The Selected Poems of William Blake

Front Cover
Wordsworth Editions, 2000 - 384 pages

Introduction, Notes and Bibliography by Dr Bruce Woodcock, Senior Lecturer in English, University of Hull.

William Blake was an engraver, painter and visionary mystic as well as one of the most revolutionary of the Romantic poets. His writing attracted the astonished admiration of authors as diverse as Wordsworth, Ruskin, W.B.Yeats, and more recently beat poet Allen Ginsberg and the 'flower power' generation. He is one of England's most original artists whose works aim to liberate imaginative energies and subvert 'the mind-forged manacles' of restriction.

This volume contains many of his writings, including: 'Songs of Innocence', 'Songs of Experience', 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell', and a generous selection from the Prophetic Books including 'Milton' and 'Jerusalem'.

 

Contents

POETICAL SKETCHES
2
Gwin King of Norway
14
King Edward the Third
22
Prologue intended for a Dramatic Piece
39
Appendix
91
Appendix to the Earlier Poems
104
Addendum to the Later Poems
116
THE PICKERING MANUSCRIPT
126
VISIONS OF THE DAUGHTERS OF ALBION
227
A PROPHECY
238
A PROPHECY
248
THE BOOK OF URIZEN
258
THE SONG OF LOS
276
THE BOOK OF LOS
282
THE BOOK OF AHANIA
290
Selections from THE FOUR ZOAS
302

POEMS FROM LETTERS
142
GNOMIC VERSES EPIGRAMS
150
TIRIEL
173
THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL
191
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
207
Verses from THE GATES OF PARADISE Part 1
361
THE GHOST OF ABEL
364
The Song sung at the Feast of Los and Enitharmon 303
374
INDEX OF POEM TITLES
377
Copyright

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About the author (2000)

William Blake's poems, prophecies, and engravings represent his strong vision and voice for rebellion against orthodoxy and all forms of repression. Born in London in November 1757; his father, a hosier of limited means, could do little for the boy's education. However, when the young Blake's talent for design became apparent, his wise father sent him to drawing school at the age of 10. In 1771 Blake was apprenticed to an engraver. Blake went on to develop his own technique, a method he claimed that came to him in a vision of his deceased younger brother. In this, as in so many other areas of his life, Blake was an iconoclast; his blend of printing and engraving gave his works a unique and striking illumination. Blake joined with other young men in support of the Revolutions in France and America. He also lived his own revolt against established rules of conduct, even in his own home. One of his first acts after marrying his lifetime companion, Catherine Boucher, was to teach her to read and write, rare for a woman at that time. Blake's writings were increasingly styled after the Hebrew prophets. His engravings and poetry give form and substance to the conflicts and passions of the elemental human heart, made real as actual characters in his later work. Although he was ignored by the British literary community through most of his life, interest and study of his work has never waned. Blake's creativity and original thinking mark him as one of the earliest Romantic poets, best known for his Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794) and The Tiger. Blake died in London in 1827.

Bibliographic information