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The history of British poetry
The Life and Works of William Blake
A Brief Biography - William Blake
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William Blake
William Blake was born November 28, 1757, in London, England. He was best known as an English poet, visionary, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, Blake's work is today considered important and significant in the history of both poetry and the visual arts. He was voted 38th in a poll of the 100 Greatest Britons organized by the BBC in 2002.
Blake was the third of seven children, who consisted of one girl and six boys, two of whom died in infancy. Blake's father, James, was a hosier. He never attended school, being educated at home by his mother. The Bible was an early and large influence on Blake, and would remain a source of inspiration throughout his life. Blake’s father purchased him antiques and Blake began to engrave Greek drawings. His parents realized regular school was not for him, so they sent him to take drawing classes. He studied subjects that interested him, and he soon began to study and write poetry.
On 4 August 1772, Blake became apprenticed to engraver James Basire of Great Queen Street, for the term of seven years. At the age of 21, he was to become a professional engraver. In 1778, Blake became a student at the Royal Academy in Old Somerset House, near the Strand. While the terms of his study required no payment, he was expected to supply his own materials throughout the six-year period.
In 1782, Blake met John Flaxman, who was to become his patron, and Catherine Boucher, who was to become his wife. During this time, Blake was getting over a relationship that had ended in a refusal of his marriage proposal. Blake married Catherine on August 18 1782 in St. Mary's Church, Battersea. His wife Catherine was illiterate and on her wedding document she signed it with the letter “x.” Blake taught Catherine to read and write and also to engrave
In 1788, at the age of 31, Blake began to try relief etching, a method he used to produce most of his books, paintings, pamphlets and his poems, including his longer 'prophecies' and his masterpiece the "Bible". Blake and Catherine’s marriage lasted until death. They had few arguments including the problem of having children, and Catherine being illiterate.
From childhood he was unlike those around him. He went to school to study art and found his love of poetry. From his early childhood, Blake spoke of having visions. He spoke of seeing God and the Angels. He married his with Catherine Boucher in 1782. His brother, Robert died, but this is where Blake got a lot of inspiration for his work. In 1789 Blake wrote and illustrated the popular Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience in 1794. His poetry was extremely non-conformist and focused on imagination, rather than reason. Both works have many common parallels and themes. His poetry also deals with the common aspect of a romanticism work; it has moments of sin, suffering and salvation. In Songs of Innocence, The Chimney Sweeper, it is a heartbreaking poem about the young children that were forced into doing labor as chimneysweepers. Mostly because they were the only ones small enough to fit in the spaces and they were sold into that work. It was damaging and cruel how they treated these children and Blake writes about it in such a powerful way. In the first stanza alone the reader learns about the difficult life and the suffering this child has had to overcome, “When my mother died when I was young, my father sold me while yet my tongue…so, your Chimney’s I sweep and in soot I sleep.” (Songs of Innocence) This poor child is portrayed so innocently and gentle, yet leads this suffering unfortunate life. People treated
William Blake is a literature genius. Most of his work speaks volume to the readers. Blake’s poem “The Mental Traveller” features a conflict between a male and female that all readers can relate to because of the lessons learned as you read. The poet William Blake isn’t just known for just writing. He was also a well-known painter and a printmaker. Blake is considered a seminal figure in the history of poetry. His poems are from the Romantic age (The end of the 18th Century). He was born in Soho, London, Great Britain. He was the third of seven children. Even though Blake was such an inspiration as a writer he only went to school just enough to read and write. According to Bloom’s critical views on William Blake; one of Blake’s inspirations was the Bible because he believed and belonged to the Moravian Church.
The theme of authority is possibly the most important theme and the most popular theme concerning William Blake’s poetry. Blake explores authority in a variety of different ways particularly through religion, education and God. Blake was profoundly concerned with the concept of social justice. He was also profoundly a religious man. His dissenting background led him to view the power structures and legalism that surrounded religious establishments with distrust. He saw these as unwarranted controls over the freedom of the individual and contrary to the nature of a God of liberty. Figures such as the school master in the ‘schoolboy’, the parents in the ‘chimney sweeper’ poems, the guardians of the poor in the ‘Holy Thursday’, Ona’s father in ‘A Little girl lost’ and the priestly representatives of organised religion in many of the poems, are for Blake the embodiment of evil restriction.
William Blake, born in 1757 and died in 1827, created the poems “The Lamb,” “The Tyger,” and Proverbs of Hell. Blake grew up in a poor environment. He studied to become an engraver and a professional artist. His engraving took part in the Romanticism era. Romanticism is a movement that developed during the 18th and early 19th century as a reaction against the Restoration and Enlightenment periods focusing on logic and reason.
