[The Selected Poems of William Blake (Wordsworth Poetry Library)] [By: William Blake] [November, 1994]

by William Blake

This compact edition, designed for use in undergraduate courses, combines a substantial selection of Dickinson’s poems (including one complete fascicle) with a selection of letters and a range of contextual materials. In a number of cases several different versions of a poem are presented side by side. The texts are based on the handwritten manuscripts themselves, in the facsimile form in which the Emily Dickinson Archive now makes the vast majority of Dickinson’s manuscript versions available to the general public. The three major editions that are based directly on the manuscripts―those of Thomas H. Johnson (1955), R.W. Franklin (1998) and Cristanne Miller (2016)―have also been consulted; in many cases where the transcriptions of these editors differ from one another, this edition provides information in the notes as to those differences. Extensive explanatory footnotes are also provided, as is a concise but wide-ranging introduction to Dickinson and her work. The appendices include excerpts from numerous nineteenth-century reviews of Dickinson’s first published volume (including by William Dean Howells and Andrew Lang). Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s influential Atlantic Monthly article, “Emily Dickinson’s Letters,” is also included in its entirety. This volume is one of a number of editions that have been drawn from the pages of the acclaimed ; like the others, it is designed to make a range of material from the anthology available in a format convenient for use in a wide variety of contexts. This edition departs from other editions in the series in one important respect―its format. The large page size of the edition facilitates the reproduction of manuscript pages in readable facsimile form, and the two-column format of the text facilitates comparison between different versions.

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About the author

William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake's work is today considered seminal and significant in the history of both poetry and the visual arts.

Blake's prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the language". His visual artistry has led one modern critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced." Although he only once travelled any further than a day's walk outside London over the course of his life, his creative vision engendered a diverse and symbolically rich corpus, which embraced 'imagination' as "the body of God", or "Human existence itself".

Once considered mad for his idiosyncratic views, Blake is highly regarded today for his expressiveness and creativity, and the philosophical and mystical currents that underlie his work. His work has been characterized as part of the Romantic movement, or even "Pre-Romantic", for its largely having appeared in the 18th century. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the established Church, Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American revolutions, as well as by such thinkers as Emanuel Swedenborg.

Despite these known influences, the originality and singularity of Blake's work make it difficult to classify. One 19th century scholar characterised Blake as a "glorious luminary", "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors."

Reviews

[Natasha Anastasiou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Η συγκεκριμένη έκδοση συγκεντρώνει επιλεγμένα ποιήματα και κείμενα του William Blake, ενός από τους σημαντικότερους ποιητές του αγγλικού Ρομαντισμού.

O Blake Στην εποχή του θεωρούνταν εκκεντρικός, όμως αργότερα αναγνωρίστηκε ως μία από τις πιο επιδραστικές μορφές της αγγλικής λογοτεχνίας. Τα ποιήματα του συνδυάζουν θρησκευτικό συμβολισμό, κοινωνική κριτική και πολιτική σκέψη αλλά και έντονη φαντασία.

Τα επιλεγμένα ποιήματα περιστρέφονται γύρω από έννοιες όπως η αθωότητα, η παιδικότητα και η ελεύθερη φαντασία σε αντίθεση με την εμπειρία, τη διαφθορά, την καταπίεση της κοινωνίας και της θρησκείας. Το ύφος είναι πυκνό και συμβολικό.

Για τον Blake η φαντασία δεν είναι φυγή από την πραγματικότητα αλλά ο μόνος τρόπος να δεις την αλήθεια πίσω από αυτήν.

[William Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

On par with Poe more than a century later, Blake veers instead toward transcending despair through hope.