William Blake: A Primary Source Of Inspiration

One of William Blake great poems, The Tyger” is well known as one or perhaps

Before watching your presentation, I only knew the basics regarding William Blake. There are various interesting things that you mentioned that I did not know about. For example, you mentioned how he was more commonly known for his art rather than his poems. His art as a whole is really interesting. You mentioned how he took his encounters with the people around him, his brother’s death, and visions and reflected them into his work. One thing from that list that stood out to me the most were his visions. He was able to take his visions and portray them in his paintings even when many people found it difficult to understand the meanings behind it.

Simple, limited, and unadventurous all describe William Blake’s life (Greenblatt, Abrams, Lynch, Stillinger). Blake was born November 28, 1757 in London, England and his artistic ability became evident in his early years. Blake had a very simple upbringing and had little education. His formal education was in art and at the age of fourteen he entered an apprenticeship with a well-known engraver who taught Blake his skills in engraving. In Blake’s free time, he began reading writing poetry.

From London, England, William Blake was born the 28th of November in 1757. Blake was born to a middle-class family and as a child he was a trouble-maker in school, he constantly did not attend school, therefore his parents attempted to educate him at home. He, “lived and worked in the teeming metropolis of London at a time of great social and political change,” that deeply influenced his writing. He believed that his writings were important and that they could be understood by a majority of men.

Children are always portrayed in books as angelic beings that are as close to perfect as they come. Many would suggest that this is not true, that children can be just as manipulative and conniving as adults. They cry when they do not get their way and throw tantrums that are quite obscene. However, the idea of this angelic child did not com into play until the 17th century. The poets William Blake and William Wordsworth are the two poets that coined this idea of the child. In the poems of these two authors, children are portrayed as innocent and pure beings and are closer to God than adults. Although these two poets have very different views of what children are like such as their interactions with adults, their perspective on life, and their

William Blake was born on November 28, 1757 in the city of London, where he spent most of his life. His family lived in a respectable, but not pretentious, lifestyle. He was one of seven children of James and Catherine Harmitage Blake, but only five lived into adulthood.

On November 28, 1757, William Blake was born to James and Catherine Blake, the latter of whom taught him much of his education (“The Legacy of William Blake in Contemporary Culture,” p. 4). Although

“EWW!”, went the crowd when Blake fell to the ground. When Blake hit the ground, the turf did not give much at all. Furthermore, it resulted in him breaking his leg. To play on the turf, was a bad idea we all knew. Mr. Ray, athletic trainer, put his leg in a boot and gave him a pair of crutches to use. The next day Coach Topps sent a group message saying, “Guys, keep Blake in your prayers and visit him as teammates should. Because we are a family and that is what family’s do.” Not only did many go see Blake, but also many prayed for him. Although Blake continues to get better, he still has a long way to go to recovery.

Born in 1757, poet William Blake grew up through the height of the Enlightenment period, where individuals begin to focus on themselves and discover their emotions, instead of living to achieve approval from a greater God. It is evident in Blake’s poems The Poison Tree and The Garden of Love that he is greatly influenced by these revolutionary ideas that are being discovered throughout his early life. Blake seems to have significantly removed himself from the Church and their teachings, due to the recent revelations of the importance of focusing on humans and their emotions. These ideals coincide with the movement during the eighteenth century where people began to realize that there is no sin in indulging in personal pleasure, regardless of what the Christian church has preached for hundreds of years. In The Garden of Love and The Poison Tree it is evident that William Blake is influenced by the Enlightenment ideals of individualism; therefore, he grapples

Born on November 8, 1757 inside of London, England, William Blake commenced writing at a youthful age and declared to have had his first vision, of a tree crowded with angels, at age of 10. He studied engraving and flourished to admire Gothic art, which he integrated into his own unique production. The Bible had an early, intelligent impact on Blake, and it would endure a lifetime cause of motivation, coloring his life and works with intensive spirituality.

The poet, painter and engraver, William Blake was born in 1757, to a London haberdasher. Blake’s only formal education was in art. At the age of ten, he entered a drawing school and then at the age of fourteen, he apprenticed to an engraver. ( Abrams & Stillinger 18). Although, much of Blake’s time was spent studying art, he enjoyed reading and soon began to write poetry. Blake’s first book of poems, Poetical Sketches, "showed his dissatisfaction with the reigning poetic tradition and his restless quest for new forms and techniques" ( Abrams & Stillinger 19). Poetical Sketches, was followed by many other works including, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. These series were accompanied by etchings, which depict

“The Chimney Sweeper” (128): This version of the Chimney Sweeper is very upfront and saddening. The version that is presented in the songs of innocence is much more of a calm town and is not as straightforward, while this version is very short and to the point. In this version its very deep as the narrator basically just calls out the parents/church for doing these horrible things to the children. I really love all three stanzas of this poem because they all have a really deep meaning and Blake transitions through them very well. Reading this poem over and over I don’t know what to make of it other than it is an absolute horrible situation. I think it can be tied in to

Poetry often has a way of speaking to certain people. Maybe not everyone can connect to every poem, but more so a specific poem. Maybe they can relate something that happened to them in their life that is similar to that in the poetry. Many times that is the case, sometimes others just simply like poems as well. They hear the words that it is saying and get exactly what it is trying to say and it speaks to them. This is a great way to connect to the poem, by just simply liking it in general. William Blake is known as one of the greatest poets of all times. The reason being for this is that he had to sets of poetry; one titled Songs of Innocence, and the other titled Songs of Experience. By the names of the title you can give an educated guess that they are all opposites, but probably related in some way. His titles in one of the sets will have a contrary in the other set. It always changes in the way that he is saying something, basically contradicting it. He has some very popular poetry within all of these works, they are widely known. In the set of poetry in Songs of Innocence my favorite poem is The Tyger because I like what he portrays, how he puts it forth, and the contradiction it has with The Lamb.

William Blake is one of England’s most famous literary figures. He is remembered and admired for his skill as a painter, engraver, and poet. He was born on Nov. 28, 1757 to a poor Hosier’s family living in or around London. Being of a poor family, Blake received little in the way of comfort or education while growing up. Amazingly, he did not attend school for very long and dropped out shortly after learning to read and write so that he could work in his father’s shop. The life of a hosier however was not the right path for Blake as he exhibited early on a skill for reading and drawing. Blake’s skill for reading can be seen in his understanding for and use of works such as the Bible and Greek classic literature.

William Blake was one of those 19th century figures who could have and should have been beatniks, along with Rimbaud, Verlaine, Manet, Cezanne and Whitman. He began his career as an engraver and artist, and was an apprentice to the highly original Romantic painter Henry Fuseli. In his own time he was valued as an artist, and created a set of watercolor illustrations for the Book of Job that were so wildly but subtly colored they would have looked perfectly at home in next month's issue of Wired.