs of Innocence and of Expeience: 24 copies
No copies of SoI alone have the poems in exactly the same sequence.
Of the combined SoI and SoE, only 6 exhibit exactly the same sequence (copies U, W, X, Y, Z and AA).
According to G. E. Bentley, Jr. in Blake Books, "The plates of Innocence and the combined Songs were arranged in thirty-four distinct ways" (386).
Four poems were moved from the original SoI to SoE in the combined collection:
In a letter fragment in Blake's hand, conjectured by Erdman to be written to Thomas Butts in 1818 or later, Blake indicates the following "Order in which the Songs of Innocence & of Experience ought to be paged & placed." Only copy V adheres to this sequence.
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Page 1. General Title 2. Frontispiece of Piper 3. Title page to Songs of Innocence 4. Introduction -- Piping down the Valleys & 5. Ecchoing Green 6. Ditto 7. Lamb 8. The Shepherd 9. Infant Joy 10. Little Black Boy 11. Ditto 12. Laughing Song 13. Spring 14. Ditto 15. Cradle Song 16. Ditto 17. Nurse's Song 18. Holy Thursday 19. The Blossom 20. The Chimney Sweeper 21. The Divine Image 22. Night 23. Ditto 24. A Dream 25. On Anothers Sorrow 26. The Little Boy Lost 27. The Little Boy Found |
Page 28. Frontispiece of Child on Shepherd's Head 29. Title Page to Songs of Experience 30. Introduction -- Hear the Voice of the Bard & 31. Earth's Answer 32. Nurse's Song 33. The Fly 34. The Tyger 35. Little Girl Lost 36. Ditto 37. Ditto 38. The Clod & Pebble 39. The Little Vagabond 40. Holy Thursday 41. A Poison Tree 42. The Angel 43. The Sick Rose 44. To Tirzah 45. The Voice of the Ancient Bard 46. My pretty Rose Tree 47. The Garden of Love 48. A Little Boy Lost 49. Infant Sorrow 50. The School Boy 51. London 52. A little Girl Lost 53. The Chimney Sweeper. A little Black thing & 54. The Human Abstract |
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End of Songs of Innocence: then Begin Songs of Experience |
Some ways of grouping the poems (plate numbers below are to Copy W, the King's College Copy, reproduced as the Princeton / Blake Trust edition):
Poems with the same titles