WILLIAM BLAKE
William Blake, born in London in 1757, came from humble origins and remained poor throughout his life.
Trained as an engraver, he later studied at the Royal Academy of Arts and became known for creating art
that emphasized the power of the imagination. A political radical and supporter of the French Revolution,
Blake was also deeply spiritual, believing in a spiritual world and pantheism, but rejecting organized
Christianity, which he saw as oppressive.
His poetry combines elements of Romanticism (themes) and Classicalism (structure). He used myths to
explore themes of duality, such as innocence versus experience. He believed that progress came from the
tension between opposites like reason and imagination, law and love.
Blake created the technique of illuminated printing, which combined poetry and visual art. In *Songs of
Innocence* (1789), written before the French Revolution, he depicts childhood as a symbol of innocence,
freedom, and divine joy. *Songs of Experience* (1794), written during the Revolution’s violence, presents
a more pessimistic view, highlighting disillusionment with the failed ideals of the Revolution.
Blake’s ideas were influenced by **Jean-Jacques Rousseau**, especially the concept of the "noble
savage," which saw humanity as pure in nature, before the corruption of civilization.
Imagination and the poet= Blake considered imagination as the means through which man could know the
word. It means “to see more, beyond reality, into the life of things”. God, child and father have this power
of vision. Blake has the same idea of Pascoli: the little child that is in himself which allows him to see the
world. We can know the word throughout faith and intuition and the truth of sensory experience
↪poet becomes a sort of prophet who can see more deeply into reality= he has received a gift to teach.
B was concerned with the political and social problems= 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. In his poems he sympathised with the victims of industrial society (children and
prostitutes)
Style his poems has a simple structure and an original use of symbols; his verse is linear and rhythmic
and characterised by use of repetition
He used symbols as part of a deliberate attempt to avoid any kind of realism, which represented that
“surface of things” he wanted to go beyond. Reality is a veil that covers the real world, a world that is not
subjected to becoming: he uses symbols in order to guide us to a greater reality, the true world.
● London
London takes part in the Songs of Experience. He takes inspiration from Jean-Jacques Rousseau : “Man
is born free, but everywhere he is in chains”. Man is born free and pure, because he’s born in the savage
nature: it’s when he gets civilized that he becomes corrupted and put in the chains of society.
Blake represents this concept in the poem by the metaphor of the manacles, which deliver the message of
being enslaved.
The poem opens with the idea of individuality: “I wander thro’ each charter'd street”. London is not
described rationality and technically, but through the senses, the thoughts and the experience of the
subject.
During the Nineteenth century, London became the main symbol of the Industrial Revolution. The poem is
set during night: when the working shift is over, mankind has the time to reflect about its life and the
suffering brought by its condition. Also, it’s during night that the underworld starts living.
