Poems of William Blake

by William Blake

Songs of Innocence, and of Experience, and The Book of Thel

A DIVINE IMAGE

Cruelty has a human heart,

And Jealousy a human face;

Terror the human form divine,

And Secresy the human dress.

The human dress is forged iron,

The human form a fiery forge,

The human face a furnace sealed,

The human heart its hungry gorge.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Fiction, Literature, Romanticism, British Literature, English Literature

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1893

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

[Exina · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a required reading at English poetry seminar in college. I haven't read all the poems of course, but I highly enjoyed the ones I have.

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A small collection of poems from 18th century Englishman William Blake. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, and viewed in some quarters as a madman, it wasn't until later his work was regarded as grand. Along with his paintings, he would be part of the 'Romantic Movement', and was also strongly influenced by the Church, politics and historical revolutions. Made up of the 'Songs of Innocence & Experience', arguably his most famous work, they are charming poems, with the early ones that had me thinking of the British countryside on a summers day, sitting under a tree and looking yonder at the picturesque landscape.

Sometimes it's the small and simple things that lead to much beauty, and like other easy on the eye poets, most are a joy to read, and so full of wonder. My favorites were 'Holy Thursday', 'Divine Image' and 'The Garden of Love'.

A little Taste,

'The Lily'

"The modest Rose puts forth a thorn,
The humble sheep a threat'ning horn:
While the lily white shall in love delight,
Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright"

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have just completed "Jerusalem", "Milton", "The book of Thel" the prophetic books. I've been reading and returning to Blake since the mid-1980s and collect prints of the facsimiles when I can get them. This is my first time to get through the books mentioned above.

They remind me a lot of Tolkien's project. Blake and Tolkien both where English men who created their own mythologies about England. Both were religious. Both made paintings of their imaginative worlds.

The difference is that Tolkien was a practicing Catholic, who was not messing with the doctrines of his faith. Blake was kind of scary. He is highly critical of the deism of his time. He states that forgiveness is the primary characteristic of a person who follows Jesus. He was critical of a society that trammels over the well-being of the weak for industry and profit.

What makes him scary? It is difficult to understand what he is attempting to do with his portraits of the giants that comprise Albion (Britain). I am still not certain if his portrait of Satan is supposed to be a necessary and therefore good force that is a part of the dualism of reality, or if he actually is evil. Whatever he is saying I wouldn't want those words to have come from me.

The character of Satan is a master of extreme heat and cold, very much like Tolkien's Morgoth. They both stir things up in much the same way against the work of the rest of the gods.

Also, striking to me is that Blake uses the word Ork to discribe one of his characters, the only other places I have seen this is Tolkien's Orcs and a mention in Beowulf.

I'm not suggesting an influence. I have no idea what influenced Tolkien. I am merely pointing out that these two writers (both poets) achieved bodies of writing that did many of the same things.

Tolkien was able to craft his mythology into complete story and novelistic presentations as we see in the "Silmarillion" and "The Lord of the Rings". Ultimately, the two writers developed in different ways. I, at least enjoy seeing the products of each writer to see how they use the medium of myth creation to explore the world of their times and to critic and respond to the world.

[Veronique · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to Endless Night.”

It was lovely to revisit Blake’s poetry - a couple of his are firm favourites. This small anthology is pretty good, offering the famous Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. These poems do need to be read in parallel to get the full meaning. There is also a selection of the poet’s other writings.

Although there is a section on Blake’s art, the reproductions are in black in white. Normally, this would be fine, but in the case of this artist, his Art was an integral part of his Work. To get the full effect, you really do need to have the words AND the colour engravures. No wonder, Blake inspired so many people through time...

“Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”

[Anima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Introduction
‘Here is a selection, a bit of Blake, designed as a bedside companion or to accompany a walk in the countryside, to sit beneath a shady tree and discover a portal into his visionary and musical experience....
Although much of his work seems impenetrable he never ceased in his desire to connect with the populace. He has succeeded in offering both. He has been the spiritual ancestor of generations of poets and alchemical detectives seeking their way through the labyrinth of inhuman knowledge even as schoolchildren recite his verses. His proverbs have become common parlance.‘
To the evening star
‘.....
Smile on our loves, and while thou drawest the
Blue curtains of the sky, scatter thy silver dew
On every flower that shuts its sweet eyes
In timely sleep. Let thy west wind sleep on
The lake; speak silence with thy glimmering eyes,
And wash the dusk with silver....’

[atmatos · Rating 1 out of 5]

Blake focuses on religion a bit to much for my taste. I do like The Tyger, but that might be from reciting it in grade school, and it being the only poem that was familiar.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some excellent poems. I enjoyed Auguries of the Innocence, The Tyger, Spring and The Smile.

Some evocative lines:

There is a Smile of Love
And there is a Smile of Deceit
And there is a Smile of Smiles
In which these two Smiles meet…

Or

Sound the Flute!
Now it’s mute.
Birds delight
Day and Night.
Nightingale
In the dale
Lark in Sky
Merrily
Merrily Merrily to welcome in the Year

and

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Also brilliant

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour

[Aether Real · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really loved this book, there were quite a few poems in it that I wasn't huge on, but overall this was just a really great book.

[Bryce Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blake is my favorite poet, and thus picking this up for a dollar at the Friends Of The Library sale was seven kinds of sweet.

I'm not a huge Poetry person, mostly because I have much use for an art form that (in modern poetry at least) is designed to conceal it's meaning. That's why I like the Romantics, they're not afraid to say it. And what they lose in subtlety they more then make up for in sheer language.

Plus the subject matter is always much more interesting in Romantism. Man's soul suspended in a hopeless abyss devoid of form and meaning and then rendering being into existence, is good stuff.

Once the Enlightenment hit it kind of took Poetry down with it, as "I Dare say perhaps we should move the corpses AWAY from the drinking water." might be good advice, but hardly makes for stirring verse.

[Jonathan Terrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many people hold varying opinions on William Blake and his poetry. My opinion is that he used simple language to create romantic visions about the natural world he loved. And he created some pretty unique ideas such as Urizen.

I personally have not read all the poems in this volume (although I've read as many as I could) because there are many drafts and different versions of poems. The ones I have read I have enjoyed very much so and not simply because my favourite high school teacher thoroughly recommended them.

If you enjoy poetry Blake is a must read. He was a misunderstood visionary who has some interesting things to say whether you agree or disagree. His poems attacking the industrial movements are particularly fascinating.

[Абрахам Хосебр · Rating 3 out of 5]

Вільям Блейк
"Предковічне" вибрані поезії в перекладі Валерії Богуславської


"Народжені серцем картини натхненні
Що дурник безтямніший - маляр путящий.
Митців божевільних -як гріш, достеменні.
Що більше хильне- то й малює тим краще.
Блейк, більш - Рафаель! - чи до них вашим витворам,
Як контур не бачиш, не збудеш молитвою.
За контурний стиль ви митця заплювали: ач, як фордибачить!
Але божевільний так бачить і пише, як бачить!"

Я читав цю книгу з перервами впродовж трьох місяців. І причина тут одна - проблемний переклад Богуславської. Я завжди був противников буквалізму в перекладацтві, але у випадкуз Блейком перекладачка часом дозволяє собі занадто багато. Наприклад вживання сучасного сленгу, чи слова "нірвана", якого в вокабулярі Блейка просто не могло існувати! Інша проблема - збитий ритм і рими, додавання цілих неіснуючих речень невідомо для чого.
Є звісно і винятки - кілька дійсно добрих перекладів, але це й не дивно, бо ж тут 170 сторінок віршів українською. В даному випадку, білінґва це постріл в собі в ногу. Бо інколи перечитуючи оригінал, я розумів, що читаю два різні вірші двох різних авторів.


