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Selected Poetry and Prose of William Blake
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475 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1953
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72 people want to read
About the author
William Blake
1,251 books3,228 followersWilliam 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."
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."
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 10, 2020
BLAKE: THE SPECTRE BETWEEN POETRY AND PHILOSOPHY
“O spectre over Europe and Asia!” chanted William Blake in one of his Major Phropecies: Jerusalem. A century after, Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels spread their Communist Manifesto, bearing the unforgettable line: “A spectre is haunting Europe...”
Could it be so that this is a mere coincidence? Marx himself nevertheless, was oceanic in his philological background. His readings would date back to the first poetry of the West—Homerʼs The Iliad & Odyssey. The very difference though, if previous studies could not unearth who was first, between Blake and Marx—the latterʼs opener had been mostly passed to generations with the American spelling of the word: “specter.”
In the 20th century, Blake resurfaced again—earlier than the coming of the Beat Generation where Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan mused on him. Before such contemporaneous appeal, Blakeʼs first biographer Arthur Symons, and William Butler Yeats had a singular observation on the poet. Blakeʼs “intellectual heir” is Friedrich Nietzsche, they said. Years and miles apart were the gaps however, of these two thinkers. Blake was of the 17th century, while Nietzsche would be in the latter time. But both had that similar intensity (and even insanity) in their literature. No one could deny that they had these aphorisms in the voice of a distant sage shining from their works; and yes, the two were shut down by their contemporaries, they retreated from the public world, and wrote and wrote (and also painted in the case of Blake) without a grasped audience. The two opened fire at their predecessors: Blake lambasting Plato and Locke; while Nietzsche focused on Socrates and Descartes, among others. They have either, though not the clearest similarity, a sour taste of the publicʼs yearning to religion. Not the clearest because Blake had prophecies dismissing only “natural religion.”
The most fascinating in the end are their notable metaphors or symbols. If Blake had Urizen and the Red Dragon; Nietzsche had Zarathustra and the Golden Dragon. Parallel this might seems, but the similarities are there. No matter how rejected these two were in their time—they are smiling now. No poet and philosopher had been more influential and imitated than Blake and Nietzsche. Especially the poet and painter who could be the first spectre—the first dragon.
“O spectre over Europe and Asia!” chanted William Blake in one of his Major Phropecies: Jerusalem. A century after, Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels spread their Communist Manifesto, bearing the unforgettable line: “A spectre is haunting Europe...”
Could it be so that this is a mere coincidence? Marx himself nevertheless, was oceanic in his philological background. His readings would date back to the first poetry of the West—Homerʼs The Iliad & Odyssey. The very difference though, if previous studies could not unearth who was first, between Blake and Marx—the latterʼs opener had been mostly passed to generations with the American spelling of the word: “specter.”
In the 20th century, Blake resurfaced again—earlier than the coming of the Beat Generation where Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan mused on him. Before such contemporaneous appeal, Blakeʼs first biographer Arthur Symons, and William Butler Yeats had a singular observation on the poet. Blakeʼs “intellectual heir” is Friedrich Nietzsche, they said. Years and miles apart were the gaps however, of these two thinkers. Blake was of the 17th century, while Nietzsche would be in the latter time. But both had that similar intensity (and even insanity) in their literature. No one could deny that they had these aphorisms in the voice of a distant sage shining from their works; and yes, the two were shut down by their contemporaries, they retreated from the public world, and wrote and wrote (and also painted in the case of Blake) without a grasped audience. The two opened fire at their predecessors: Blake lambasting Plato and Locke; while Nietzsche focused on Socrates and Descartes, among others. They have either, though not the clearest similarity, a sour taste of the publicʼs yearning to religion. Not the clearest because Blake had prophecies dismissing only “natural religion.”
The most fascinating in the end are their notable metaphors or symbols. If Blake had Urizen and the Red Dragon; Nietzsche had Zarathustra and the Golden Dragon. Parallel this might seems, but the similarities are there. No matter how rejected these two were in their time—they are smiling now. No poet and philosopher had been more influential and imitated than Blake and Nietzsche. Especially the poet and painter who could be the first spectre—the first dragon.
October 14, 2020
Good intro/reader but I’m opting for the complete poems — if you’re planning to read the prophecies you should find an edition where they’re unabridged.
March 20, 2018
I've decided to put this aside--many of Blake's later works are only sampled, and I felt that wasn't what I was looking for. Plus I recently found a collection of his complete writings, which will fit my needs better. On the plus side for this volume is a introduction by Northrop Frye, and 8 examples of Blake's engravings. Again, though, I think a book containing Blake's complete engravings is something I'll be looking for in the future, to complement the collection of his writings, which contains almost nothing of his artwork.
As a sampler of Blake's work, this seems representative, and if that's all that someone was looking for, than I would't have any problem recommending this volume. But if one were interested in the complete poem Jerusalem, for instance, they would need to look elsewhere.
As a sampler of Blake's work, this seems representative, and if that's all that someone was looking for, than I would't have any problem recommending this volume. But if one were interested in the complete poem Jerusalem, for instance, they would need to look elsewhere.
xx-dnf-skim-reference
October 22, 2024I read Songs of Innocence and of Experience quite some time ago, and recently Burning Bright, so I decided to dip into more of his work. And my library has a little old hardcover like you'd find on your grandfather's shelves, so yay.
