William Blake

Introduction

William Blake

Reproduction of a page from Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Rejected as a madman by eighteenth-century society, William Blake is now heralded for his imaginative and innovative contributions to English literature. Blake’s work doesn’t fall neatly into one category, but much of it centers on thematic dichotomies such as heaven and hell, innocence and experience, spirit and reason, and the classic struggle of good and evil. Those are familiar enough topics, certainly addressed by writers before him, but Blake tackled them with his own blend of imagination, mysticism, and passion. “I must create my own system,” he insisted, “or be enslav’d by another man’s. I will not reason and compare; my business is to create.” And create he did. Blake wrote poetry, mythology, satires, political pieces, and prophetic works that openly defied the Victorian conventions of his time.

Essential Facts

1. Blake claimed to have mystical visions throughout his life. When he was 4 years old, he said he saw God put his head up to the window, and at age 9 he witnessed a tree full of angels.
2. After marrying an illiterate woman named Catherine Boucher, Blake began the undertaking of teaching her to read, write, and produce drafts so that together they could work to publish and illustrate Blake’s literature.
3. Blake credits many of his ideas for art and literature to conversations he had with his dead brother, Robert.
4. Desiring to read classical literature in the original languages, Blake taught himself Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Italian.
5. When Blake died on August 12, 1827, famed poet William Wordsworth said, “There was no doubt that this poor man was mad, but there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scott.” As strange as it might seem, that same opinion was shared by many of Blake’s readers, acquaintances, and even close friends.