1757 – 1827

Both painter and poet, he was little known as an artist and almost unknown as a poet at the time of his death. His case is a typical example of the value and dangers of the refusal to accept conventions: his radical, religious, moral and political opinions, his dissatisfaction with the poetic tradition of his times and his restless search for new forms and techniques made him a socially isolated, poor and misunderstood artist. It was only in the mid-1920s that Blake’s visionary poetry began to be fully admired and since then he has been considered one of the most intellectually challenging and original artists.

At 10 Drawing school Became acquainted with Raphael and Michelangelo Then Became apprentice to a famous engraver Began to draw monuments (love of the Gothic style) Finally Studied at the Royal Academy of Arts 1782 Married Catherine Boucher who was Illiterate and poor 1800 William Hayley,popular poet of the time, bacame his patron Blake refused to conform to his requirements of being more conventional So Spent the rest of his life in poverty and obscurity Died in 1827

Poetical Sketches (1783) Songs of Innocence (1789) Songs of Experience (1794) The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790) The French revolution (1791) The Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793)

His rebellious attitude was the result of severalinfluences of the Ageof Enlightenment His production was a reaction against the valuesand cultural patterns

Politically he was  in favour of the French and the American revolutions  A left-wing radical  He attacked national institutions and the Church of England  His works were a criticism of the suffering of the poor and the oppressed  He saw religion and culture as forms of social tyranny and instruments of oppression

 Paine and Godwin, left – wing radicals  Rousseau – Blake’s vision of the Child is linked to the idea of “the good natural man”  Voltaire and Diderot – the individual had a right to happiness and pleasure without the restrictions of morality and religion  Raphael, Michelangelo and the Gothic art  Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish philosopher and mystic who claimed he had visions  The Bible and Milton

An original theory

 He believed in the reality of a spiritual world but regarded Christianity - and the Church especially – as responsible for the fragmentation of consciousness and the dualism characterizing man’s life.  He substituted “complementary opposites” to “contraries”.  He stated: “Without contraries there is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate are necessary to Human Existence”.

JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE ( ) HAS A SIMILAR CONCEPTION OF IMAGINATION. HE STATED THAT “THE VERY SHAPE AND EXISTENCE OF THE WORLD DEPENDED ENTIRELY ON THE VISION OF THE INDIVIDUAL IMAGINATION”

A PROPHET A TEACHER THE POWER OF IMAGINATION MAKES THE POET SEEING MORE DEEPLY INTO REALITY WARNING MAN OF THE EVILS OF SOCIETY HE HAS THE TASK OF

 SONGS OF INNOCENCE The world of innocence is unthreatening and fearless, full of joy and happiness. It is a pastoral Eden, peopled by such figures as the lamb and the child, both symbols of Christ.  SONGS OF EXPERIENCE The world of experience is tainted by selfishness, cruelty and social injustice.Its symbol is the tiger, a disquieting creature, whose origins are lost “in the forests of the night”.

 Each page of his poems was an engraving of a text surrounded by images and designs coloured by hand in watercolour  The text and drawings were meant to illustrate and intensify each other’s meaning

 His language and syntax are fairly simple.  Apparently naive style  Plain Anglo-Saxon vocabulary  Musicality, ambiguity, allusiveness  Repetitions, refrain, regular stress patterns  Similarities with ballads, children’s songs, hymns  Complex simbologism – especially in his visionary poems

Perruchini-Pajalich, ENGLISH ROMANTICISM, Ed. Principato,2001 G.Mistrulli, MAKING WAVES, Ed. Zanichelli,2007 A. Cattaneo- D. De Flaviis, LITERARY TRACKS, Carlo Signorelli Ed, 2004 M. Spiazzi – M. Tavella, ONLY CONNECT, vol. 2, Ed. Zanichelli, 2001