A study of William Butler Yeats is not complete without a study of William Blake, just as a study of Blake is greatly aided by a study of Yeats. The two poets are inexorably tied together. Yeats, aided by his study of Blake, was able to find a clearer poetic voice. Yeats had a respect for and an understanding of Blake's work that was in Yeats' time without parallel. Yeats first read Blake at the age of 15 or 16 when his father gave him Blake to read. Yeats writes in his essay "William Blake and the Imagination" that "...when one reads Blake, it is as though the spray of an inexhaustible fountain of beauty was blown into our faces (Yeats, Essays xxx)." Yeats believed Blake to be a genius and he never wavered in his opinion. It is his respect for Blake that caused him to study and emulate Blake. He tried to tie Blake closer to himself by stressing Blake's rumored Irish ancestry. He strove to understand Blake more clearly than anyone had before him, and he succeeded. As with other pursuits Yeats held nothing back. He immersed himself fully in Blake's writings. As with many of his mental pursuits he deepened his understanding of the subject by writing about it.
William Blake was an English romantic poet who lived from 1757 to 1827 through both the American and the French revolutions. Although he lived during the Romantic Age, and was clearly part of the movement, Blake was a modern thinker who had a rebellious political spirit. He was the first to turn poetry and art into sociopolitical weapons to be raised rebelliously against the establishment. His poetry exemplified many of the same topics being discussed today. Although he was known as both a madman and a mystic, (Elliott) his poetry is both relevant and radical. He employed a brilliant approach as he took in the uncomfortable political and moral topics of his day and from them he created unique artistic representations. His poetry recounts in symbolic allegory the negative effects of the French and American revolutions and his visual art portrays the violence and sadistic nature of slavery. Blake was arguably one of the most stubbornly anti-oppression and anti-establishment writers in the English canon.
In one of the illustrations, the Little Black Boy is still black when he meets God even though in the poem he claims that color will no longer matter. The way that they are standing is very interesting too because the poem suggests that they will be equal, but the Little Black Boy is described as standing behind the child and in the picture, he is standing behind the white boy. This could be another example of Blake showing how innocent people and naïve people are close to the same thing. The boy thinks one way, but Blake is showing the reader the way things really are through his
He based most of his works in the style of Romanticism - Blake wrote from the heart, he let his thoughts and beliefs take over.
Blake was angered by what he saw in his homeland as other countries started fighting for their independence and equality whilst his country stayed dormant, even though he felt that there was a serious need for serious action. Even though Blake wasn't a typical romantic writer, he too possessed the same. beliefs of fighting for what one believes in, and the urge to be. liberated from the oppression of society. So, by being a writer of the romantic period, watching a controlled and restricted society not showing an intent to break free and fight against the monarchy.
During the British Romantic period, some writers used material from the Bible or imitated the Bible in style of writing or content. William Blake, a Romantic writer, engraver, and painter, believed that “the Bible was the greatest work of poetry ever written” (Barker 2004). The Bible influenced him throughout this life, specifically influencing both his writing and his art. There are many references to Biblical themes within his writing, and there are also many references to specific passages of Scripture (Barker 2004).
Blake left no debts at his death on August 12, 1827. He was buried in
Throughout the career and life of William Blake, he was known for many things, such as printmaking, painting, and poetry. While his artwork brought him quite a bit of notoriety, he was quite possibly best known for his poetry. Two of these poems, The Lamb and the Tyger, which have a heavy backing of religion, especially that of Christianity are from a published series of poems he called Songs of Innocence, and of Experience, which falls in exceptionally with the themes of both of these poems. While the Lamb falls more into the category of innocence, almost that of a child, the Tyger falls more into a darker category, like a more knowledgeable adult questioning about God. While these poems have a plethora to offer, the most standout parts of this story would have to be religion, the voice speaking, and the theme of the poems.
Blake one of many others had lived in the time of the American, French, and Industrial Revolutions (Blake Background). This gave Blake the opportunity to witness the most conflicting stages for the transformation of the Western world. Through Blake's poems The Lamb, and The Tyger can reflect the change of the Western world. As in the lamb it is of a feudal agricultural society time that still has the innocence of a young shapered. Up to the Tyger that has a feel of the Industrial time sounds as if the tyger was forged.
Often considered by scholars as the greatest pioneer of the Romantic movement in English literature, Blake was crowned as a “glorious luminary” by the 19th century English writer William Rossetti. Blake's poetry consistently embraces the idea of rebellion against the abuse of class power. Blake encountered both the American and French revolutions and was heavily influenced by the sense of liberation in both revolutions. He was also concerned about the negative effects of the industrial revolution, which further polarized the income distribution among different classes. The British Marxist historian E.P. Thompson classified Blake as having many similar beliefs as ...
Johnson, Mary Lynn and John E. Grant, eds. Blake's Poetry and Designs. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1979.