William Blake's Introduction from "Songs Of Innocence And Of Experience"

Bravely, I decided to independently attempt reading the first few pages about William Blake and his poems.  To my surprise, even after reading about his background, and the context/time period during his writing, I found it hard to understand his introductory poem for his book, "Songs of Innocence and of Experience."

At first glance, the writing is very short and simple, but very different than the usual grammatical structure from which I am used to.  This may be due to the fact that Blake uses old English since the setting is in London/Great Britain during the 18th century A.D.  So what is the reading about when it talks about a "Piper" and the constant wishes from the child to play and sing a song about a "Lamb."  After the initial and second reading, I was still utterly confused and had to rely on "Google" to help me dissect this piece.

After a few tries, I was able to find a source of information to help me understand what the author was trying to say.  Most of my understanding was attained with the help of the following web site:  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=615.

In this introduction, Blake is trying to portray to the audience his purpose and experience as a poet.  The "Piper" in the story is analogous to a "Poet" who at first, satisfy his/her own pleasures by playing music for their own enjoyment.  The "child" who was "on the cloud" is probably an angel from above who has come down to let the "Piper" know his true purpose in life.  By requesting the Piper to play a song about a "Lamb" which symbolizes Christ, the angel is telling the Piper to play and sing the songs to spread the blessings of Christ for "every child... to hear."  The Piper no longer plays for himself, but now has a bigger and more meaningful purpose for his skill, and that is to serve Christ.  The analogy of the Piper is the skillful poet, and more specifically Blake himself.  Why is this?  Well, Blake was documented to have stated his ability to see "angels in trees" and even the spirit of his passing brother Robert ascending to heaven while "clapping his hands."  Some point in time in his life, Blake probably believed that he was contacted by an angel and was given the order to spread Christ's words through his artistic talents.  Like the Piper, Blake is stating that he has a higher purpose, and that is to write and create art to spread the presence and blessings ("happy songs") of Christ for "all children" of England to enjoy ("Every child may joy to hear").

It is amazing to me how meaningful this passage becomes once we consider all the factors such as the author's history, background, setting, and politics of the time to understand their works.  Without this knowledge, or being the people living in his time, I doubt anyone could understand his words.  However, it made me think how clever artists were in trying to spread their beliefs and messages at the time.  It was meant for only a few to understand while being vague enough to prevent them from being captured or punished if it was offensive to the government, which was important at the time since the country was going through a revolution.  As a computer scientist, I've learned many ways in software to encrypt information in order to hide it while still sending the message to my intended audience.  It is interesting that poetry has this trait when looking at it from this perspective.