BEGIN SINGING

"The Man who does not know The Beginning, never can know the End of Art"

(Annotations to Reynolds)

Blake's Songs of Innocence (1789) and then Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1794) present their poems in a variety of different orders--there is no definitive sequence, though editors have generally opted for the one that appears in a number of late copies. At the end of each poem here, you have the option of proceeding to any of the poems Blake placed after it. You could follow a given edition throughout, or you can jump around. But first you have to begin somewhere, with the opening of copies abcdefghijklmnopqrst or tu or EJLORSVWXYZA-A or an index