Contains the full text of 'Songs of Innocence', 'Songs of Experience', a selection from the Prophetic Books and his didactic poems and prose writings which reveal Blake as a major Romantic poet. Also included are a number of short poems which were unpublished in Blake's lifetime.

ENGLAND has produced a number of artists who have dealt with the superhuman and allegorical, but none have equalled in brilliancy William Blake, one of art's unique geniuses. Belonging to no set school, defying classification, developing his own method, and at times impatient of the restraint of convention, Blake flashes across the firmament of art like a bolt of lightning. His was not the ordinary mind or eye; rather he was so sensitive to impressions, so much a “seer of visions and a dreamer of dreams” that many have called him insane. Like other great men of genius, he did several things well, for he made serious contributions to the realm of poetry as well as that of art. In his day, Blake was misunderstood and neglected. Today, our museums treasure his works and rightly so, collectors vie with each other in the auction room for the possession of even his slightest sketch, and artists copy his style, though lacking his temperament or genius. –Bulletin of the Museum of Art, Vol. 9 [1921]

Product Description: From the PREFACE. Job was a type of Humanity, cast forth upon this dust-heap that we call the Earth, there to be taught that the search for an infinite God must be an infinite search. He was not a sceptic; he did not deny God or reject Religion; but he was a heretic, inasmuch as he could not accept the teaching of Religion as final, and, like Jesus, he vindicated the right of all men to seek God in their own way: "God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth...read more

Product Description: Songs of Innocence, and Songs of Experience

Rintrah roars and shakes his fires in the burden’d air, Hungry clouds swag on the deep. Once meek, and in a perilous path The just man kept his course along The Vale of Death. Roses are planted where thorns grow, And on the barren heath Sing the honey bees. Then the perilous path was planted, And a river and a spring On every cliff and tomb; And on the bleached bones Red clay brought forth: Till the villain left the paths of ease To walk in perilous paths, and drive The just man into barren climes. Now the sneaking serpent walks In mild humility; And the just man rages in the wilds Where lions roam. Rintrah roars and shakes his fires in the burden’d air, Hungry clouds swag on the deep. As a new heaven is begun, and it is now thirty-three years since its advent, the Eternal Hell revives. And lo! Swedenborg is the angel sitting at the tomb: his writings are the linen clothes folded up. Now is the dominion of Edom, and the return of Adam into Paradise.

Product Description: William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language"...read more

Product Description: This collection of the Complete Works of William Blake has all of the following works: A Father's Memoirs of His Child, All Religions Are One, There Is No Natural Religion, America: a Prophecy, An Island in the Moon: A Satirical Work, Europe: a Prophecy, Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion, Milton: a Poem, Poetical Sketches, Sibylline Leaves: On Homer’s Poetry & On Virgil, Songs of Experience, Songs of Innocence, The Book of Ahania, The Book of Los, The Song of Los, The Book of Thel, The Book of Urizen, The Four Zoas, The French Revolution, The Letters of William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Tiriel, Visions of the Daughters of Albion, Satirical Verses and Epigrams (Blake Notebook), Songs and Ballads (Blake Notebook), Assorted Works (Blake Notebook...read more

Product Description: William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language"...read more

Product Description: William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language"...read more

Product Description: William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language"...read more

Product Description: William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language"...read more

Product Description: William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language"...read more

Product Description: William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language"...read more

Product Description: William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language"...read more

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.