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Poet, painter, engraver, and visionary William Blake worked to bring about a change both in the social order and in the minds of men. Though in his lifetime his work was largely neglected or dismissed, he is now considered one of the leading lights of English poetry, and his work has only grown in popularity. In his Life of William Blake (1863 ...
- Jerusalem ["And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time"]
William Blake was a poet and printmaker born in London in...
- A Poison Tree
A Poison Tree - William Blake | Poetry Foundation
- The Tyger
Facsimile reproduction of the 1794 illuminated manuscript,...
- Ah! Sun-flower
Ah! Sun-flower - William Blake | Poetry Foundation
- Earth's Answer
Earth's Answer - William Blake | Poetry Foundation
- The Ecchoing Green
The Ecchoing Green - William Blake | Poetry Foundation
- Jerusalem ["And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time"]
- Overview
- Visions of eternity
William Blake is considered to be one of the greatest visionaries of the early Romantic era. In addition to writing such poems as “The Lamb” and “The Tyger,” Blake was primarily occupied as an engraver and watercolour artist. Today Blake’s poetic genius has largely outstripped his visual artistic renown.
What was William Blake’s career like as a visual artist?
Although William Blake’s principal occupation was engraver, he transitioned to watercolour illustrations after an ambitious 1794 engraving commission floundered when published three years later. He painted watercolours for his patrons illustrating works by Dante, William Shakespeare, and John Milton, although much of his art focused on biblical subjects.
What is William Blake’s poetry about?
Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul (1794) is arguably William Blake’s most well-known poetic composition. The Lamb and the Tyger function as complementary symbols of the protection and corruption of innocence, respectively. Much of Blake’s other poetry concerns his politics, visions, and self-invented mythology.
What was William Blake’s reputation during his lifetime?
Visions were commonplaces to Blake, and his life and works were intensely spiritual. His friend the journalist Henry Crabb Robinson wrote that when Blake was four years old he saw God’s head appear in a window. While still a child he also saw the Prophet Ezekiel under a tree in the fields and had a vision, according to his first biographer, Alexander Gilchrist (1828–61), of “a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars.” Robinson reported in his diary that Blake spoke of visions “in the ordinary unemphatic tone in which we speak of trivial matters.…Of the faculty of Vision he spoke as One he had had from early infancy—He thinks all men partake of it—but it is lost by not being cultiv[ate]d.” In his essay “A Vision of the Last Judgment,” Blake wrote:
I assert for My Self that I do not behold the outward Creation… ‘What’ it will be Questiond ‘When the Sun rises, do you not See a round Disk of fire somewhat like a Guinea?’ O no no I see an Innumerable company of the Heavenly host crying ‘Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty!’
Blake wrote to his patron William Hayley in 1802, “I am under the direction of Messengers from Heaven Daily & Nightly.” These visions were the source of many of his poems and drawings. As he wrote in his “Auguries of Innocence,” his purpose was
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To see a World in a Grain of Sand
- G.E. Bentley
Catherine Boucher. . ( m. 1782) . Signature. William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age.
- Poetry
- Royal Academy of Arts
- 28 November 1757, Soho, London
- Romanticism
Blake, William 1757-1827. The complete poetry and prose of William Blake. First published in 1965 under title: Poetry and prose of William Blake. I. Erdman, David V. II. Bloom Harold. III. Title. PR4141.E7 1981 821'7. ISBN: 0-385-15213-2 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER 79-7196 COPYRIGHT© 1965, 1982 BY DAVID V. ERDMAN
Apr 2, 2014 · William Blake was a 19th-century writer and artist who is regarded as a seminal figure of the Romantic Age. His writings have influenced countless writers and artists through the ages.
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William Blake (1757–1827), one of the greatest poets in the English language, also ranks among the most original visual artists of the Romantic era.Born in London in 1757 into a working-class family with strong nonconformist religious beliefs, Blake first studied art as a boy, at the drawing academy of Henry Pars.
Apr 30, 2024 · BLAKE / AN ILLUSTRATED QUARTERLY: Current; Issue Archive | THE COMPLETE POETRY AND PROSE OF WILLIAM BLAKE, ED. ERDMAN | ... to The William Blake Archive Newsletter.