William Blake was a poet, painter, mystic, engraver and visionary. He is best-known for Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794), and recognized as one of the most original and important English poets. He used his famous process of illuminated printing to illustrate his poems.
Early Life of William Blake
Blake was born on November 28, 1757, in London, England, the son of a simple tradesman. Aged four, he told his parents that he saw God put his head in the window. He never attended school but despite this he acquired a wide knowledge of languages, the Bible and English poetry. In his early teens he was apprenticed to an engraver, from whom he learned the skills that were to earn him his living.
Spiritual, Mystic and Visionary
Blake was an intensely spiritual man. Many people thought he was insane, having claimed to see objects ordinarily unseen or inanimate objects move. He had visions of angels and ancient figures from the Bible. He nurtured the belief that imagination should be encouraged as an important human experience.
In his writing, as well as in his engravings, Blake broke all the conventions of his time as he searched for imaginative originality. This is not surprising as he lived in the Age of Enlightenment, born a year after the child prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience
His most famous collections of poems, Songs of Innocence, published when he was 32, and Songs of Experience, published five years later, are simple and honest expressions of spiritual and emotional feelings, yet tenderly beautiful. They include some of his best-loved poems, such as 'The Tyger' and 'The Rose.'
Later Years
Blake concentrated on a series of poetical works known as the Prophetic Books later in his life. He sketched out the whole history and future of humanity, using an invented mythology inspired by the Holy Bible. As with his earlier books, they were not popular and earned him virtually no money that time. Only his work as an illustrator was respected in his day.
Final Years
After 1818, Blake did not write anything but created some of his greatest illustrations for editions of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and the biblical Book of Job. He died at the age of 69, on August 12, 1827.
A lovely, haunting well-known quote by William Blake:
"To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour."
Works by William Blake
- Poetical Sketches, 1783
- An Island in the Moon, 1784
- Songs of Innocence, 1789
- The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, c. 1790-1793
- Songs of Experience, 1794
- The Book of Urizen 1794
- The Four Zoas, 1797
- Milton, c. 1804-1808
- Jerusalem, c.1804-1820
Sources:
Cambridge Guide to Literature in English by Ian Ousby (1993)
Chambers Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Edinburgh. Chambers Harrap, 2002
Larousse Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring. Larousse, 1994
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