William Blake Essay example - 826 Words

William Blake William Blake was born in 1757, the third son of a London hosier. Blake lived in or near to London, a city which dominates much of his work, whether as the nightmare London of the Songs of Experience, or the London which Blake saw as the New Jerusalem, the kingdom of God on earth. As the son of a hosier, a generally lower middle class occupation in late eighteenth century London, he was brought up in a poor household, a preparation for the relative poverty in which he would live for most of his life. He also received little formal schooling, which is all the more remarkable given both the depth and range of his reading of the Bible, of Milton and Greek and Latin classic literature, evident throughout his†¦show more content†¦From 1779 he was employed as an engraver for a local Bookseller, and Blake continued to earn an often precarious living from contracted engraving until, with the help of his friend John Flaxman (1755-1826), he was able to set up his own engraving business at 27 Broad Street, which proved not to be a successful enterprise. It is from this point, 1784, that Blakes career as an engraver-poet-prophet began in earnest. Working with the help of his dedicated wife Catherine Boucher (the daughter of a market gardener, whom he married in 1782), Blake divided his time between composing and engraving illustrated poetry, and eking out a precarious living as a contract engraver. His first works in illustrated painting - All Religions Are One and There is No Natural Religion (1788) - followed on from the satirical verse of An Island in the Moon (1784-5), but it was in 1789, the year of the French Revolution and the Storming of the Bastille, that saw Blakes early masterpieces, The Book of Thel and Songs of Innocence. Between 1789 and 1800, when the Blakes moved to Felpham, Blake was ferociously active, composing The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93), The French Revolution (1791), America: A Prophecy (1793), Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793), The Book of Urizen (1794), the Songs of Experience (1793-4), Europe: AShow MoreRelatedWilliam Blake As An Apprentice Essay1543 Words   |  7 PagesWilliam Blake born in London on the 28th of November in 1757 to a hosier names James and Catherine Blake with six siblings and 2 died in early age. Blake spoke of having visions in his early childhood. He saw god putting his head to the window when he was at the age of four and around the age of nine, he saw a tree filled with angels while walking through the countryside. His parents notice that he was different from his other siblings and they did not force him to attend conservative school. BlakeRead MoreThe Tyger By William Blake1168 Words   |  5 Pagesevil has caused many people throughout time to question their God and the way the world is. William Blake’s compilation of poems called the Songs of Innocence and Experience questions the good and evil in the daily lives of human beings. This collection of poems includes The Tyger , a partnered poem in the series with The Lamb. Blake offers a new way of interpreting God through His creations in The Tyger. Blake demonstrates the fierceness of the tyger’s creator throughout the poem. The tyger is viewedRead MoreEssay on William Blake1879 Words   |  8 PagesWilliam Blake William Blake is one of England’s most famous literary figures. He is remembered and admired for his skill as a painter, engraver, and poet. He was born on Nov. 28, 1757 to a poor Hosier’s family living in or around London. Being of a poor family, Blake received little in the way of comfort or education while growing up. Amazingly, he did not attend school for very long and dropped out shortly after learning to read and write so that he could work in his father’s shop. The lifeRead MoreWilliam Blake Poet535 Words   |  2 PagesWilliam Blake is one of the most renowned poets in the history of English literature. Born to the owners of a hosiery shop on Broad Street in the center of London in 1757, William Blake developed into a toddler of extraordinary imagination. While only a young boy (around the age of four), he spoke to his parents of seeing angels playing amongst him, encountering visions of heaven and hell throughout London and the nearby countryside, and spotting God keeping a close eye on him during tasks and choresRead MoreWilliam Blake For this paper I choose to do a study of William Blake. I choose William Blake800 Words   |  4 PagesWilliam Blake For this paper I choose to do a study of William Blake. I choose William Blake because I really liked some of his poems and he is considered one of the most renowned poets in English literature history. He liked to write poems that could be understood by the everyday man, because most of his poem were about the everyday man, but he refused to sacrifice his visions in order to become popular. His work combines a variety of writing styles, he is an artist, a lyric poet and a visionaryRead More William Blake Essay3149 Words   |  13 PagesWilliam Blake The poet, painter and engraver, William Blake was born in 1757, to a London haberdasher. Blake’s only formal education was in art. At the age of ten, he entered a drawing school and then at the age of fourteen, he apprenticed to an engraver. ( Abrams Stillinger 18). Although, much of Blake’s time was spent studying art, he enjoyed reading and soon began to write poetry. Blake’s first book of poems, Poetical Sketches, showed his dissatisfaction with the reigning poetic traditionRead MoreThe Poetry of William Blake1806 Words   |  8 PagesThis essay will aim to show the relationship between Innocence and Experience in William Blakes Songs. Both Songs of Experience and Songs of Innocence serve as a mirror Blake held up to society, the Songs of Experience being the darker side of the mirror. Blakes Songs show two imaginative realms: The two sides to the human soul that are the states of Innocence and Experience. The two states serve as different ways of seeing. The world of innocence as Northrop Frye saw it encapsulated theRead MoreWilliam Poetry Of William Blake And William Wordsworth1980 Words   |  8 Pagesthe person. To some the definition is a time without any worry, to others, it is a more logical definition such as the period between infancy and adolescence. There are many versions of this definition, and this is seen in the poetry of William Blake and William Wordsworth. These two authors have different views on what it means to be a child and how they are portrayed in this era. Compared to now, Children in Blake’s eyes are seen as people that need guidance and need to be taught certain lessonsRead More William Blake Essay2131 Words   |  9 PagesWilliam Blake William Blake was born in 1757 during a time when Romanticism was on the rise. Romantic poets of this day and age, living in England, experienced changes from a wealth-centered aristocracy to a modern industrial nation where power shifted to large-scale employers thus leading to the enlargement of the working class. Although Blake is seen as a very skillful writer his greatest successes were his engravings taught to him by a skilled sculpture. Blake differed from other poets inRead MoreThe Lamb by William Blake Essay755 Words   |  4 PagesPoetry Essay COURSE # and TITLE: ENGL 102-D42 LUO: Composition and Literature SEMESTER OF ENROLLMENT: Fall D 3013 Thesis Statement: The Lamb written by William Blake is a beautiful spiritually enriched poem that expresses God’s sovereignity, His love for creation and His gentleness in care and provisions for those that are His . I. Introduction †¢ Author †¢ Little Lamb II. Question of creation †¢ Little Lamb who made you. 1. Provision of Needs