"Присів спочити Чоловік Одвічний.
А жінка, з темряви його поставши звично,
Під мандрагорою мене спіткала,
Сховавши вмить під власне покривало.
Змій цноту спокушав, словами пестив
Про зло й Добро, про гріх і благочестя."

"Ключі від брами"
Вільям Блейк


"О ружо, кепський твій талан!
Хробак невидний, гострий ніс,
Тебе гнітить. Злий ураган,
Його вночі сюди приніс.

У малинове ложе сну
Вкладає, сласних справ знавець,
Любов таємну навісну. -
Й тебе зведе він нанівець."

Також у виданні наявна непогана післямова, фраґменти з якої пубулікую нижче.

Уява - верховне божество Блейка, якому присвячені його найзахопленіші гімни, виявляється ключовим поняттям Блейко��ої філософії, чиї витоки слід шукати в єретичних і сектантських поглядах середніх віків і в містицизмі Якова Беме і Сведенборга, а відгуки і продовження вже у романтиків, які йшли, того не відаючи, проторованими Блейком шляхами.
Уяві протистоїть Своєкорисливість - Розум раціоналістів, замкнений у колі земних, винятково земних інтересів, або абстрактні альтернативи Добра і зла, з яких бере початок канонічна християнська теологія. На перший погляд, одна одній ворожі, ці дві форми свідомості для Блейка ідентичні у своєму прагненні утруднити, зробити цілковито нездійсненним безпосереднє спілкування особистості з Богом, уміщеним у ній самій, пізнання прихованої в будь-якій людині духовної субстанції та її вільний розвиток. Сам Бог не більш, ніж космічна уява, котра вільно творить світ у згоді з прагненням людей до органічного, цілісного буття й необхідності естетичної гармонії і краси.

Боротьба Уяви і Своєкорисливості - панівний мотив усієї Блейкової космогонії, всієї щонайскладнішої образної символіки «пророчих» поем, і це боротьба за цілісну людину, що визнає, попри конкретні обставини свого існування, єдиною і незаперечною нормою Поетичний Геній і створює Єрусалим із каміння зруйнованого нею Вавилона.
Саме з тієї першоматерії, котрою наповнене її сьогоднішнє життя; це важлива особливість Блейкового мислення, що докорінно відрізняє його від утопістів, які малювали такий собі важкодосяжний ідеал далекого майбутнього.

Блейкова поезія це світ осмислений у зближеннях, для блейківського часу абсолютно несподіваних, у найвищій гармонії вічного і нестерпній розчленованості соціального, біжучого свого буття, у перетинах полярностей: сумирний Агнець і створений тим самим Майстром у тій самій кузні сліпучо прекрасний тигр, втілення великої енергії життя, його нескінченного вогню і ярості, нещадності його законів; квітка, що прозріває в царстві Невинності й інша
квітка, хвора троянда, котра чахне, стикаючись із Досвідом; осяйні личка дітей на світлому святі у храмі — і, в той-таки святий четвер, голодні дитячі личка на вулицях з їхньою нескінченною пітьмою.

[Jacques Coulardeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE DARKNESS OF THIS LIGHT IS AN APOCALYPSE

The English Language and English Literature have two visionary geniuses, William Shakespeare and William Blake. They are equal because different and they are both great because they see beyond words and beyond the surface of things, though with different means at times. And American English Literature has a third one, Walt Whitman. Three pillars of English visionary mythology that make any other mythology, Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu or Buddhist very small indeed. They can only compare with Maya mythology that enters a completely different though just as intense universe of fantastic and at times horrific, cosmic power and life.



