Description

By (author) Blake William; Edited by Ostriker, Alicia

Short /annotation:
One of the great English Romantic poets, William Blake (1757-1827) was an artist, poet, mystic and visionary. Throughout his life Blake drew on a rich heritage of philosophy, religion and myth, to create a poetic worlds illuminated by his spiritual and revolutionary beliefs that have fascinated, intrigued and enchanted readers for generations.

:
One of the great English Romantic poets, William Blake (1757-1827) was an artist, poet, mystic and visionary. His work ranges from the deceptively simple and lyrical Songs of Innocence and their counterpoint Experience – which juxtapose poems such as ”The Lamb” and ”The Tyger”, and ”The Blossom” and ”The Sick Rose” – to highly elaborate, apocalyptic works, such as The Four Zoas, Milton and Jerusalem. Throughout his life Blake drew on a rich heritage of philosophy, religion and myth, to create a poetic worlds illuminated by his spiritual and revolutionary beliefs that have fascinated, intrigued and enchanted readers for generations.

Table of contents:
The Complete PoemsPreface
Table of Dates
Further Reading

The Poems

Poetical Sketches
Miscellaneous Poems
King Edward the Third
Dramatic Fragments
Poems Written in a Copy of Poetical Sketches

Songs from “An Island in the Moon”
There is No Natural Religion [a, b]
All Religions Are One
The Book of Thel
Tiriel

Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Songs of Innocence
Songs of Experience

Notebook Poems and Fragments, c. 1789-93
The French Revolution

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
A Song of Liberty

Visions of the Daughters of Albion
America
Europe

The Song of Los
Africa
Asia

The Book of Urizen
The Book of Ahania
The Book of Los

Vala, or The Four Zoas
Notes Written on the Pages of The Four Zoas
Additional Fragments

Three Poems, ?c. 1800
Poems from Letters
Notebook Poems, c. 1800-1806
Poems from the Pickering Manuscript
Milton
Dedication to Blake”s Illustrations to Blair”s Grave
Notebook Epigrams and Satiric Verses, c. 1808-12

Miscellaneous Verses and Epigrams
Verse from the Marginalia to Reynolds”s Discourses
Verse from the Advertisement to Blake”s Exhibition of Paintings, 1809
Epigrams from A Descriptive Catalogue
Epigrams from “Public Address”

Jerusalem
The Everlasting Gospel
For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise
The Ghost of Abel

Notes
Dictionary of Proper Names
Note to the Indexes
Index of Titles
Index of First Lines

Biographical note:

William Blake (1757 – 1827) was the son of a London hosier.Having attended Henry Parr”s drawing school, he was apprenticed as an engraver to the Society of Antiquaries in 1772 and later was admitted to teh Royal Academy.He married in 1782 and published his first work, Poetical Sketches, in 1783. The first of his ”illuminated books” was Songs of Innocence in 1789.Blake”s work over the next twenty years chart the refining of his ideas and beliefs, from a recognition of repression in Songs of Experience to his epic works Milton and Jerusalem whihc present a renewed vision of reconciliation between humanity.

Alicia Ostriker is Professor of English at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, USA.