Songs of Innocence and of Experience cover art

Songs of Innocence and of Experience

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Songs of Innocence and of Experience

By: William Blake
Narrated by: Roy Macready
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £3.99

Buy Now for £3.99

Only £0.99 a month for the first 3 months. Pay £0.99 for the first 3 months, and £8.99/month thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Start my membership

About this listen

The "Songs of Innocence" were published in 1789 and republished in 1794 together with the "Songs of Experience". They represent Blake's two perspectives on the world, that of the child (innocence) and that of the adult (experience). Blake's poetical works were largely neglected in their own time but are today considered some of the most brilliant of English verse. The "songs" are presented here together with "Auguries of Innocence".

Public Domain (P)2016 Spiders' House Audio/Roy Macready Classics European Poetry Themes & Styles World Literature

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Poetry of Hell cover art
Women in Love cover art
Oroonoko cover art
The Varieties of Religious Experience cover art
The Kite Runner cover art
Alfred Tennyson cover art
The Bloody Chamber cover art
A Kahlil Gibran Collection cover art
And the Prophet Said cover art
Kahlil Gibran's Little Book of Wisdom cover art
Sweep cover art
Thus Spake Zarathustra (AmazonClassics Edition) cover art
The Poetry of Tennyson cover art
Kahlil Gibran Classics Collection with a Historical Introduction: The Prophet, The Madman, and The Forerunner cover art
The Scarlet Plague [Classic Tales Edition] cover art
Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained cover art
All stars
Most relevant
Of the three available recordings of the Songs, Roy Macready's moving recitation is relatively outstanding.

Heartfelt

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Roy Macready's narration is wonderful, but the arrangement lets this down. the poems are out of order, with Innocence and Experience mixed up, which rather spoils Blake's depiction of 'the two contrary states of the human soul'. This would not be so bad if it were possible to select certain poems (like a music playlist) but unfortunately the 'chapters' of this audiobook are not that. Such a shame, because I did enjoy the narration immensely!

Good delivery, poor arrangement

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The poems are not read in the correct order as written and originally published. Poor.

Badly done.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.