William Blake is a poetic monument created by human surrealist nature. He refers to himself and his own roots exclusively though he has nourished his imagination with the visions of others and, first of all, of all Apocalypses ever written or simply imagined by anyone since the mutating birth of Homo Sapiens. Blake wants to assume that human history, but he tries to go beyond all categories our Indo-European languages impose onto our thinking. For him time is timeless and becomes pure duration, space is spaceless and becomes a pure and permanent reversal of the inside outside and of the outside inside. He vertically aligns three cardinal points North, South, and East, and makes West turn around this North-South-East axis delimiting a spindle that becomes a vision of our life, soul, mind, and flesh. We are that rotating spindle that collapses inwards permanently and swells outwards again incessantly and infinitely. And even if we really are that spindle in every one of ourselves, the whole universe is a spindle of all the human spindles on its own and all by itself. The whole universe is flesh, the whole universe is divine, the whole universe is satanic, the whole universe is the promise of salvation in that very Brownian chaos of our dreaming imagination that encompasses all these movements and tries to rebuild some epiphanic salvation in that seemingly incoherent apocalypse. And that salvation is visual, a vision in color, shapes, and forms, movements and drifts and the use of illuminations and graphic representations are just the shapings of this inner mentally graphic meaning.

These various dimensions are intertwined in, for example, “Jerusalem, The Emanation of the Giant Albion”: the dramatic line (single or multi-linear, if we follow the debate dominated by David Whitmarsh), the style and the music, the imagery and the menagerie, the religious inspiration and the iconoclastic anti-references, and of course the illustrations. Blake gives the lie to George Lakoff when this latter says, “Metaphor is a natural phenomenon since "conceptual metaphor is part of human thought, and linguistic metaphor is part of human language" (LAKOFF, G. & JOHNSON, M. Metaphors We Live By. The University of Chicago Press, 2003 [1980], p.247) For Blake it is all a mental graphic multidimensional semiotic hybridization, and thus has nothing to do with the natural of natural phenomena. In fact, we can wonder if Lakoff does not take “natural” with the meaning of “human-produced” because “human thought and… human language” have been devised by Homo Sapiens in his long emergence from his Hominin ancestors. Nothing natural there but only phylogenic development of the mind and language that developed pre-Sapiens Hominins into Sapiens Hominins.

To capture this art you must concentrate on some sections, even short excerpts, probably one or two plates to be able to see in full detail how this poetry tries to recreate the Hebraic Semitic capture of the world and conceptualization of life, I mean the Semitic vision of the world with a language that only starts from consonantal roots and then conceptualizes a whole network of notions derived from these roots by the use of vocalic variations, the roots keeping there meaning no matter how far from them the discursive words are built with such vocalic variations and compositions of such roots and derived discursive words. But Blake works in a language that is two phylogenic articulations further down our phylogenic evolution, a synthetic-analytical language. Blake is a typical English poet who knows those ancient and ancestral languages enough to try to transport their conceptualizing power into English itself. His prophetic texts are the visual and graphic results of that attempt.

But to really understand Blake you also need to take into account the simple, short poems like the famous Tyger poem:

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

And these simple poems have been a phenomenal inspiration to many artists in England but also in the world. I will only take one example, Benjamin Britten and his opera The Little Sweep. It starts from two poems by William Blake, the Chimney Sweeper, one in the Songs of Innocence (1789) and the other in the Songs of Experience (1794). The two poems have contradictory meanings on the basis of the same description of a hateful and bleak occupation for boys under ten.

The first poem’s conclusion is:

“Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm;
So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.”

Good boy indeed who knows his duty. The second poem’s conclusion is

"And because I am happy and dance and sing,
They think they have done me no injury,
And are gone to praise God and his priest and king,
Who make up a heaven of our misery."

This chimney sweeper shows some kind of childish happiness that hides well the real bleak misery inside.

If we keep in mind this contradictory message from the most empathetic English poet ever, we can then get into the opera whose libretto was written by Eric Crozier. In that opera, Benjamin Britten plays on the strong image of Blake’s first poem of these boys being locked up in black coffins of soot and their being freed by an angel.

“That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack,
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black.
And by came an angel who had a bright key,
And he opened the coffins and set them all free;
Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,
And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.
Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind.”

Benjamin Britten, or Eric Crozier, uses the image of the coffins many times: stuck in the chimney, then hidden in the toy cupboard, spending the night there, and finally being moved out of the house and onto his liberation in a traveling chest. Every time the boy is liberated in a way or another, the last time is a promise though, by the children of the house who plot that whole procedure, hence playing the role of the angel and led into that by three girls along with three boys, a perfect David’s star, from two families, the Brooks (two girls and one boy) and the Cromes (two boys and one girl), one triangle point up representing the light of divine truth poured down into the human cup and one triangle point down representing the human cup receiving the divine light.

So, enjoy Blake's poetry and try to enjoy it more than just read it. Contemplate, empathize and visualize in your mind’s eye that poignant reality, that cruel suffering in Blake’s vision and you might be engulfed in a power that has been running from 300,000 years ago when Homo Sapiens emerged from Homo Erectus or Homo Ergaster in Black Africa to today when the whole humanity and the planet itself are on the verge of going through the sixth mass extinction of life, and this time due to over-population, over-exploitation of natural resources and extreme over-pollution.

Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU

[ele (taylor’s version) · Rating 4 out of 5]

“the Immortal endur’d his chains,/ Tho’ bound in a deadly sleep.”

These poems have a beauty inside that makes you understand the power of words. Very well written. I recommend it

[Kaya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always enjoyed the irony of ‘Jerusalem’ being sung by the most apishly patriotic Englishmen, often in the presence of St George’s Cross and a portrait of Queen Elizabeth. Perhaps they don’t understand the big words? Who knows what was going on in Blake’s head - I won’t attempt to give an answer to this - but it is nonetheless easy to see that he would be appalled to see his beautiful composition becoming a de facto national anthem to a country that has gone further into the Moloch-worshipping abyss that he warned against some hundreds of years ago.

Blake was a socialist, a liberation theologist, anarchist, utopian, vegetarian, call him whatever. He is far too creative for any of those labels anyway. Creative enough to invent entire literary worlds long before Tolkein and wise enough to illuminate the darkest heart, I just wish he were more widely understood because the moment one considers the answer to the question ‘and did those feet’, one would do away with flag-waving and monarchy-worship and stand up for their country the way a real patriot does. By defending the most vulnerable, fighting corruption, spreading love not just to our fellow humans but to animals too, and doing what we can to keep England a ‘green and pleasant land.’

Blake said ‘a Dove house fill’d with Doves and Pigeons / Shudders Hell thr’ all its regions / A dog starvd at his Masters Gate / Predicts the ruin of the State’

If you could read just one of his poems I would recommend ‘Auguries of Innocence,’ from which I took this extract. The moral lessons contained therein (and in the rest of his poetry) cannot be understated in our day and age - it is simply a bonus that he teaches with rhyme and meter so as to make his wisdom not just pertinent but beautiful too. Read between the lines and see how much he anguished and how his heart burnt at the suffering of other living beings and see if you can infuse yourself with some of that urgency. To paraphrase him, don’t cease from mental fight; if you are English, love England the way he did, love its people (yes, all of them), its verdancy, its tranquility and see what happens.

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was my first time reading poems by William Blake and I can’t say I was terribly impressed. Admittedly, I don’t read much poetry but I do enjoy it once in a while.

The main problem I had with these poems is that they made me feel like I was a 10-year-old schoolgirl again. They were simplistic, dreadfully unoriginal and quite boring. To me Blake’s poetry lacks rhythm and his verses lack fluidity. Definitely not the kind of poetry I enjoy reading.

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not at all enjoy his religiously themed poems. Not at all. The rest was superb though

[Christy Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a huge fan of William Blake and his poems. His style is easily accessible for all. New to classic poetry - you’ll take to these.

