William Blake
(1757-1827)
“Hear the voice of the Bard!
Who Present, Past, & Future, sees”.
(Introduction, Songs of Experience).
William Blake was born in London in 1757. His father owned a small hosiery
business which barely supported his family of six children, one of whom died in
infancy. At the age of eight, Blake is reported to have had his first vision, a tree full
of angels. He was to have visions all his life long. His work was inspired by ‘Spirits’
who talked to him, or he himself would talk to God, or to Jesus Christ or to Biblicarl
figures such as Moses, or to the great dead, such as Socrates, Dante or Milton. When
his brother Robert, to whom he was very close, died at the age of twenty in 1787,
Blake said he saw his soul ascending heavenwards “clapping its hands for joy”.
Because of his family’s poor conditions, Blake did not receive any formal
education, but was basically self-taught in all disciplines, with the exception of
drawing and engraving. In fact, at the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to James
Basire, engraver to the Society of Antiquaries. Under Basire’s direction, he trained in
Gothic style and was sent to sketch monuments in Westminster Abbey. Drawing
and engraving were to become, in combination with poetry, his most
powerful means of expression.
Blake developed an
original technique to
print his designs and
poems which he
defined ‘Illuminated
Printin’. He etched
his poems (written in
reverse) and
illustration with acid
on copper plates; the
he corroded the
unused portions of
the plate with acid so
that the text and
design would stand
out. The pages
printed from these
plates were coloured
by hand. Blake said
that his technique
had been suggested
to him by his brother
Robert during one of
his vision.
In 1779 he was employed as an engraver by Joseph Hohnson, a bookseller whose
ideas had made him the centre of a radical circle attended by other free spirits of time
with whom Blake would later share his enthusiasm about the French Revolution.
In 1781 Blake became ill, but recovered thanks to the care of a market-gardener
named Boucher. His daughter, Catherine, married Blake in 1782. Most accounts of
Blake’s life report that their marriage, with no children, was a happy one. Blake
became the centre of Catherine’s life; her personality was somehow annihilated by
his. Semi-illiterate, Catherine was taught to read, and she even became able to write
and draw in a style that was almost indistinguishable from Blake’s. She is even said
to have shared some of Blake’s visions. She spent ther entire married life at the
service of her husband and his artistic mission.
In 1783 Blake’s first work Poetical Sketches was printed at the expense of
Reverend Henry Matthew, one of Blake’s early patrons. This collection contains
rather conventional poems but contains in embryo what were to become his favourite
themes.
During this period Blake started attending the salon of Rev. Matthew’s wife, and
his encounter with the provincial intellectual society gathering in there was
burlesqued in An Island In The Moon written in 1784. Beside containing the
earliest Songs of Innocence, this work mentions an early scheme of ‘illuminated
printing’, the original relief-engraving technique which Blake developed on his own
and used for the rest of his life to engrave all of his artistic and poetic production.
Blake used this process for the first time in 1788 to engrave There is No Natural
Religion and All Religion Are One, two short philosophical tractates. From this year
on, Blake’s own poetic output became significant while at the same time he tried to
make a living by selling a very limited number of public etchings and engravings.
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In 1789 he engraved Songs of Innocence, a collection of poems centered around the
figure of the child and focusing on the theme of innocence. He also wrote Ririel and
the Book of Thel. These works belong to the series of the so-called ‘prophetic
books’ whose composition and engraving were one of Blake’s major efforts during
his life. Among them the most often quoted are The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
(1790?-1793), Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1791?-1793), America: A Prophecy
(1793), Europe: A Prophecy (1794), The Book of Urizen (1793-1794) The Four Zoas (1796?1808), Milton (1802-1808) and Jerusalem (1804-1820). In the energetic and passionate
poetry of these books, Blake expounded his lifelong concern with the struggle of the
soul to express its natural energies when restricted by reason, law and organized
religion. His visionary approach forged a mythology which is often hard to
understand because it is Blake’s personal one. The conflicting forces at work in his
myth are personified in allegoric figures such as Urizen, who is Jehovah or reason,
Los, who is Imagination or Christ, or Orc, the rebellious spirit in man.
