William Blake
Prepared by Skylar Hamilton Burris

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"That which can be made Explicit to the Idiot is not worth my care."

Expanded Timeline:

1757    Blake is born
1780    Marries Catherine Boucher and teaches her to read
1783    First book of poems, Poetical Sketches, is published
1794    Songs of Innocence and of Experience published
1803    John Schofield charges Blake with uttering seditious statements; Blake is acquitted
            (Schofield later plays a role in Jerusalem)
1809    Blake's one man art show fails.
1820    Finishes his last "prophetic poems," Milton, The Four Zoas, and Jerusalem (begun 1804)
1827    Blake dies

Songs of Innocence and of Experience:

In Songs of Innocence, the speaker is a simple country boy "piping down the valleys wild." In Experience, he is the poet as prophet: "Hear the voice of the Bard! / Who Present, Past & Future sees."

"London" (from Songs of Experience)

I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear:

How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every blackning Church appalls
And the hapless Soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.

But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born Infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

Papers on this site:

"Dip him in the river who loves water"
The Two Contraries in Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Books:

Books by and about Blake

Websites about Blake:

William Blake Archive
This Library of Congress archive offers resources for study and research as well as access to the works of William Blake.

Suggest a website. E-mail SSBurris@msn.com

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Last Revised: Sunday January 09, 2005 06:15 PM -0500