York Notes on William Blake's "Songs of Innocence and of Experience" (York Notes Advanced)

This book was so useful when teaching these poems and developing students thinking. When reading out bits of this book, it helped students get better understanding of the poems and give them some impetus to engage with the poems too.A must have if you are an English teacher!

AS DESCRIBED AND PROMPT SERVICE

As a sixth former, I was hoping this would help with my A-Level studies, and include specific themes etc. Although this was provided, I was left somewhat wanting. I find this useful but I think some more detailed looks at the specifics of them poem, in order to help with comparisons. As this is supposed to be a revision guide, it was something I was looking for.This was useful for general understanding but not so much on specific knowledge into each verse.

I cannot recommend this book enough, for A level. Particularly the board I did (WJEC) as it covers all the AOs nicely. It's incredibly useful for gaining other perspectives, going over poems you may not know, and also learning contextual information about Blake and his work.When flashcards and writing everything out gets a bit tiring, it's great to have a passive revision tool like this that you can just read before bed in a semi-relaxed state. I found much of the material so interesting that the information went in without having to write anything down.For the amount it could improve your grade, it is definitely worth the £5.

Classics

Helped with studies

I used this alongside my studies of Blake's 'Songs of Innocence and of Experience' at A-Level, and found it a brilliant help throughout. Definitely recommended.

This book was helpful in summarising each poem with commentary, but not much detail was given especially when it came to analysing language etc. If you're studying Blake for A Level, and you want deeper analysis I wouldn't recommend this however, if you're struggling with the poems and what they're about then this is definitely helpful.