Most I couldn't understand. Too much vocabulary has changed, obv. But:
"The stolen and perverted writings of Homer and Ovid, of Plato and Cicero, which all men ought to contemn, [sic] are set up by artifice against the Sublime of the Bible; but when the New Age is at leisure to Pronounce, all will be set right, and those grand works of the more ancient and consciously and professedly inspired men will hold their proper rank.... Shakespeare and Milton were both curb'd by the general malady and infection from the silly Greek and Latin slaves of the Sword."
Jerusalem
"Of the Measure in which the following Poem is written."
" I considered a monotonous cadence, like that used by Milton and Shakespeare and all writers of English blank verse, derived from the modern bondage of Rhyming. But I soon found that in the mouth of a true Orator such monotony was not only awkward, but as much a bondage as rhyme itself. I therefore have produced a variety in every line, both of cadence and number of syllables. Every word and every letter is studied and put into its fit place; the terrific numbers are reserved for the terrific parts, the mild and gentle for the mild and gentle parts, and the process for the inferior parts; all are necessary to each other.... The Primeval State of Man was Wisdom, Art, and Science."
(Please forgive my slightly inept transcription of capitalizations. Too confusing! Google the text for more accuracy. Also he uses & for and.)
October 2024
Most I couldn't understand. Too much vocabulary has changed, obv. But:
"The stolen and perverted writings of Homer and Ovid, of Plato and Cicero, which all men ought to contemn, [sic] are set up by artifice against the Sublime of the Bible; but when the New Age is at leisure to Pronounce, all will be set right, and those grand works of the more ancient and consciously and professedly inspired men will hold their proper rank.... Shakespeare and Milton were both curb'd by the general malady and infection from the silly Greek and Latin slaves of the Sword."
Jerusalem
"Of the Measure in which the following Poem is written."
" I considered a monotonous cadence, like that used by Milton and Shakespeare and all writers of English blank verse, derived from the modern bondage of Rhyming. But I soon found that in the mouth of a true Orator such monotony was not only awkward, but as much a bondage as rhyme itself. I therefore have produced a variety in every line, both of cadence and number of syllables. Every word and every letter is studied and put into its fit place; the terrific numbers are reserved for the terrific parts, the mild and gentle for the mild and gentle parts, and the process for the inferior parts; all are necessary to each other.... The Primeval State of Man was Wisdom, Art, and Science."
(Please forgive my slightly inept transcription of capitalizations. Too confusing! Google the text for more accuracy. Also he uses & for and.)
October 2024
January 11, 2026
The greatest and strangest of the Romantics
May 16, 2022
The orator has a wonderful voice, which brought the poems to life.
Read
September 11, 2015Earth rais'd up her head,
From the darkness dread & drear.
Her light fled:
Stony dread!
And her locks cover'd with grey despair.
Prison'd on watry shore
Starry Jealousy does keep my den
Cold and hoar
Weeping o'er
I hear the Father of the ancient men
Selfish father of men
Cruel, jealous, selfish fear
Can delight
Chain'd in night
The virgins of youth and morning bear.
Does spring hide its joy
When buds and blossoms grow?
Does the sower?
Sow by night?
Or the plowman in darkness plow?
Break this heavy chain,
That does freeze my bones around
Selfish! vain!
Eternal bane!
That free Love with bondage bound.
January 15, 2021
I really enjoy the early poetry and the politics of Blake. I dont like the strange mythos in the Prophecies though I do see his attacks on capitalism as kind of mystical insight into the more scientific opponents of capital in the 19th century shortly after his death.
February 1, 2024
Un po’ troppo religioso per i miei gusti
November 17, 2016
Blake's poetry, his take on experience:
Holy Desire: stretches to the infinite; there are no bounds.
Bounded desire (desire of "the ratio" only): leads to a dull round, repeated over and over.
Desire of the Infinite: Knows God in all things--neverending discovery; Imagination; urging forward; expanding... through Creativity.
(And the prose is almost literally insane. Stick with it, flow with it all. It's crazy, and rewarding.)
Blake is Crazy-Holy. Worth a read for anyone digging artistic creativity.
Holy Desire: stretches to the infinite; there are no bounds.
Bounded desire (desire of "the ratio" only): leads to a dull round, repeated over and over.
Desire of the Infinite: Knows God in all things--neverending discovery; Imagination; urging forward; expanding... through Creativity.
(And the prose is almost literally insane. Stick with it, flow with it all. It's crazy, and rewarding.)
Blake is Crazy-Holy. Worth a read for anyone digging artistic creativity.
September 28, 2014
*Finally* finished! If 2.5 stars were possible, that's how I'd rate this one. The only way I can see Ginsberg et al inspired by what often feels like an extended, weirdly Christian round of Dungeons & Dragons, with occasionally excellent phrases thrown in, is via the help of hallucinogens-- in which case, yeah, this poetry would be terrifying.
June 30, 2021
Review to come.
March 9, 2020
FAVOURITES:
On Another's Sorrow [1789]
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell [1973]
The Lilly [1794]
Jerusalem [1804]
On Another's Sorrow [1789]
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell [1973]
The Lilly [1794]
Jerusalem [1804]
July 30, 2022
I didn't read all of it, but did complete Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience which were lovely.
I read this for my Literary Life 2 for '22 book challenge - Poetry - 1st choice
I read this for my Literary Life 2 for '22 book challenge - Poetry - 1st choice
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews