I started my post during the weekend trying to summarize Blake’s representation system of color in Songs of Innocence, because he mentions certain colors repetitively throughout the whole series. Firstly, Blake uses the color of white frequently as the symbol of innocence and white is the color of lamb and the Lamb, which refers to Jesus Christ. Also, in The Little Black Boy, white is related to biblical image: “my soul is white. White as an angel is the English child” (16). The connection between white and innocence continues in The Chimney Sweeper, representing the sweepers rising upon clouds: “then naked & white, all their bags left behind” (18). Later in The Little Boy Found, white is again associated with God: “but God ever nigh, Appeared like his father in white” (19).
Green is another color that connects to the representation of innocence and green echoes with the color of white by referring to grass and lawn, where the lambs are. In Ecchoing Green, the color of green merges with the image of children playing cheerfully. Also, in Laughing Song, the color of green is associated with the concept of joy: “when the meadows laugh with lively green…” (19). In Night, “green fields and happy groves” are tightly connected with “where lambs have nibbled” (23). Finally, in Nurse’s Song, green is again presented with the laughing voices of children: “when the voices of children are heard on the green” (25). Besides Songs of Innocence, the image of green and white are seen in Blake’s other works. For example, in “And did those feet in ancient time”, England’s mountains are described as green (147).
Unlike white and green, the color of black is usually associated with image of industrialization and contamination of innocence. In The Little Black Boy, though Blake shows no discrimination against the boy’s dark skin, the color black is still presented as a contrary of white: “And I am black, but O! my soul is white” (16). This image is more obvious in The Chimney Sweeper, black is associated with factories and counter-color of white: “Were all of them lock’d up in coffins of black” (18). Similarly, in “And did those feet in ancient time”, the Satanic Mills are described as dark (147).
(http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/comparison.xq?selection=compare&copies=all&bentleynum=B2©id=s-inn.u&java=yes
Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy F, 1789, 1794 (Yale Center for British Art): electronic edition
Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy L, 1795 (Yale Center for British Art): electronic edition)
However, after our first discussion, I realized that Blake himself might be against this strict division of color, which is what I am doing right now. Blake’s art work is destroying the system he created in his own words. He set up this point of view in YAH & His Two Sons Satan & Adam: “What can be created can be destroyed” (352). In the art works associated with Songs of Innocence, he is materializing this idea: using different color, an infant can be both an angel and a demon (pictures above). By creating the contrary of colors in art works and poems, Blake is mocking those who try to institutionalize and systemize things, in this case colors, from their experience and reason. For Blake, the state of innocence is not a boy who was taught white symbolizes Christ but one who learn the true Christ through their vision, their imagination, and their Poetic Genius.
William Blake and Enlightenment Media 
I really like your final paragraph discussing the fact that Blake is, in essence, destroying the color codes that he has created in previous works–allowing them to be interpreted in a number of different ways. I appreciate your comments as well regarding his breaking up of the color code to break up commonly held, or systemized beliefs regarding his works making them very difficult to assign a true meaning to. This is where Blake’s true brilliance shines out–in the ways that he organizes his pieces, or doesn’t whatsoever.
One thing in particular, however, that I am thinking about is that although Blake rebels against this systemization, I am getting the feeling that he is also guilty of almost systemizing his creative styles–through the chaos that he creates. Well, not exactly a system–it would be pretty broad–but rather what Blake tries to do with the differences between his illuminated books is mildly predictable (bear with me).
Blake truly enjoys the uniqueness of his work–clearly demonstrating how clever and worthy he is of the true artistic title awarded to those in the Royal Academy. His obsession with contraries is where he gives himself away–particularly in the “Songs of Innocence and Experience.” Blake creates numerous pages for his works that boast astounding colors–no single page identical; he even uses different color schemes (making some characters darker, blacker, lighter, golden, divine, hellish). Blake demonstrates that, at least in his world, he has a clear grasp on Innocence: that Innocence does not exist without its contrary, Experience.
Blake makes his statement in the variety of changes each page goes through, as you discussed above in your post, that with Innocence coexists a form that boasts Experience as well. As seen in the Introduction to the Songs of Innocence (posted above) the cherubic figure on the cloud embodies divine innocence in one image and a sort of impish, hellishness in the other–almost as if the Poetic Genius creates these contraries. He mimics this throughout his various pieces in different ways deliberately (sounds kind of like a system).
Yes, Blake is trying to confuse the color code that is commonly held in one piece of work by changing it completely in another, offering contraries. But even further than that, Blake is getting a handle on the paradoxes of nature that he himself comes to grip with–that Innocence coexists with Experience, that Heaven coexists with Hell, that the Big Mac coexists with the Whopper, that terror and euphoria exist as sublime emotions, etc. Blake’s methodology (sounds better than system-ology) is to effectively grasp nature and how it appears in the world.
dear karen.zhang,
I think you make some astute observations about the importance (and irony) of the function of color in Blake’s illustrations. I particularly enjoyed this sentence–“By creating the contrary of colors in art works and poems, Blake is mocking those who try to institutionalize and systemize things, in this case colors, from their experience and reason,” and I agree with you. I think the most “controversial” color for Blake would be black–both in The Little Black Boy, and the Chimney Sweeper. You mention that white was the color of innocence (at least that which was taught), associated with lambs and souls, but what if Blake wants to make the point that black can also be innocent? White is not actually a color, but absence of color, while black is ALL color, and simply absence of light. But one cannot exist without the other, which leads into “Songs of Experience.”
The important thing to remember (which I believe you grasped), was that sometimes the words of the poem did not match the color of the image. Take for example this particular image of “The Blossom.” The poetry starts off with, “Merry merry sparrow/ Under leaves so green,” but if we take a look at the color of this blossom, it appears to have more of a fiery quality than a small plant.
All in all, nice images chosen to show the ways in which a cherubim can become a demon simply through the use of color. I wonder if the meaning of the poems change (if the words remain the same), but by altering the colors of the illustrations, does the poem retain its original meaning, and IS there a set way to interpret, or is interpretation based on visualization?
Karen, great post. You are right in pointing out Blake’s use of color in his poems and I highly doubt you’d find anyone willing to take you to task concerning your explanation of their metaphorical importance in his work. However, as Catherine alludes to in her comment, it would have been fun to see more examples of how Blake’s use of varying colors among different copies radically alters the reader’s understanding of their respective poems.
I agree with a lot of what catherineboucher said, but I’m also even more curious about the relationship between color in the poems and color in the illustrations. You’re right, I think, to say that Blake’s use of color (whether by description or in the illustrations themselves) is closely related to his theme of contraries, but does that necessarily mean that Blake is always contrasting the poem and its accompanying illustration? If so, are we to depend solely on one or the other for our interpretation of a given poem? Especially given that Blake used different colors in his illustrations from copy to copy, what exactly is constant about what he’s trying to say in each individual poem?