1. William Blake

2. WILLIAM BLAKE Poet, visionary and engraver 1757-1827
He cut words or designs on metal or stone

3. Main events in his life (1757 – 1827)
American War of Independence
French Revolution
Struggle of man against tyranny

4. Visionary
Deeply religious but far
from orthodox
Christianity

5. 1789 Songs of Innocence
1794 Songs of Experience
Two contrary states of
the human soul

6. Innocence Experience World of adulthood World of childhood Tyranny
Punishment
Selfishness
World of childhood
Freedom
Forgiveness
Sympathy for the
weak and the poor
Without contraries there’s no progression

7. Innocence
Imagination:
Means to understand
the injustices of the
world
Experience
Reason:
Agent of government
and church to suppress
Imagination
Human struggle between the rules of law and reason
and the powers of love and Imagination

8. And I know that this world is a world
of Imagination & Vision. I see Every thing I
paint in This World, but Every body does not
see alike. To the Eyes of a Miser a Guinea is
more beautiful than the Sun, & a bag worn with
the use of Money has more beautiful proportions
than a Vine filled with Grapes. The tree which
moves some to tears of joy is in the Eyes of
others only a Green thing that stands in the way.
Some See Nature all Ridicule & Deformity, &
by these I shall not regulate my proportions;
& Some Scarce see Nature at all. But to the
Eyes of the Man of Imagination Nature is Imagination
itself.

9. William Blake's Mythology
Albion is the primeval man whose fall and
division results in the Four Zoas:
Tharmas: representing instinct and strength
Urizen: tradition; a cruel, Old Testament-style god.
Luvah: love, passion and emotive faculties; a Christ-like
figure, also known as Orc in his most amorous and
rebellious form.
Urthona, also known as Los: inspiration and the imagination

10. If you want to learn some amazing facts about William Blake click on

11. HOMEWORK Read page D31 of your book and find out:
The two main literary influences on Blake’s works
What, according to him, the Church was responsible of
Who has the power of Imagination
What is a poet for him
His position towards the French and the Industrial revolution
Which are his main symbols