William Blake

Paper Summary:

The writer looks at the life of William Blake. Blake is described as a mystic, admitting to experiencing visions and prophecies at a young age. The writer discusses his most famous artistic works --Illustrations/Engravings of the book of Job and his two greatest literary works --"Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience".

From the Paper:

"Although Blake is well known for a whole range of poetry and art, there are some works that stand out and have survived the test of time better than others. His most famous artistic works are his Illustrations/Engravings of the book of Job. His two greatest literary works are his Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.
It was relatively early in his career that Blake decided to combine visual with written creative expression. Songs of Innocence is Blake's first masterpiece of "illuminated printing." In it the fragile and flowerlike beauty of the lyrics harmonizes with the delicacy and rhythmical subtlety of the designs. Songs of Innocence differs radically from the rather derivative pastoral mode of the Poetical Sketches. In the Songs, Blake took as his models the popular street ballads and rhymes for children of his own time, transmuting these forms by his genius into some of the purest lyric poetry in the English language."

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