William Blake Overview

Some works of art effortlessly draw the core of their subject to surface. William Blake, the great predecessor to the Romantics, understood this well. Whether in a lyrical, allegorical poem like "The Echoing Green" or in the almost futuristic engravings for... [more]

Some works of art effortlessly draw the core of their subject to surface. William Blake, the great predecessor to the Romantics, understood this well. Whether in a lyrical, allegorical poem like "The Echoing Green" or in the almost futuristic engravings for "The Book of Urizen," he exemplified the art of sublime conveyance. Blake spoke in imaginative essences; he worked as a seer or visionary whose command over the figurative world spawned spiritual revelations. Blake integrated the visual and the literary to convey a complete artistic conception. His "illuminated poetry," which pairs printed verse with deeply symbolic illustrations, gives birth to an energetic dynamic between eye and mind. Blake conceived both images and poetry under the same premise: that artistic visions should well up from the soul rather than the material world. The most famous of his illuminated works is his series of poems entitled "Songs of Innocence" (1789). Here Blake focuses on a humanity deserving of compassion, a mankind capable of perfection. Even God is sympathetic in this world, as for instance in the poem entitled "On Another's Sorrow": "Till our grief is fled & gone/He doth sit by us and moan." "Songs of Innocence" reveals a hopeful Blake, one who reaches for a lovely kind of natural purity. With one succinct phrase, his poems transcend the mundane to a plane of light and timelessness. "The Lamb," a poem about a simple animal, blooms into an extensive rumination on spiritual redemption. The illustration of the text depicts a small boy standing naked underneath an intricate webbing of vines and branches; he tutors an attentive lamb which stands magically apart from an otherwise apathetic flock. For Blake, this was divine grace whittled down to its essential representation. Five years after the publication of "Songs of Innocence," Blake's perspective had changed. The later "Songs of Experience" (1794) still posits a higher spiritual ground, but suggests it can be achieved through wisdom gained by living rather than an original innocence. Set against the earlier poems, the second series creates a rounder exploration of the human dilemma, one that acknowledges the brutality as well as purity of nature. For example, "The Tyger" pits itself quite evenly against "The Lamb" -- this later work challenges the original assumption that living things can find comfort in mirroring God's image. Blake begins to wonder not so much about the existence of grace but of evil. However, "Songs of Experience" is not pessimistic -- instead, it suggests that true "innocence" comes only through the mind. A lifetime of contemplation and numerous mystical visions imbued Blake's art with a glowing sacredness. Writings like "The Book of Urizen" (1794) share his revelations in the form of a synthesized version of Christianity and his own personal mythology. Blake also indulged in politically minded writings, such as the abolitionist "Visions of the Daughters of Albion" and the pro-revolution piece "America: A Prophecy." But even these social treatises were written with the same spirituality that pervades his more mystic works -- at bottom, Blake believed in the triumph of the creative spirit over all else. His own vivid flights of ecstatic imagination had formed the core of this belief and lent certainty to his faith. [show less]