[Othy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I doubt I will ever have read Blake enough (and this nice, thick book in particular) to ever be able to say that I have fully "read" him. Blake is like nothing I have ever read, nor could I describe the experience I have reading him to that of any other poet. It seems at times I'm reading a myth instead of a Romantic poet (which, perhaps, would make him happy to hear). Fun wouldn't be the word...maybe captivated? Overtaken? Fascinated to momentary fulfillment? Well, at least as much as any poem can, I suppose. But, in the end, Blake is wonderful, and I look forward to reading him more and more.

Concerning the edition: very good, though I suppose it wouldn't be a Penguin if it didn't have lifeless black-and-white pages. It is said that one is not reading Blake without his visual artwork, but that can't really be helped in an edition made to sell somewhat cheaply. Still, the editor does a great job with endnotes to explain some of the complicated ins and outs of Blake's poetry.

[Ivan Marović]

A bit of a rebel

Never knew
that Blake
is gentle so

his way is mild
as if speaking
to a child

Thou canst
feel it either
friend or foe

He'll turn
your heart to soft
searching
for the meaning loft

Words of yonder
with trouble
we ponder

Remote the language is such
we don't seem
to understand it much

Imitate it today
impossible
it would be 

Times are
different now
and so are we

In the yore
blasphemous
verses did he bore

His deity he placed
from where Almighty
should have gazed

The fire
and iron chain
are for those
who were lost

Evil one
must be replaced
by the Holy Ghost

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

William Blake was an amazing poet, but he was also an amazing artist. Before now I was more familiar with his paintings and etchings then I was his poetry.
His poetry range from romantic to religious.
He has a wonderful way with words that can make you almost see what he is describing.
This is my first time reading his words, but it will definitely not be my last. If you are a fellow lover of poetry, I recommend the poetry of William Blake.

[Lisa of Troy]

Romantic Era Recommended Reading List as per Benjamin McEvoy in How to Get an Oxford English Education for Free: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Q2J...

[Meg Garner]

This was good of what I read but I’ve been reading it too long so I’m shelving it

[? · Rating 3 out of 5]

i got a flat tire and read her…..she gave seasons but also religion with a little jw twist!

[Jim Puskas · Rating 5 out of 5]

To begin with, it’s helpful to recognize that Blake viewed all aspects of his world through a classicist’s lens. Hence, he addresses the cultural and political realities of his day (late 18th century) in a mythological manner, harkening back to the classics, e.g. Ovid, Virgil, etc. But, Blake being Blake, he doesn’t stop there. In total disregard for precedent or convention, in “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” Blake immediately begins to introduce his own panoply of mythological (or if you prefer, philosophical) figures, starting with Rintrah (representing the wrath of the prophet). As a self-described gadfly, Blake clearly identifies himself with Rintrah.
Anyone intending to embrace and at least partially comprehend this tome (some 850 pages of verse and 200 pages of notes) would do well to parse it into digestible helpings, setting aside the two great included epics — “Jerusalem” and “Vala, or the Four Zoas” — to be dealt with as works that stand on their own.
In composing “Jerusalem” Blake sought to both emulate and respond to Milton’s epic “History of England”; I’m not convinced that he succeeded in advancing his argument. On the other hand, in “Vala, or the Four Zoas”, his apotheosis, Blake really came into his own. Positing a notion that could only have sprung from Blake’s remarkable mind, he portrays primordial man as being composed of four ‘Zoas”: Reason, Passion, Sensation and Instinct, each of them being masculine attributes and each accompanied by Emanations, their feminine counterparts. Embarking upon this intellectual allegory, he launches into a mind-bending epic that demands several readings to be fully appreciated.
All that said. It’s entirely unnecessary for one to work through the epic pieces to appreciate and enjoy Blake’s mad notions and evocative imagery. There’s a wealth of intriguing material in the shorter pieces. The collections designated “Songs of Innocence and Experience” and “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” were my favorites. In the latter, he envisions himself, like Dante, strolling through Hell, seeking enlightenment. These verses are pithy, provocative, quirky and in places simply droll. And bearing in mind that Blake’s verse was intended to be viewed as integral to his paintings, they evoke startling images. Of all the poetry I know, Blake’s work is by far the most VISUAL in character.
Blake’s work proclaims his open hostility to organized religion, which must have been a factor in his lack of public acclaim in his day; from a socio-political standpoint he was a man clearly ahead of his time. And his paintings and drawings point far ahead to a 20th century Beardsley and even the neo-gothic fantasies of our own day.
Blake’s own philosophy of life might well be summed up in one line from “Proverbs of Hell” No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.
Blake soared very high indeed.