In 1791, his work The French Revolution, Book I was typed by Joseph Johnson but
never published. Blake hailed the French Revolution because of his passionate love
for freedom, justice and brotherhood and shared his enthusiasm with other
English radical intellectuals. In 1792, when it was clear the English government
was against intellectuals and sympathizers of the French Republic, he warned some
of them of being in danger of arrest.
After 1791, Blake entered a period of crisis. His crisis was both political and
personal. On the political side, his hopes in the French Revolution were ended with
England’s unsympathetic attitude towards France and, later on, by the tyrannical
turn taken by the French Republic. On the personal side, Blake went through a crisis
with his wife. He hated all sorts of constraints and although his marriage was
apparently happy, he felt tied by it, and especially tormented by his wife’s jealousy.
Though she adored him, she was not at all enthusiastic about his idea of free love:
Blake is said to have suggested that Mary Wollstonecraft (the author of Frankenstein)
should join him and his wife in a menage a trois. Blake’s spiritual crisis can be best
seen in Songs of Experience, which were engraved in 1794 and published in
combination with his earlier Songs of Innocence.
The period between 1800 and 1817 witnessed Blake’s activity as an engraver. He
designed Blair’s The Grave (1805-1808), illustrated Milton’s Paradise Lost, and applied
himself to the engraving of The Last Judgement (1808-1820) and The Book of Job (18211825). Another work worth mentioning is his designs in illustration of Dante’s Divina
Commedia. It was commisssioned by John Linnelll (1792-1882), a portrait and
landscape painter whom Blake met in 1818 and who was yet another great support in
his later years. Linnell introduced him to many young painters, who had formed a
group called ‘The Ancients’ and admired Blake and copied his work.
In 1826 Blake became ill and died one year later in 1827. His wife Catherine died in
1831.
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Songs of Innocence (1788-1794)
TEXT A
Introduction
Piping down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me:
glee: joy.
chear: cheer:
happiness
thy: your.
pluck’d: picked up.
a hollow reed: a kind
of tall plant with a
hollow stem which
grows
near
the
water.
“Pipe a song about a lamb!”
So I piped with merry chear.
“Piper, pipe that song again”;
So I piped: he wept to hear.
“Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;
Sing thy songs of happy chear”:
So I sung the same again,
While he wept with joy to hear.
“Piper, sit thee down and write
In a book, that all may read”.
So he vanish’d from my sight,
And I pluck’d a hollow reed,
And I made a rural pen,
And I stain’d the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear.
5
10
15
20
TASKS
1.
In the Introduction to Songs of Innocence the poet had a vision: a child on a
cloud asked him four things. Read the poem and complete the chart.
Child’s request
Poet’s response
1.
1.
2.
2.
3.
3.
4.
4.
2. The child seems to imply a relationship between music > song > poem.
Can you predict the features of the poems included in the collection?
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TEXT B
The Lamb
thee: you.
Dost thou: do you.
bid thee feed: told
you to eat.
mead: meadow.
meek: gentle and
quiet.
Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life, & bid thee feed
By the stream & o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, wooly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
5
10
Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee,
Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee:
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb.
He is meek, & he is mild;
He became a little child.
15
I a child, & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Portrait of the Artist's
Daughter, Lina by
Luigi Calamatta
20
TASKS
1.
The first stanza is about the identity of the creator of the lamb. This creator
appears very generous. His gifts to the lamb are:
1. …………………
2.
food
3. …………………
4. …………………
2. Which adjectives refer to the lamb?
In your opinion, what does the lamb symbolize?
3.
Read the second stanza and look at the punctuation. Can you detect any
difference from the first one?
4.
Lines 15-18 establish
visualized as follows.
relationship between three elements which can be
creator
lamb
child
What do they have in common? Tick as appropriate.
meekness
innocence
purity
Sense of sacrifice
discipline
youth
mildness
generosity
In your opinion, what is the name of the creator?
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5
In lines 17-18, the “I” of the poem calls himself a child and states both he and
the lamb “are called by his name”. Again this can be visualized as follows:
I
lamb
creator
Now compare the two triangles. What emerges from the comparison? Justify your
answer.
