I was intrigued to see Blake included a poem titled “Infant Sorrow” in Songs of Experience. Although I knew that Songs of Experience offered contrary poems to Songs of Innocence, “Infant Joy” was not a poem I expected to have a contrary poem. An infant is the epitome of innocence—he has absolutely no worldly experience, and he is not old enough to know of the sorrows and corruption of the world. For this reason, I expected “Infant Joy” to be a standalone poem—for Blake to utilize it as a way of showing “true innocence,” especially when compared to Songs of Experience.
By including “Infant Sorrow” in Songs of Experience, I think that Blake is making a very poignant statement. The infant itself has no worldly experience; therefore this poem can hardly be considered a song of “experience.” What does this say about human nature? Can it be assumed that infants are truly the only joyous humans because of their lack of knowledge and corruption, as Songs of Innocence would have you believe? “Infant Sorrow” paints a much darker picture of humanity, beginning as early as birth. The baby’s unhappiness seems to imply that sorrow is an inherent human trait, and that it is not experience that corrupts human nature, but the very natures that we are born with. This problematizes our reading of “Infant Joy”—is the baby actually happy, or is it a fleeting joy that will soon be lost to a life of sorrow? And is there anything that can preserve that joy, or is humanity destined for sorrow, regardless of experience?
William Blake and Enlightenment Media 
Though the infant has almost no worldly experience, we could also read this as the innocent child being particularly adaptive to his surroundings. In the first poem, as the infant is surrounded by gentleness, he feels joy because it is his only experience. In the second, as the “mother groand” and “father wept” the immediate experience of the child is the sorrow of those around him. If with innocence comes a willingness to believe what one is told (as seen in The Chimney Sweeper in Songs of Experience), it would make sense that the child’s words and emotions would mirror his surroundings. “Infant Sorrow” is then an example of the corrupting power of negative experience at a young age in bringing innocence to a premature end.
I find the second half of your post to be incredibly interesting. The question regarding the seeming paradox established by including an infant in “Songs of Experience” is complicated. In my reading, I chose to interpret the poem from the stance that this is more a projection of the assumed thoughts of the infant. Thus, this projection is more indicative of the infants parents and the surrounding adult world. In this way, the paradox is avoided. Moreover, the draft version of this poem includes a large portion of text that was eventually cut. This text gives us more insight into the direction of Blake in writing “Infant Sorrow.” I find the contemplation of the final figures as either the baby’s father or a priest to point more toward the negative effects of the world surrounding the infant and their potential as corrupting influences.
I agree that “Infant Sorrow” is hard to consider a song of experience, but I was hesitant to suggest that Blake views sorrow as an inherent human trait because “Infant Joy” so strongly contradicts that. It seems that Blake believes both joy and sorrow are inherent human traits. I find it intriguing that he separates Joy and Sorrow so starkly between “Innocence” and “Experience” in these two poems when others in both collections present them more as coexisting states. I think that was why I focused on the fact that these poems were each giving an infant a voice. I agree that the poems are raising the questions you ask at the end, but I wondered why they did so in such a seemingly black and white way.
Though the infant has almost no worldly experience, we could also read this as the innocent child being particularly adaptive to his surroundings. In the first poem, as the infant is surrounded by gentleness, he feels joy because it is his only experience. In the second, as the “mother groand” and “father wept” the immediate experience of the child is the sorrow of those around him. If with innocence comes a willingness to believe what one is told (as seen in The Chimney Sweeper in Songs of Experience), it would make sense that the child’s words and emotions would mirror his surroundings. As the draft continues to detail the actions of the infant, we see how this experience leads to the conclusion that “the time of youth is fled,” when in a literal sense the child is but a few days old. “Infant Sorrow” is then an example of the corrupting power of negative experience at a young age in bringing innocence to a premature end.
Great post. The comment thread clearly show that experience still carries a lot of weight in determining the infant’s sorrow, especially when read in the context of the earlier draft version. Your point about sorrow as an inherent human trait seems consistent with Blake’s critique of empiricism, or the idea that Knowledge derives from experience. But, then again, infants can’t actually think and speak for themselves, implying that his emotional state is a mediated adult projection–an important point to consider!