[E. G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Preface
Table of Dates
Further Reading

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

[Padmin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pittore, incisore, poeta visionario e immaginifico. Scrive come se si sentisse un predestinato, un profeta biblico. Del resto a quattro anni raccontò che Dio gli era apparso alla finestra (e lo accompagnò per tutta la vita). Ci ha lasciato anche aforismi fulminanti:
"La via dell'eccesso conduce al palazzo della saggezza".
"Generalizzare vuol dire essere idioti".
"Ero arrabbiato con il mio amico: io glielo dissi, e la rabbia finì. Ero arrabbiato con il nemico: non ne parlai, e la rabbia crebbe".
--------------------
The Tyger
Tyger ! Tyger! Burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? And what dread feet?
What the hammer? What the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors grasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And water’d heaven with their tears
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

[Rob Dudek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cruelty has a human heart,
And jealousy a human face;
Terror the human form divine,
And Secresy the human dress.

I'm sensing that William Blake was a rather peculiar individual. Most of his poems aren't exactly what you would call quotable, but I think that it might be because that wasn't his intention in the first place. The poems themselves are quite brilliant actually (as far as my mind can conceive) however, in this particular volume Blake had a bit of a theme going on with a child-like perception of the world and unfortunately that is not my cup of tea - at least not in the way Blake had presented it. As a result, the book receives 3 stars from me. However, I also assume that due to the certain gaps in my vocabulary, I was not able to fully perceive the true beauty of the book/poems. Having said that, I think many people would agree that Blake had a unique style of writing and his work will not speak to everyone (in spite of one's abilities). For me, this is a sort of 'either love or hate' kind of work with a few of bits and pieces of clear ingenious thrown here and there. Though, I firmly believe it's well worth reading.

[Citrine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't say that I liked the majority of Blake's poems , I found them repetitive and . . . out of touch with the ordinary person's perceptions of life perhaps ? I did enjoy the cheeriness for a change , child like and innocent . But the few poems that I really treasured from this work , I was deeply moved by them . And as others have commented , I see why he was controversial , those were the poems I was expecting and got the most out of .

Here was my favorite of William Blake's by far : A Poison Tree

I was angry with my friend
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears
Night and morning with my tears,
And I sunned it with smiles
And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright,
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine -

And into my garden stole
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning, glad, I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

[M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. A Poetry Anthology

As others have said, there's a peaceful and mystical streak in Blake's poems more than in other romantics, with his frequent imagery of innocence, children and lambs almost interchangeable if it weren't by the ever present imagery of Christ. The world looks a fairer place where no children are unprotected, because the Shepherd always looks for them.
There are a few poems in this collection that explore sadness and desolation, but without indulging in the misery for its own sake. He also seemed very conscious of racial issues, which is very welcome.
I had never read Blake before, I knew he was famous, mainly for his Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Lewis' response in The Great Divorce, and The Tyger.
Now I have to read Chesterton's profile of him, because he surely seems an interesting man.

[Tijana · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's. I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.”

I usually don't like reading poems, but I had to read a couple of Blake's poems in class and I really enjoyed them. That's why I decided to pick this book up and I'm so glad I did.

The poems were not only interesting, but also easy to read and to understand, which I thoroughly enjoyed considering I still have one exam left I didn't want to spend the little free time I had decoding poems.

All in all, a very enjoyable read and I definitely plan on picking up Blake's other books.