William Blake

BRITISH POET

William Blake was an English writer and artist who was born in London on November 28, 1757 and died in the
same city on August 12, 1827. Blake's writing is always linked to his illustrations and engravings, which he used
to make for his own poems or for literary classics. An admirer of Renaissance sculptors and painters, his pictorial
work shows influences of Michelangelo, Raphael or Dürer, developing an engraving technique that allowed him to
create luminous and expressive images based on the visions he claimed to have had since he was a child.
Supported by his parents, from a young age he was educated as an engraver and worked for several printers,
even setting up his own. In constant search of innocence in the human being, his first poems, full of enthusiasm
and naivety, were replaced by other verses full of disappointment, as can be seen when reading together Songs
of Innocence (1789) and of Experience (1794), where the poet accepts a different innocence, which can be
acquired only through experience. Although he was a student at the Royal Academy, he detested its system of
teaching and aesthetic values, instituted by its president, Joshua Reynolds, since Blake's search for truth and
beauty was centered on the imagination and the spirit, unlike Reynolds' rationalist and neoclassicist precepts. In
addition, Blake believed in racial and sexual equality, and preached a freedom of thought that clashed head-on
with the Catholic Church, a reason for which he was the object of numerous criticisms and which caused him
frequent problems. In 1782 he married Catherine Boucher, who would be his companion and assistant until the
end of his days.

Influence
After all, Blake's influence on modern-day poets, songwriters, artists, filmmakers, novelists, cartoonists and
graphic novelists has been intense and far-ranging. Thus, a strong case can be made for calling Blake the most
important poet/artist of all time. (Possible rivals include Michelangelo and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, but their poetry
did not have the worldwide impact of Blake's.) Blake was the first genius to turn poetry and art into ideological
weapons hurled impactfully against the "establishment." Blake coined a much more colorful term―"Satanic
Mills"―by which I take him to mean the three-headed hydra of State, Church and Industry. As a result, Blake
became a major influence on reform-minded poets like Walt Whitman, William Butler Yeats, Alan Ginsberg, e. e.
Cummings and Pablo Neruda. Later, Blake would also influence rebellious singer-songwriters like Bob Dylan,
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Jim Morrison, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Patti Smith, Kris Kristofferson, Joan
Baez, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen and Bono.

Songs of Innocence: The Chimney Sweeper

When my mother died I was very young,

And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!
So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.

There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,

That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved: so I said,
"Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare,
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair."

And so he was quiet; and that very night,

As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight,―
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack,
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black.

And by came an angel who had a bright key,

And he opened the coffins and set them all free;
Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,
And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.

Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,

They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind;
And the angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
He'd have God for his father, and never want joy.

And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark,

And got with our bags and our brushes to work.
Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm;
So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.

Songs of Experience: The Chimney Sweeper

A little black thing in the snow,

Crying "'weep! 'weep!" in notes of woe!
"Where are thy father and mother? Say!"
"They are both gone up to the church to pray."

"Because I was happy upon the heath,

And smiled among the winter's snow,
They clothed me in the clothes of death,
And taught me to sing the notes of woe."

"And because I am happy and dance and sing,

They think they have done me no injury,
And are gone to praise God and his priest and king,
Who make up a heaven of our misery."

Analysis
Many children of Blake's time were treated like indentured servants, or worse. For instance, in those dark days
chimneys had to be cleaned, and since small children were better able to squeeze into narrow chimneys than
adults, unscrupulous businessmen gave children as young as four the dirty, dangerous, sometimes-deadly task
of inserting themselves into chimneys and slowly working their way upwards to clean them. At the very best they
would breathe in noxious fumes, coal dust and ash; if they were really unlucky they might fall to be crippled or
die. Very young children were also forced to work grueling hours (up to 16 hours per day) at highly dangerous
mines and factories. Even if they weren't crippled or killed, they had scant time or energy to learn or play. The
majority of children who worked in mines would die before reaching age 25.

William Blake was a penniless, powerless poet. What could he possibly do about such horrors? What he did was
quite simple: he wrote very touching, very tender, very moving poems about the plight of the children of his day.

Blake wrote one collection of poems called Songs of Innocence, and another called Songs of Experience. The
poems of the first collection look at the world from the vantage of childish innocence, while the poems of the
second collection view the same world through the eyes of experience. In both poems above we can feel Blake's
tender empathy for suffering children. In both poems the child chimney sweeps are so young they can't
pronounce the "s" in "sweep" and so mispronounce their job titles. If the first poem seems hopeful, it may be
simply because children are inclined to be hopeful, due to their innocence. The second poem is much darker and
we sense Blake's fury with religious people who go to church and "pray" while innocent children suffer and die.

Conclusion
In our opinion William Blake (1757-1827) is the most important poet of all time. Why? Because he helped change
the world and in changing the world he saved many innocent children from lives of drudgery and misery
terminated by premature deaths. When I say that Blake was the most important poet and artist, I am not
suggesting that he wrote the greatest poems or created the greatest works of visual art. What I am suggesting is
that Blake had the most influence on other poets and artists, and on the greater world, especially in terms of
social progress. While he wrote many wonderful poems and was also a talented painter, printer and engraver,
what makes Blake the most important of poets and artists is the change his work wrought in human hearts, minds
and consciences. No great poet ever wrote more compassionately (or more often) about children.