William Blake: life, main works and themes

​​In a nutshell

William Blake was an English artist, poet, and author from the 19th century. He is known for his works Songs of Innocence ​and Songs of Experience.

The Author's Life

William Blake was born in London, in 1757. He was an engraver and did not have a good economic status. He supported the French Revolution and remained radical for the rest of his life. As a result of living all the events of the Industrial Revolution, Blake convinced himself to become the guardian of spirit and imagination. His most important literary influence was the Bible because of the complete vision of the world and its history.

Blake knew many people, however, had few friends. He was married to Catherine Boucher, she shared his interest in the spiritual and helped him in the making of lots of his works. Another valuable person in Blake's life was his brother Robert, who died aged 20. Blake began to have visions of his dead brother and claimed that he taught him the printing method he later used for his work. William Blake died in London, in 1827 and was buried in Bunhill Fields.

The Author's Main Works

William Blake was a very flexible artist. Painting, engraving, poetry, and writing were some of the talents he developed throughout his life.

ILLUMINATED PRINTING

When Blake was a kid, he attended a drawing school where he got familiar with the work of Raphael and Michelangelo. Later, he went to the Royal Academy of Art. Despite the standards and conventions established by his professors, Blake was able to break the traditional genres and create a type of art based on the power of imagination. Therefore, the method of combining picture and poetic text was born under the name of  'Illuminated Printing'.

POETRY

Blake was regarded as an early Romantic since he rejected the themes and ideas of the neoclassical style. Instead, he highlighted the importance of imagination over reason. 

In his work Songs of Innocence (1789), he portrays the life of a shepherd (narrator) who receives inspiration from a kid in a cloud to sing his songs and celebrate the divine in all creation. This poem deals with childhood as a symbol of innocence, the connection of the soul to happiness, freedom, and imagination. The language is simple and the imagery is composed of lambs, children playing in the village, and flowers.

On the other hand, Songs of Experience (1794) has a pessimistic perspective due to Blake's experiences during the French Revolution. Both Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are meant to be read together so that the paired poems comment on each other and transmit an ironic view of the situation given. 'Experience' deals with topics such as adulthood, the cruelty of society, and the destruction of innocence.

PROPHETIC WRITING

William Blake was very active in posting prophetic books. He created a complex personal mythology and invented his own symbolic characters to represent his social interests and denounce authority. 

The most popular was The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790), which was a prose work in which Satan and Hell symbolize liberty and energy, while Heaven is a legislative place. It emphasizes the importance of joy and freedom of thought and attacks the repression of human energies by society. 

Main Topics

Blake wrote about different topics such as innocence, religion, society, good and evil, and politics.

COMPLEMENTARY OPPOSITES

Blake's work shows a dualistic perception of the world. His vision was not related to contraries but 'complementary opposites': male and female, good and evil, reason and imagination, cruelty and kindness, love and hate, attraction and repulsion. The chance of progressing lies in the tension of having opposite perspectives rather than one being supreme over the other.

IMAGINATION

Blake believed imagination was the mean through the man could know the world. He thought God, the poet and the child shared the power of vision which was also the power of creation. As a result, the poet becomes a prophet who can warn man of the evils of society and can see deeply into reality. 

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

William Blake was very much aware of the political context he lived in. He supported the abolition of slavery and the egalitarian principles that popped during the French Revolution. In many of his poems, he showed sympathy for the victims of the Industrial Revolution, such as children and prostitutes, as well as, other victims like orphans and soldiers. 

STYLE

One of the characteristics of Blake's work was the use of symbols. For example, in the Songs, the child, the father and Christ represent the states of innocence, experience and higher innocence. There is a usual use of repetition to show the relationship between sound and meaning.

Songs of Experience 

Blake's work Songs of Experience was published in 1794 and explores the limitations and values of two different perspectives of life. It presents a situation that is first seen through the eyes of innocence and then experience.

LONDON 

This poem reflects the political, social, and religious context during the Industrial Revolution. Furthermore, it is a criticism of the Church and the British monarchy and portrays the injustice and cruelty emerging from society.

The speaker walks the streets of London and comments on what he sees. He notices a feeling of fear, despair, and repression on people's faces. The woeful cry of the chimney-sweeper criticizes the Church, and the blood of a soldier stains the walls of the monarch's residence. The nighttime describes how the cursing of prostitutes corrupts the newborn infant and disgraces the 'Marriage hearse'.