WILLIAM BLAKE
William Blake was born in London in 1757 and died there in 1827. His origins were humble. A political
freethinking, he supported the French Revolution and he witnessed the evil effect of industrial development
and it was probably this which convinced him that the artist should have a new role: the guardian of the
spirit and imagination. The most important literary influence in his life was the Bible.
He had very few intimate friends. One was his wife, the other was his younger brother.
Blake began to have visions of his dead brother and claimed that he showed him the unique printing method
he employed for his original work.
The artist
Blake became acquainted with the works of Raphael and Michelangelo. The influence of Michelangelo is
clear in Blake’s works, especially in the exaggerated muscular forms.
Blake created a new kind of art which emphasised the power of the imagination. He created his own
methods for marking prints that combined picture and poetic text called “illuminated printing”. For him
painting was not simply the illustration of poetry, it was its counterpart.
The poet
His poetry is regarded as early Romantic because he rejected the neoclassical literary style and themes. He
stressed the importance of imagination over reason and believed that ideal forms should be created not from
observations of nature but from inner visions.
In Songs of Innocence, the imagery of the poems deals with childhood as the symbol of innocence. The
language is simple and musical.
While Songs of Innocence was produced before the outbreak of the French Revolution, when Blake’s
enthusiasm for liberal ideals was high, Song of Experience appeared when the period of the Terror was at its
height in France. A more pessimistic view of life emerges in these Songs. “Experience”, identified with
adulthood, coexists with and completes “Innocence”, thus proving another point of view on reality.
The prophet
Blake was also very active in publishing prophetic books. The most famous was The Marriage of Heaven
and Hell, in which Hell and Satan represent liberty and energy, while Heaven is the place of lawgiving.
“Complementary opposites”
Blake believed in the reality of a spiritual world but regarded Christianity as responsible for the
fragmentation of consciousness and dualism characterising man’s life. To his dualistic view he substituted a
vision made up of “complementary opposites”.
The possibility of progress, of achieving the knowledge of what we are, lies in the tension between opposite
states of mind, not in their resolution by one gaining supremacy over the other.
The imagination
Blake considered imagination as the means through which man could know the world. Imagination means
to see more, beyond material reality , into the life of things. The poet therefore becomes a sort of prophet
who can see more deeply into reality and who also tries to warn man of the evils of society.
Blake’s interest in social problems
Blake was very much concerned with the political and social problems of his time. He believed in
revolution as purifying violence, necessary for the redemption of man. Later he focused his attention on the
evil consequences of the Industrial Revolution.
Style
Blake’s poems present a very simple structure and a use of symbols. His verse is linear and rhythmical; it
shows a close relationship between sound and meaning and is characterised by frequent use of repetition.
