William Blake[William_Blake]

City of Residence: London
Has default language


Biography William Blake

Personal Webpage William Blake


 Use this address to access this author page : 

These are the most recent texts:

These are the most recent texts:

Comments:

Texts submited to the virtual library:

Page: 1

A Cradle Song :
Poetry 2008-04-17 (15663 hits)

A poison tree :
Poetry 2003-11-13 (11151 hits)

Angel, The :
Poetry 2005-10-19 (9862 hits)

Auguries of Innocence :
Poetry 2003-11-13 (12177 hits)

Crystal Cabinet, The :
Poetry 2005-10-19 (9173 hits)

Die kranke Rose :
Poetry 2005-07-04 (8706 hits)

From Milton: And did those feet :
Poetry 2006-02-11 (8185 hits)

Gnomic Verses :
Poetry 2005-10-19 (9119 hits)

Hornarul : ...să te știe aproape
Poetry 2004-03-21 (12154 hits)

I Saw a Chapel :
Poetry 2005-10-19 (9023 hits)

Introduction to Songs of Innocence :
Poetry 2005-01-16 (10709 hits)

Jerusalem :
Poetry 2005-07-29 (13870 hits)

London :
Poetry 2005-09-05 (12522 hits)

Mad Song :
Poetry 2005-10-19 (9179 hits)

Nevinovăție : Oare ?
Poetry 2004-03-21 (14687 hits)

Proverbs of Hell :
Poetry 2005-10-19 (9814 hits)

Sleep! Sleep! Beauty Bright :
Poetry 2005-10-19 (8941 hits)

The Chimney sweeper : From Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience
Poetry 2012-12-05 (14805 hits)

The Chimney-Sweeper :
Poetry 2005-05-31 (16516 hits)

The Divine Image :
Poetry 2005-10-10 (9295 hits)

The Garden of Love :
Poetry 2003-11-13 (9506 hits)

The Grey Monk :
Poetry 2005-10-19 (9074 hits)

the Lamb :
Poetry 2005-01-29 (21191 hits)

The Land of Dreams :
Poetry 2003-11-13 (9065 hits)

The sick rose :
Poetry 2003-11-13 (13371 hits)

The Tyger :
Poetry 2003-11-17 (10504 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.