Toss up whether this goes here or in "History, Literature and the Arts"... I think Blake was primarily a mystic.
William Blake was a poet and artist, famed for his mystical and visionary work. Yet he was a fierce individualist, a romantic and critic of the church’s doctrine:
He was born in 1757 to a family of modest means. His education was of the kind usual for poorer children at the time, coming from his mother. He later celebrated this with the lines:
He had visions throughout his life, as a child seeing the head of God, Ezekiel and “a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars”. He considered having such visions to be a natural human faculty, “all men partake of it—but it is lost by not being cultivated”, and according to a contemporary spoke of his visions with no particular emphasis, as if they were almost a trivial matter. One of Blake’s own essays (“The Last Judgement”) states:
Many of his poems are now famous, “Songs Of Innocence”, written very simply in language a child could read, and “Songs Of Experience” being probably the best known collections. “The Marriage Of Heaven and Hell” which consists of a dialogue between Blake and an (arrogant) Angel, along with a collection of the “Proverbs Of Hell” is also somewhat well known. In this (and other works) he opposed morals in the sense of repressive commandments:
His art is also well known, his poetic work having mostly been printed with paintings, as Illuminated Manuscripts (in very small numbers using an etching technique he apparently received from his dead brother in a vision.)
https://66.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l...go1o1_1280.jpg
In his lifetime he had little success, being discovered posthumously. Eventually W.B. Yeats would publish his work and T.S. Eliot write an essay about him. He is now considered, alongside Milton, as one of the greatest mystic poets in English literature.
“Create a System or be enslav’d by another Mans.”
William Blake was a poet and artist, famed for his mystical and visionary work. Yet he was a fierce individualist, a romantic and critic of the church’s doctrine:
“And Caiphas was in his own Mind
A benefactor of Mankind
Both read the Bible day & night
But thou readst black where I read white”
A benefactor of Mankind
Both read the Bible day & night
But thou readst black where I read white”
He was born in 1757 to a family of modest means. His education was of the kind usual for poorer children at the time, coming from his mother. He later celebrated this with the lines:
“Thank God, I never was sent to School
To be Flogg’d into following the Stile of a Fool.”
To be Flogg’d into following the Stile of a Fool.”
He had visions throughout his life, as a child seeing the head of God, Ezekiel and “a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars”. He considered having such visions to be a natural human faculty, “all men partake of it—but it is lost by not being cultivated”, and according to a contemporary spoke of his visions with no particular emphasis, as if they were almost a trivial matter. One of Blake’s own essays (“The Last Judgement”) states:
“I assert for My Self that I do not behold the outward Creation… ‘What’ it will be Questiond ‘When the Sun rises, do you not See a round Disk of fire somewhat like a Guinea?’ O no no I see an Innumerable company of the Heavenly host crying ‘Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty!”
Many of his poems are now famous, “Songs Of Innocence”, written very simply in language a child could read, and “Songs Of Experience” being probably the best known collections. “The Marriage Of Heaven and Hell” which consists of a dialogue between Blake and an (arrogant) Angel, along with a collection of the “Proverbs Of Hell” is also somewhat well known. In this (and other works) he opposed morals in the sense of repressive commandments:
“Let the Priests of the Raven of dawn, no longer in deadly black, with hoarse note curse the sons of joy. Nor his accepted brethren, whom, tyrant, he calls free. Lay the bound or build the roof. Nor pale religions letchery call that virginity that wishes but acts not.
For everything that lives is Holy.”
For everything that lives is Holy.”
His art is also well known, his poetic work having mostly been printed with paintings, as Illuminated Manuscripts (in very small numbers using an etching technique he apparently received from his dead brother in a vision.)
https://66.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l...go1o1_1280.jpg
In his lifetime he had little success, being discovered posthumously. Eventually W.B. Yeats would publish his work and T.S. Eliot write an essay about him. He is now considered, alongside Milton, as one of the greatest mystic poets in English literature.
“If he had been Antichrist Creeping Jesus
Hed have done any thing to please us
Gone sneaking into Synagogues
And not usd the Elders & Priests like dogs
But Humble as a Lamb or Ass
Obeyd himself to Caiaphas
God wants not Man to Humble himself
This is the trick of the ancient Elf
This is the Race that Jesus ran
Humble to God Haughty to Man
Cursing the Rulers before the People
Even to the temples highest Steeple
And when he Humbled himself to God
Then descended the Cruel Rod”
Hed have done any thing to please us
Gone sneaking into Synagogues
And not usd the Elders & Priests like dogs
But Humble as a Lamb or Ass
Obeyd himself to Caiaphas
God wants not Man to Humble himself
This is the trick of the ancient Elf
This is the Race that Jesus ran
Humble to God Haughty to Man
Cursing the Rulers before the People
Even to the temples highest Steeple
And when he Humbled himself to God
Then descended the Cruel Rod”
via International Skeptics Forum http://bit.ly/2DOBrkS
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