William Blake was an English poet and artist born in 1757 who lived a simple life in London. He began his career as an artist at a young age and worked as an engraver, though he was poor. Blake's poetry received little attention during his life but is now considered an important work of the Romantic era. His poems use symbolic imagery and focus on spiritual themes, social justice, imagination, and the relationship between innocence and experience.

1. William Blake and the
characteristics of his poetry
http://library.uncg.edu/depts/speccoll/exhibits/Bl
ake/Blakeportrait.gif

2. William Blake
Born November 28, 1757
 London, England
Died August 12, 1827
 London, England
69 years old
http://www.johnmitchell.org/art_gallery.htm

3. Blake’s life
 Early years
 Began his artistic
career at 10 years
old when his father
sent him to the best
drawing school in
England
 Apprenticed to an
engraver at 14
 Adult life
 Always worked as
an engraver and
professional artist
 Was very poor,
especially later in
life
 Always felt rich in
spirit

4. Blake’s art
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/blake/
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/blake/
http://www.metmuseum.org/special/William_Blake/15.R.htm

5. Blake’s life:
 His life is considered “simple,” “boring,”
when compared to the lives of his
contemporaries (Coleridge, Shelley, Keats).
 Never traveled.

6. Blake’s Death:
 Suffered in his last years “that Sickness to
which there is no name.”
 Probably biliary cirrhosis
 Caused by prolonged exposure to the fumes
produced when acid is applied to copper plates
 This was one of his methods of engraving.

7. Blake’s point of view:
 Politically Blake was a rebel, making
friends with those radicals.
 Literarily Blake was the first important
romantic poet, showing contempt for
the rule of reason, opposing the
classical tradition of the 18th
century,
and treasuring the individual’s
imagination.

8. Blake’s poetry:
 Work received little attention during his lifetime.
 Most of his poetry was not widely published.
 When his work was noticed, people thought it (and
therefore Blake himself) was weird, confused, or
mad.
 Printed most of his poetry himself.

9. Blake’s “romantic”
tendencies: If we see with our imaginations, we see the infinite;
if we see with our reason, we see only ourselves.
 Believed everything in life (every object, every
event) was a symbol with a mystical or spiritual
meaning.
 E.G:
the theme of his poems:
The Lamb
The Tyger
A Poison Tree
 He presents his view in visual images rather than
abstract ideas.

10.  His poems spoke out against social injustice.
 E.G:
As in“The little black boy” and “The chimney sweeper”,
we find racial discrimination and sufferings of the poor.
 His poetry and art reflect his struggles with the big
spiritual questions:
 Why is there evil?
 Why do evil people sometimes prosper?
 Why do the innocent suffer?
 Blake writes his poems in plain an direct language.
 Symbolism in wide range is a distinctive feature of his
poetry.

11.  He dicusses the topic of women and children in his
poem.
 As he has discussed in his poem:
 The Lamb,
 Earth’s Answer,
 The school boy,
 The chimney sweeper,
 The London
 He has also used supernatural element in his
poem(something beyond the natural).
 For example:
 In the poem “chimney sweeper”.