William Blake

1. William Blake The Mythic Poet-Painter November 28, 1757-August 12, 1857

2. A Divine Image Cruelty has a human heart,And Jealousy a human face;Terror the human form divine,And Secresythe 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. This poem was written in 1789. In The Divine Image, the figures of Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love are presented by Blake as the four virtues which are object of prayer in moments of distress, being God praised for his lovely caring and blessing to comfort man. The four virtues are depicted by the author as essential not only in God, but also in man; as Mercy is found in the human heart and Pity in the human face.

3. A Dream Once a dream did weave a shadeO'er my Angel-guarded bed,That an Emmet lost its wayWhere on grass methought I lay.Troubled, wildered, and forlorn,Dark, benighted, travel-worn,Over many a tangle spray, All heart-broke, I heard her say: "Oh my children! do they cry,Do they hear their father sigh?Now they look abroad to see,Now return and weep for me."Pitying, I dropped a tear;But I saw a glow-worm near,Who replied, "What wailing wightCalls the watchman of the night?"I am set to light the ground,While the beetle goes his round:Follow now the beetle's hum;Little wanderer, hie thee home." This poem was written in 1794. In this poem, Blake portrays the concepts of the return to innocence from experience. The narrator in the poem tells us about a dream. He conveys a feeling of abstractism by describing the dream as weaving “a shade” over his bed, which is guarded by angels, guardians of innocence. A bed, including Blake’s, is probably the place where imagination can expand at its most. In this dream, while the narrator believes he is lying on some grass, he sees an ant who has, paradoxically, lost her way. Thus is nature shown as an even finer place for the greater expansion of imagination.

4. The Garden of Love I laid me down upon a bank, Where Love lay sleeping; I heard among the rushes dank Weeping, weeping. Then I went to the heath and the wild, To the thistles and thorns of the waste; And they told me how they were beguiled, Driven out, and compelled to the chaste. I went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen; A Chapel was built in the midst, Where I used to play on the green. And the gates of this Chapel were shut And "Thou shalt not," writ over the door; So I turned to the Garden of Love That so many sweet flowers bore. And I saw it was filled with graves, And tombstones where flowers should be; And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds, And binding with briars my joys and desires. This poem was written in 1794. "The Garden of Love" is written to express Blake's beliefs on the naturalness of sexuality and how organised religion, particularly the orthodox Christian church of Blake's time with their preaching and rules cause the repression of our natural desires.

5. Other Printed Work Created By: William Blake c.1804–c.1811: Milton a Poem 1804–1820: Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion 1783: Poetical Sketches 1784-5: An Island in the Moon 1789: Tiriel 1791: The French Revolution 1792: A Song of Liberty 1797: The Four Zoas

6. Bibliography http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/william-blake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake http://quotations.about.com/cs/poemlyrics/a/William_Blake_2.htm