money to provide the widow with the sustenance for the rest of
her life and give all his children an education.
William Blake
(1757-1827)
William Blake was a poet, artist, and mystic, who followed no
style but his own. Thus, his work stands alone in English literature,
for no one saw life quite in the same way as he did. Blake grew in
the middle o f London, surrounded by the poverty o f the new
industrial age. His family was poor, and Blake had no opportunity
to receive education as a child. When he was ten, his father was
able to send him to a drawing school, and at fourteen he was
apprenticed to an engraver. As an apprentice he had time to read
widely and bsgan to write the first verses ofhis poetry.
In 1778, when he had completed his apprenticeship, Blake
became a professional engraver and earned a living over the next
twenty year:; by supplying booksellers and publishers with
copperplate engravings. In 1789, he published a volume o f lyrical
poems called “Songs of Innocence”. It was followed by a
companion volume “Songs o f Experience’. It was to be read in
conjunction with “Songs o f Innocence”. The two works contrast
with each other: one deals with good, passivity, and reason; the
other, with evii, violence, and emotion. They were the first o f
Blake’s books to be illustrated, engraved, and printed on
copperplates by himself. Blake’s engravings and paintings are an
important part ofhis artistic expression, for the verbal and visual
work together evoke one unified impression. Blake himself
manufactured all his poems thal appeared during his lifetime.
As B lake grew older, he became more and more caught up in
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