Poetical Sketches [EasyRead Edition]

by William Blake

"Poetical Sketches is one of the early works by Blake. He often created melodies of his own composed verse. Alluding extensively to Greek mythology, he has created pieces that are a testament to his brilliant imagination. The unique harmony of his works is highly engrossing and refreshing."

Genres: Poetry, Fiction, 18th Century

76 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1783

About the author

William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake's work is today considered seminal and significant in the history of both poetry and the visual arts.

Blake's prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the language". His visual artistry has led one modern critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced." Although he only once travelled any further than a day's walk outside London over the course of his life, his creative vision engendered a diverse and symbolically rich corpus, which embraced 'imagination' as "the body of God", or "Human existence itself".

Once considered mad for his idiosyncratic views, Blake is highly regarded today for his expressiveness and creativity, and the philosophical and mystical currents that underlie his work. His work has been characterized as part of the Romantic movement, or even "Pre-Romantic", for its largely having appeared in the 18th century. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the established Church, Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American revolutions, as well as by such thinkers as Emanuel Swedenborg.

Despite these known influences, the originality and singularity of Blake's work make it difficult to classify. One 19th century scholar characterised Blake as a "glorious luminary", "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors."

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetical Sketches is Blake's first published collection and had a very limited run at the time it was first published (apparently as few as forty copies) and virtually disappeared for many, many years (the British Library didn't even have a copy and they're supposed to have a copy of everything) until some good soul located a copy and made an e-book from it. Now freely available to anybody with an e-reader, this is really a rather lovely collection of poetry, plays and prose. What makes it all the more impressive is that Blake wrote these works when he was a teenager.

To Winter

O WINTER! bar thine adamantine doors:
The north is thine; there hast thou built thy dark
Deep-founded habitation. Shake not thy roofs
Nor bend thy pillars with thine iron car.

He hears me not, but o'er the yawning deep
Rides heavy; his storms are unchain'd, sheathed
In ribbed steel; I dare not lift mine eyes;
For he hath rear'd his sceptre o'er the world.

Lo! now the direful monster, whose skin clings
To his strong bones, strides o'er the groaning rocks:
He withers all in silence, and in his hand
Unclothes the earth, and freezes up frail life.

He takes his seat upon the cliffs, the mariner
Cries in vain. Poor little wretch! that deal'st
With storms, till heaven smiles, and the monster
Is driven yelling to his caves beneath Mount Hecla.

My next book: The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 12: Shattered Web

[Descending Angel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Blake's first collection of poetry. Made up of 19 lyric poems and fragments. While nothing is bad, it is an uneven collection, but with some really good stuff. Highlights ~ "fair elenor" "gwin, king of norway" "an imitation of spenser" "blind man's buff" and "king Edward the third"

[armin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was my first time reading an entire book by Blake. I was so awestricken that I read it through in one sitting! This book is penned in 1783, so it’s pretty amazing to read the Blake which is still experimental, has not undergone the inspiration from the French revolution and to feel how he is so touched in heart by literally everything around him. It feels like young Blake is trying to perceive everything around him and turn it into poetry... he thirstily composes the seasons, times of day, feelings, nature people, Kings, wars and death into verses.
PS: having read this, I have completed my 2018 reading challenge on Goodreads a couple of days away from 2019!

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Memoria, ven a mí,
Y entona alegres notas;
Y mientras en el viento
Tu alegre canto flota,
Medito en la ribera,
Donde sueñan amantes
Que suspiran
Y pescan fantasías
En el espejo de aguas.
Beberé en este arroyo
Y cantará el jilguero;
He de yacer soñando
Durante todo un día;
Al caer de la noche
Iré a esos lugares
Donde habitan las penas,
Y por valles oscuros
Seguiré caminando
Con todo este silencio
De mi melancolía. (p. 29-31)
Canción de Esbozos poéticos, William Blake

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This early work of Blake collects twenty plus poems and a fragmentary historical play, "King Edward the Third."

I particularly enjoyed the songs (lyrical poems,) and top among them "Fresh from the Dewy Hill" and "Mad Song."

The play is interesting, though not much like the Shakespearean Histories to which it is compared. Blake's history tends more toward soliloquy and extended blocks of explication rather than fast-paced dialogue with occasional soliloquys. That said it tells of the lead up to the Battle of Crecy and might be compared to the Henry V lead into Agincourt.

Blake is always worth reading, and many of the poems are surprisingly readable for eighteenth century literature.

[j · Rating 5 out of 5]

That someone's 'juvenilia' could be this good is just astoundingly humbling and inspiring and refreshing and badass. It's no surprise this -- and all to follow -- was mostly entirely ignored in Blake's lifetime (it is way too good to have been appreciated). Some of the 'Songs' are stunningly realized, but I was particularly taken by his arch and slyly Shakepearean dramatic fragment 'King Edward the Third'. It is imbued, and trembles, with such looming doomedness -- and yet it depicts the approach of a battle in which the characters find themselves victorious. The whole thing is so gripping and brutal, filled with such notable contradiction and ominous allusion to self-awareness on the part of the nobility, who indulge in their bloodlusts and pursuit of economic dominance under the guise of liberty as a spectral shroud.

[j.e.rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers."