Essays on William Blake

November 28, 1757, Soho, London, United Kingdom

August 12, 1827, London, United Kingdom

Poet, Painter, Printmaker

Visionary, Poetry

Symbolism, Romanticism

• Songs of Innocence and of Experience
• The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
• The Four Zoas
• Jerusalem
• Milton

• "Tiger, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"
• "To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour."
• "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."

28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

William Blake 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.

“A Vision of the Last Judgment”, “Auguries of Innocence”, “Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion”, “London”, “Milton”, “Songs of Experience”, “Songs of Innocence”, “The Everlasting Gospel”, “The First Book of Urizen”, “The Tyger”, “Vala or The Four Zoas”, “Visions of the Daughters of Albion”

The poetry and writing style of William Blake resembles the spirit of Romanticism. Imagination, mysticism, idealization of childhood, humanitarian sympathies, love of liberty, and symbolism are the major features of his poetry. He attributes great importance to these features in his poetry.

William Blake’s poetry and art moved away from the periphery following Alexander Gilchrist’s publication of a two-part biography and compilation of Blake’s works in 1863, more than three decades after Blake’s death. Thereafter, his work received positive critical attention, particularly in the first half of the 20th century and continuing to the present day.

“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.”
“If a thing loves, it is infinite.”
“Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.”
“What is now proved was once only imagined.”