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Biography William Blake

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A poison tree :
Poetry 2003-11-13 (883 hits)

Angel, The :
Poetry 2005-10-19 (677 hits)

Auguries of Innocence :
Poetry 2003-11-13 (931 hits)

Crystal Cabinet, The :
Poetry 2005-10-19 (722 hits)

Die kranke Rose :
Poetry 2005-07-04 (701 hits)

From Milton: And did those feet :
Poetry 2006-02-11 (534 hits)

Gnomic Verses :
Poetry 2005-10-19 (677 hits)

Hornarul : ...sã te ºtie aproape
Poetry 2004-03-21 (1018 hits)

I Saw a Chapel :
Poetry 2005-10-19 (760 hits)

Introduction to Songs of Innocence :
Poetry 2005-01-16 (779 hits)

Jerusalem :
Poetry 2005-07-29 (934 hits)

London :
Poetry 2005-09-05 (854 hits)

Mad Song :
Poetry 2005-10-19 (668 hits)

Nevinovãþie : Oare ?
Poetry 2004-03-21 (859 hits)

Proverbs of Hell :
Poetry 2005-10-19 (679 hits)

Sleep! Sleep! Beauty Bright :
Poetry 2005-10-19 (654 hits)

The Chimney-Sweeper :
Poetry 2005-05-31 (1192 hits)

The Divine Image :
Poetry 2005-10-10 (577 hits)

The Garden of Love :
Poetry 2003-11-13 (847 hits)

The Grey Monk :
Poetry 2005-10-19 (618 hits)

the Lamb :
Poetry 2005-01-29 (4282 hits)

The Land of Dreams :
Poetry 2003-11-13 (634 hits)

The sick rose :
Poetry 2003-11-13 (1003 hits)

The Tyger :
Poetry 2003-11-17 (982 hits)

“A Cradle Song” :
Poetry 2008-04-17 (391 hits)

Biography William Blake

William Blake (1757-1827) was a British poet, painter, visionary mystic, and engraver, who illustrated and printed his own books. Blake proclaimed the supremacy of the imagination over the rationalism and materialism of the 18th- century. Misunderstanding shadowed his career as a writer and artist and it was left to later generations to recognize his importance.

Blake was born in London, where he spent most of his life. His father was a successful London hosier who encouraged Blake\'s artistic talents. Blake was first educated at home, chiefly by his mother. In 1767 he was sent to Henry Pars\' drawing school. Blake has recorded that from his early years, he experienced visions of angels and ghostly monks and that he saw and conversed with the angel Gabriel, the Virgin Mary, and various historical figures.

At the age of 14 Blake was apprenticed for seven years to the engraver James Basire. Gothic art and architecture influenced him deeply. In 1783 he married Catherine Boucher, the daughter of a market gardener. Blake taught her to draw and paint and she assisted him devoutly.

Blake\'s first book of poems, Poetical Sketches, appeared in 1783 and was followed by Songs of Innocence (1789), and Songs of ExperienceE (1794). His most famous poem \"The Tyger\", was part of his Songs of Experience. In these works the world is seen from a child\'s point of view, but they also function as parables of adult experience.

Blake engraved and published most of his major works himself. Famous among his \"Prophetic Books\" are The Book of Thel(1789) The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,(1790) The Book of Urizen,(1794) America(1793), Milton(1804-8)and Jerusalem.(1804-20).In the \"Prophetic Books\", Blake expressed his lifelong concern with the struggle of the soul to free its natural energies from reason and organized religion. Among Blake\'s later artistic works are drawings and engravings for Dante\'s Divine Comedy and the 21 illustrations to the book of Job, which was completed when he was almost 70 years old.

Blake never shook off his economic poverty, which was in a large part due to his inability to compete in the highly competitive field of engraving and his expensive invention that enabled him to design illustrations and print words at the same time. However, independent throughout his life, Blake left no debts at his death on August 12, 1827. He was buried in an unmarked grave at the public cemetery of Bunhill Fields. Though generally dismissed as an eccentric during his lifetime, posterity rediscovered Blake and today he is highly rated both as a poet and artist.