The Infant Christ
Triumphing over Death
and the Infant St. John
the Baptist,
by Lucas Cranach.
6
Read aloud the poem. Write down the rhyme scheme and the sound devices.
7
Choose one or more instruments to accompany this song.
____ guitar
____ flute
____ trumpet
____ pipe
____ drums ____ violin
____ piano
____ harp
Do you think the poet accomplishes the relationship between music, song and
poem established in the Introduction?
Songs of Experience (1794)
PRELIMINARY TASK
In pairs look at the picture of the tiger and list the feelings it evokes.
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TEXT C
The Tyger
Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
frame: forge.
thy: your
deeps: seas.
thine: your.
On what wings dare
he aspire: what
wings did your
creator use in the
hope of reaching his
ambitious goal? This
image is clearly
associated with the
myth of Icarus.
sieze the fire: seize
the fire. It refers to
Prometheus’s tale
according to which,
once when Zeus had
hidden fire from
men, he stole it and
took it back to earth.
sinews: the cords
which connect the
muscles to the bones.
anvil: an iron tool
used by the
blacksmith to
hammer hot metal
pieces.
clasp: seize.
when the stars threw
down their spears:
the stars are the rebel
angels who with
Lucifer went against
God and were
consequently thrown
to hell. Here they
seem to give up the
battle because they
are afraid of the
creator.
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? What the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And water’d heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
TASKS
1.
The Tyger is the most famous poem of Songs of Experience. Read the title.
What is anomalous about it? What does it suggest?
2.
Like The Lamb, the poem centres around the quest for identity of the creator.
The first stanza is based on contrasts:
burning bright
fearful
vs
vs
forests of the night
symmetry
Explain them and try to justify the choice of contrasts the poet made.
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3. The creator and the tyger are described as having special qualities. Write down
words or phrases which convey this specialness.
the creator
the tyger
4. Think of adjectives which sum up the qualities of
the creator:
the tyger:
The first and the last stanzas are the same but for one word
first stanza: could
last stanza: dare
“Could” refers to the creator’s ability to do something. What does “dare” refer to?
* Jakob Bohme
(1575-1624) was a
German mystic and
theosophist, that is a
philosopher who
believed that the
knowledge of the
Divine was due to
direct inspirations by
God. He wrote
several philosophical
tracts on such a
theory of knowledge
as well as on the
concept of God.
Bohme said he had
visions or
‘illuminations’ which
let him see the
essence of things and
gain knowledge of
the Divine in all
living creatures. His
work influenced
other philosophers
such as Gottfried
Leibniz (1646-1716),
Emanuel
Swedenborg (16881772), Georg Hegel
(1770-1831)
5. The dominant feeling/s of the poet is/are:
awe
fear
amazement
irritation
surprise
boredom
passion
envy
6.
Which line suggests that the creator of the lamb is the same as that of the
tyger?
7.
In your opinion is it possible to create two such contrasting animals? Read the
following quotation which can help you to provide an answer.
“The God of the holy World and the God of the dark World, are now two gods;
there is but one only God. He himself is all being. He is Evil and Good;
Heaven and Hell; Light and Darkness; Eternity and Time; where His Love is
hid in any thing, there His Anger is manifest”.
Jakob Bohme *
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8.
Read aloud the poem and write the rhyme scheme. Are there any sound
devices?
9. Which instrument/s would you choose to accompany this song?
guitar
flute
trumpet
piano
drum
pipe
violin
harp
As in The Lamb is the relationship beween music, song and poem successful?
10.
Here below the content of the poem is summarized. Fill in the blanks with
the words given.
special
power
create
answer
awe
energy
wonders
mystery
In The Tyger the poet is in a state of
good
evil
unique
in front of the
qualities of the tyger. He
could be so special to
He cannot give an
who
such a
animal.
because the tyger remains a
in which
and
are
united in harmony. The rhythm of the poem underlines the
and
the animal represents.
Chimney sweepers were children of very poor families who were sold
for little money to a master. He xploited these little children (they were six or seven
but sometimes younger) because they were small and could easily climb up the very
narrow chimneys and clean them. The soot collected was put into bags in which the
children slept because they were homeless. This job was very dangerous because the
children, often naked to gent into the chimneys more easily, got injured, or risked
being suffocated when there was a fire stillburning. Sometimes the master stuck pins
in the children’s feet as they were climbing. Because of the pain they felt, the children
climbed faster. The children also had their hair completely cut and soon became
black from the soot.
