William Blake
(b. Nov. 28, 1757, London--d. Aug. 12, 1827, London) was
the first of the great English Romantic poets, as well as a
painter and printer and one of the greatest engravers in
English history. Largely self-taught, he began writing
poetry when he was twelve and was apprenticed to a London
engraver at the age of fourteen. His poetry and visual art
are inextricably linked. To fully appreciate one you must
see it in context with the other.
A rebel all of his life, Blake was once arrested on a
trumped up charge of sedition. Of course, he was a complete
sympathizer with the forces of revolution, both in America
and France. He was a personal friend of Thomas Paine and
made the American War of Independence and French Revolution
parts of his grand mythology in his America: A Prophecy
and Europe: A Prophecy.
Blake is frequently referred to as a mystic, but this is not
really accurate. He deliberately wrote in the style of the
Hebrew prophets and apocalyptic writers. He envisioned his
works as expressions of prophecy, following in the footsteps
(or, more precisely strapping on the sandals) of Elijah and
Milton. In fact, he clearly believed himself to be the
living embodiment of the spirit of Milton.
Most of Blake's paintings (such as "The
Ancient of Days", the frontispiece to Europe: a
Prophecy) are actually prints made from copper plates,
which he etched in a method he claimed was revealed to him
in a dream. He and his wife colored these prints with water
colors. Thus each print is itself a unique work of art.
As an artist Blake broke the ground that would later be
cultivated by the Pre-Raphaelites. His work is for the most
part done on a very small scale. His illuminated works and
engravings are all only inches in size, yet they are
meticulous in detail. And each of them is, in a sense,
merely a part of a titanic whole.
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A special note for
students:
Since we began The William Blake Page in 1994, we have
received hundreds of emails from students asking (sometimes
demanding in very rude language) that we provide
literary criticism on our site or else personally write back
with an analysis of one or more poems or themes in Blake's
work so that they can use it to fulfill one of their
classroom assignments. On occassion these emails have been
so insulting that we have considered closing the site.
The William Blake Page is
NOT intended to replace
the library. The Internet is a great place to research
where to buy your next car or what they are wearing this
year in Paris. But it not the best place to find literary
criticism. For one thing anyone can post anything here,
without benefit of editors or any other kind of check or
balance to maintain reasonable accuracy.
That said, if you need to find Blake criticism and don't
have access to a good library, you can find some useful
links at Adam
Marcotte's Blake reference page. You may also wish to
read an interesting "Introduction
to William Blake" by Alfred Kazin at The Multimedia
Library.
If you do have time to dig through the English literature
section of a good library, here are some authors you can
look for to get yourself started: Peter Ackroyd, Harold
Bloom, David Erdman, S. Foster Damon, Northrup Frye, and
Geoffrey Keynes.
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