William Blake

1757 - 1827
 LIFE
• He was born into a family of humble origin
in 1757
• He was trained as an engraver and
practised this craft until he died
• He was contemporary of the American
War of Independence and the French
Revolution.
• He supported the French Revolution and
remained a radical throughout his life
• He had a strong sense of religion and
was deeply aware of the great political
and social issues of his age
• The most important literary influence in his
life was the Bible.
• He claimed he had visions.
• He died in 1827
 Blake the artist
• Blake studied the
works of Raphael
and Michelangelo.
• From Michelangelo
he learnt the
technique of
representing
exaggerated William Blake, Portrait of Newton, 1795

muscular bodies
• Blake studied the
monuments in
the old churches
of London,
particularly
Westminster
Abbey.

Westminster Abbey
• Blake created a combination of picture and
poetic text, which he called “illuminated
printing” and he also made many illustrations
for other author’s works, for example Dante’s
“Divine Comedy”
 Examples of Blake’s engravings

William Blake, The Whirlwind of Lovers, 1824-1826

William Blake, The Ancient of Days, 1794

 Complementary opposites
• Blake believed in the reality of a spiritual world but he thought
that Christianity was responsible for the fragmentation of
consciousness and the dualism which characterised man’s
life.
• So he had a vision made up of complementary opposites.

good evil
male female
reason imagination

cruelty kindness
 “Attraction and
Repulsion, Reason
and Energy, Love
and Hate are
Blake stated :
necessary to
Human Existence” “without
Contraries
“The Creator can there is no
be at the same time
the God of love and Progression”
innocence and the
God of energy and
violence”
 Blake’s Imagination

• Blake did not believe in man’s rationality

and considered imagination as the
means through which Man can know the
world.
• Faith and intuition were the only source
of true knowledge
• The internal mind really builds the
external world that man sees.
 The poet as a prophet

The poet becomes a

sort of prophet who
can see more deeply
into reality and who
also tries to warn
man against the
evils of society

William Blake in an illustration by John Linnell.

 Songs of Innocence (1789)
• “Songs of
Innocence” is
written in the
pastoral mode with
simple imagery. It
deals with childhood
as the symbol of
innocence.
Cover engraving from the 1826 edition of Songs of
Innocence and of Experience.
Songs of Experience (1794)

• “Songs of
Experience” is
more complex
and pessimistic.
The poems pair
those of “Songs
of Innocence”.
• The world of innocence is full of joy
and happiness, while the world of
experience is full of cruelty and
injustice.
• The child is closer than the adult to
the original state of harmony with
nature.
 The Lamb
Theme  Innocence and the Creation.

Key-images  The Lamb, the Child,

Christ.

Devices:
• Repeated questions, directed to
the Lamb.
• Answers given in the second
stanza.
• Idyllic setting of “stream and
mead”.
• Image of God like both the “Good
shepherd” and “The Lamb of
God”.
The Lamb (Songs of Innocence, 1789)
Text analysis
• Rhyme scheme AABBCCDDAA
• Repetitions Who made thee (ll 1, 2, 9,
10); clothing (ll 5, 6); little
Lamb I’ll tell thee (ll 11,
12); child (ll 16, 17) name
(ll 13, 18); God bless thee
(ll 19, 20)
• Assonances /ee/ /ea/ (thee, feed,
stream, mead: ll 3,4); /ei /
(gave, making, vales: ll 7, 8)
The Lamb (Songs of Innocence, 1789)
Text analysis
• Alliterations /l/ (little lamb: l 1); /v/ (gave,
voice, vales: ll 7, 8); /ð/( thou;
thee: l 2); /m/ (meek, mild: l
15)
• Archaisms thee > you (object); thou > you
(subject); bid > ask; dost > do;
thy > your
• Syntactic structure :1st stanza > questions /
2nd stanza > answers
The Lamb (Songs of Innocence, 1789)
Text analysis
• Blake associates the lamb with a child
and the figure of Christ
• He establishes a link : He (the Creator) =
a lamb I (the poet) = a child
• The poet shares the divine power of
creation and the innocence of a child
 The Tyger
Theme  God’s power in creation.
Key images  The tiger as seen by
Blake’s poetic imagination: “fearful
symmetry”; “burning bright… fire of
thine eyes
Devices:
• Repeated (rhetorical) questions.
• Hammering rhythm (like casting a
spell).
• Creator presented as a blacksmith.

Reference to myth  Icarus and

Prometheus
The Tyger (Songs of Experience, 1794)
Text analysis
• Rhyme scheme AABBCCDDEE
• Repetitions Tyger, Tyger (ll 1); What (ll
3, 5, 7, 8 …); dread (l 10;
Did (ll 19, 20);
• Assonances /ai/ (Tyger,bright, night: ll
1,2)
• Alliterations /b/ (burning, bright: l 1;
/f/ (frame, fearful: ll 4);
began, beat l 11); /d/(dare;
deadly: l 16)
The Tyger (Songs of Experience, 1794)
Text analysis
• Archaisms Tyger > Tiger; thy > your; thine
> your; water’d > watered; thee
> you (object)
• Syntactic structure The poem is built around
questions
• Fire: energy, power and vitality of the animal
• Fearful symmetry: the tiger is beautiful and
frightening (> sublime)
The Tyger (Songs of Experience, 1794)
Text analysis
• Forests of the night: metaphor for the chaos
of the universe before Creation
• Hammer, chain, fire, anvil, furnace: the
Creator is seen like a blacksmith
• Myths: Icarus ( l 7: on what wings dare he
aspire); Prometheus (l 8:What the hand dare
seize the fire); fallen Angels (ll 17, 18: when
the stars threw down their spears and water’d
heaven with their tears)
TheTyger (Songs of Experience, 1794)
Test analysis
• Blake wonders how the God who created the
sweet and mild Lamb could also create the
terrifying tiger
• The poem does not provide an answer
• The real theme of the poem is the Creation
• Blake supports the idea that there is no
progression without contrast