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weep: the word
should be ‘sweep’,
which is what the
chimney sweepers
shouted to announce
their presence. Here
maybe the child is
too young to
pronounce it
correctly. However,
‘weep’ means also
‘cry’.
soot: the powder
produced by fire.
coffins of black: they
were in black
coffings but the
words can also refer
to their bodies black
with soot.
leaping: jumping.
sport: play.
never
want
joy:
never suffer from the
need of joy.
tho: though.
TEXT D
The Chimney Sweeper 1
When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry “’weep!’ ’weep!’ weep!”
So your chimneys I sweep, & in soot I sleep.
There’s little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,
That curl’d like a lamb’s back, was shav’d: so I said
“Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head’s bare
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair”.
And so he was quiet, & that very night,
As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight!
That thousand of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack,
Were all of them lock’d up in coffins of black.
And by came an Angel who had a bright key,
And he open’d the coffins & set them all free;
Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,
And wash in a river, and shine in the Sun.
Then naked & white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind;
And the Angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy,
He’d have God for his father, & never want joy.
And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark,
And got with our bags & our brushes to work.
Tho the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm;
So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.
TASKS
1. This poem describes events and feelings. Fill in columns 1 and 2 of the chart.
1. Event
2. Feeling
3. Colour/s
4. State of human
soul
I
experience
Tom Dacre
Dream
After the dream
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2.
Read the poem again. Blake uses colours to express feelings. Match the
feelings with the corresponding colours in column 3.
3.
The subtitle of Songs of Innocence and Experience reads “shewing” the two
contrary states of the human soul”. Match the two states in column 4 with the
colours in column 3.
4.
The last line is apparently a Christian message but Blake’s intention is more
bitter and poignant. Explain it.
5.
The use of language is perfectly in tune with the content of the poem. Which
words or phrases give the idea of:
•
the young age of the children
•
the hardship of life
•
the joy in the dream
6. Do the sound devices reinforce the meaning? How?
TEXT E
The Sick Rose
art: are
howling: making a
loud crying sound.
crinsom: deep red.
O rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed
Of crinsom joy,
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
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TASKS
1. State why the rose is sick.
2.
This poem is highly symbolic. According to A Dictionary of Symbols by the
Catalan poet J.E. Cirlot, “the single rose is, in essence, a symbol of completion, of
consummate achievement and perfection”. In pairs try to interpret:
•
Blake’s idea of love.
•
Blake’s use of contrasting images.
3.
The rose is also the emblem of England. Do you think there may be a sociopolitical interpretation?
CRITICAL NOTES
William Blake’s life was that of a highly independent artist, poet and engraver,
who used his mind and hands to make a living. He was often at the very limits of
poverty, and had to depend on the patronage of a few people who admired his work
and his intense passion for it. He was also determined to keep his art free from any
kind of restriction. Though the comparison may seem daring, Blake could be
considered and early bohemian, living in a splendid isolation of his own because
of his unconventional approach to art, society and life.
Blake was often defined ‘insane’, a madman, by his contemporaries. As an artist,
he came after a period in which reason, balance, order, form, judgement were given
the greatest importance. Blake was the opposite. He ‘was ruled by instinct’ in the
sense that he refused any kind of limit, constraint and rule imposed upon
man which would risk the loss of his creative powers. For him, as he himself stated,
the real man was the imagination.
His motto, taken from his prophetic book Jerusalem, was:
“I must Create a System or be enslav’d by another Man’s.
I will not Reason & Compare: my business is to Create”.
To define his spiritual world is not easy because it is made up of ideas and
concepts that often contrast and clash but Blake himself stated that “without
Contraries is no Progression” (The Marriage of Heaven and Hell).
