The word “Orient” refers to east or in other words it refers to western European view of the east,
whereas this view is not necessarily the view of eastern people. There are examples of an
existing link between Romantic literature and Orientalism in nineteenth century which was a
period of rising imperialism and also a growth in tourism which created an interconnection in the
world. The Orient seem an impossible destination for William Blake who was a non-traveler and
his imaginary flights ‘from Ireland to Japan’ contrast with the fact of never having an actual
travel more than 60 miles from his hometown in Sussex. It was not just the, explorers, and
conquerors who had journeys to eastern lands; Blake, too, had non-physical Oriental expeditions
and as we see In the Descriptive Catalogue of his 1809 exhibition. Blake compares his work to
Persian, Indian, and Egyptian art rather than the earliest European classics of Greece and Rome.
This paper examines the role of orientalism in William Blake’s poetry and More specifically,
what happens to the study of Blake when his work is assimilated in not merely a non-British but
also a non-European context?
Keywords: Romantic orientalism, William Blake’s poetry, Non-British context