William Blake :: English Literature

William BlakeWilliam Blake was born in London, where he spent most of his life. Hisfather was a booming London hosier and attracted by the doctrinesof Emmanuel Swedenborg. Blake was inaugural educated at home, chiefly byhis mother. His parents encouraged him to collect prints of theItalian masters, and in 1767 sent him to Henry Pars drawing school.From his previous(predicate) years, he experienced visions of angels and ghostlymonks, he saw and conversed with the angel Gabriel, the Virgin Mary,and various historical figures.At the age of 14 Blake was apprenticed for seven years to the engraverJames Basire. Gothic cunning and architecture influenced him deeply. Afterstudies at the Royal Academy School, Blake started to producewatercolors and engrave illustrations for magazines. In 1783 hemarried Catherine Boucher, the daughter of a market gardener. Blaketaught her to draw and blusher and she assisted him devoutly. In 1774Blake opened with his wife and younger brother Robert a pr int shop at27 broad Street, but the venture failed afterward the death of Robert in1787. Blakes important cultural and social contacts included HenryFuseli, Reverend A.S. Mathew and his wife, John Flaxman (1755-1826), asculptor and draftsman, tom Paine, William Godwin, and Mrs ElizabethMontagu (1720-1800), married to the wealthy grandson of the earl ofSandwich.His early(a) poems Blake wrote at the age of 12. However, being earlyapprenticed to a manual occupation, journalistic-social career was notopen to him. His first arrest of poems, POETICAL SKETCHES, appeared in1783 and was followed by SONGS OF INNOCENCE (1789), and SONGS OFEXPERIENCE (1794). His most famous poem, The Tyger, was part of hisSongs of Experience. He approved of free love, and sympathized withthe actions of the French revolutionaries but the Reign of bratsickened him. In 1790 Blake engraved THE spousal OF HEAVEN AND HELL,a book of paradoxical aphorisms and his principal prose work.Radically he sided with the Satan in Miltons Paradise Lost andattacked the unoriginal religious views in a series of aphorisms.But the poets life in the realms of images did not please his wifewho once remarked I have very exact of Mr. Blakes company. He isalways in Paradise. Some of Blakes contemporaries called him aharmless lunatic.The Blakes moved south of the Thames to Lambeth in 1790. During thistime Blake began to work on his prophetic books, where he utteredhis lifelong concern with the battle of the soul to free its naturalenergies from reason and organized religion. Although Blake firstaccepted Swedenborgs ideas, he eventually rejected him. He wrote THEVISIONS OF THE DAUGHTERS OF ALBION (1793), the States A PROPHESY (1793),William Blake English LiteratureWilliam BlakeWilliam Blake was born in London, where he spent most of his life. Hisfather was a successful London hosier and attracted by the doctrinesof Emmanuel Swedenborg. Blake was first educated at home, chiefly byhis mother. His parents en couraged him to collect prints of theItalian masters, and in 1767 sent him to Henry Pars drawing school.From his early years, he experienced visions of angels and ghostlymonks, he saw and conversed with the angel Gabriel, the Virgin Mary,and various historical figures.At the age of 14 Blake was apprenticed for seven years to the engraverJames Basire. Gothic art and architecture influenced him deeply. Afterstudies at the Royal Academy School, Blake started to producewatercolors and engrave illustrations for magazines. In 1783 hemarried Catherine Boucher, the daughter of a market gardener. Blaketaught her to draw and paint and she assisted him devoutly. In 1774Blake opened with his wife and younger brother Robert a print shop at27 Broad Street, but the venture failed after the death of Robert in1787. Blakes important cultural and social contacts included HenryFuseli, Reverend A.S. Mathew and his wife, John Flaxman (1755-1826), asculptor and draftsman, Tom Paine, William Godwin, and Mr s ElizabethMontagu (1720-1800), married to the wealthy grandson of the earl ofSandwich.His early poems Blake wrote at the age of 12. However, being earlyapprenticed to a manual occupation, journalistic-social career was notopen to him. His first book of poems, POETICAL SKETCHES, appeared in1783 and was followed by SONGS OF INNOCENCE (1789), and SONGS OFEXPERIENCE (1794). His most famous poem, The Tyger, was part of hisSongs of Experience. He approved of free love, and sympathized withthe actions of the French revolutionaries but the Reign of Terrorsickened him. In 1790 Blake engraved THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL,a book of paradoxical aphorisms and his principal prose work.Radically he sided with the Satan in Miltons Paradise Lost andattacked the conventional religious views in a series of aphorisms.But the poets life in the realms of images did not please his wifewho once remarked I have very little of Mr. Blakes company. He isalways in Paradise. Some of Blakes contemporaries cal led him aharmless lunatic.The Blakes moved south of the Thames to Lambeth in 1790. During thistime Blake began to work on his prophetic books, where he expressedhis lifelong concern with the struggle of the soul to free its naturalenergies from reason and organized religion. Although Blake firstaccepted Swedenborgs ideas, he eventually rejected him. He wrote THEVISIONS OF THE DAUGHTERS OF ALBION (1793), AMERICA A PROPHESY (1793),