As a free spirit, Blake was enthusiastic about the French Revolution and its
principles. He could not stand any bounds, either physical or spiritual, and thought
that only a revolution would abolish injustice and repression and replace them with
complete freedom. His freedom was political, social and intellectual. He strongly
criticized the England of his time where people were imprisoned by a corrupt system
and where poverty, disease and sexual repression were common. The following lines
from Proverbs of Hell express his longing for change:
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“Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with Bricks of Religion”.
He also believed in a world where all people loved one another in a spirit of
universal brotherhood and where there were no racial or social barriers. Slave
Emanuel
Swedenborg (16681772) was a Swedish
mystical thinker and
scientist. He showed
a particular gift for
mathematics and,
thanks to his fertile
mind, he anticipated
some hypotheses and
discoveries, such as
the magnetic theory,
the aeroplane and the
machine gun. In 1745
he claimed to have
visions and wanted
mankind to know his
doctrines. He
devoted the rest of
his life to the writing
of his doctrines
which were based on
pantheism and
theosophy.
trade was not the only thing he denounced; the exploitation of children, the appalling
conditions of slums, the indifference of institutions were also the causes of much
suffering. His disillusionment with the results of the French Revolution did not stop
him from his passionate, though solitary, battle, but rather heightened his conviction
that any good implies an evil counterpart.
As a visionary poet, Blake rejected the empirical and mechanicistic approach of
John Locke and Isaac Newton and was on the contrary fascinated by the religious
mysticism of Emanuel Swedenborg* . To Blake the emphasis on reason as man’s
unique ability to apprehend reality was highly limiting to man’s creative powers and
imaginative forces. Man’s highest faculty was imagination, but the most
notable fact about this is that imagination for him is not an extra gift but is the real
essence of man. This real essence is divine, that is, God. Here is how Blake states this
fundamental concept of his vision:
“Man is All Imagination. God is Man and exists in us and we in him…
Imagination or the Human Eternal Body in Every Man… Imagination is the Divine
Body in Every Man”.
Blake therefore advocates this equation Man = Imagination = God. God is not
outside man or above him and man must not search for Him as an outside presence
but he must look inside himself. God is man himself when the latter realizes his
vision by using imagination to the utmost. The fact is that man has lost the possibility
of using his imagination to the utmost. The fact is that man has lost the possibility of
using his imagination because of the many restrictions and constraints imposed upon
him by reason on one side and society on the other.
Blake saw his task as restoring ideal conditions where man and imagination are
one again. The poet, as Blake himself states, is already endowed with this divine
power which singles him out. However, the poet is not a superior being. The
restoration of the primal equation and the criticism of all the things that destroy it
remain for Blake his unique theme with ever more complex variations.
Blake’s production known as the ‘prophetic books’ becomes difficult to
understand because of a symbolism which was only Blake’s own. His most accessible
work conceptually is Songs of Innocence and Experience.
The first part regards the state of childhood, its innocence and its purity. It is a
state of the sould which is lost in maturity because attacked by materialism,
corruption and moral laws. These items are part of the experience which the second
part analyzes. Experience in itself is a degraded state which destroys innocence, but it
is inevitable and necessary. Only the man capable of embracing imagination can
restore his innocence and make the best out of experience.
This collection of poems is also the most accessible of Blake’s work with regard to
language and imagery. While in the prophetic books words and images overflow
with an energy that often dismays the reader in his effort to make sense, the language
of the songs, simple but effective, visualizes the ideas which Blake wishes to convey.
The result is a smooth, musical rhythm in which sound becomes itself meaning.
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CONCLUDING TASKS
Consider the following statements by Blake, choose four out of eight and explain
them. If you like, you can quote from the poems you have read.
Opposition is True Friendship.
(The Marriage of Heaven and Hell).
Energy is Eternal Delight.
(The Marriage of Heaven and Hell).
The Road of Excess leads to the Place of Wisdom.
(The Marriage of Heaven and Hell).
Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to
Human existence.
(The Marriage of Heaven and Hell).
Science is the tree of Death.
(Lacoon Group).
I care not whether a Man is Good or Evil; all that I care is whether he is a Wise
Man or a Fool.
(Jerusalem).
And I know that This World is a World of Imagination & Vision.
(Letter to Dr. Trusler, August 23, 1799)
Portrait of William Blake from Death Mask, Francis Bacon
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