William Blake - Life (1757-1827) - Main works

Main works

Blake's poetical works can be divided into 3 groups (three collection of lyrics):

a)    Poetical sketches: in three lyrics there are echoes from Collins, Gray, Macpherson and they have a freshness near to the songs of Shakespeare and the Elizabethans such as Spenser and Milton

b)    Songs of innocence

c)    Songs of experience

Blake's originality is expressed in these two last books in which we can see the two apposing states of human soul namely "Innocence" and "Experience" which are like the contrasting poles of heave and hell, happiness and grief, love and hate. Innocence is the supreme happiness, freedom and imagination, the spirit of childhood (identified with childhood).

On the contrary, Experience means the experience of the evil and slavery brought by the laws and institutions made by man. There is a more pessimistic view of life and Experience is identified with adulthood.

More complex are Blake's Prophetic books in which we can see a new message for the triumph of instinct, freedom, pleasure and happiness against the restrictions of morality and religion and institutional repressions. In fact Blake was a revolutionary poet in revolt against all kind of institutions, dogmas and existing systems. He believed in the reality of a spiritual world but regarded Christianity, and the church especially, as responsible for the dualism characterizing man's life. His vision of life is made not of "contraries" but of "complementary opposites". He said: <Without contraries there is no progression: attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate are necessary to human existence>. The two states coexist not only in the human being but also in the figure of the Creator who can be at the same time the God of love and innocence and the God of energy and violence.

The power of imagination:

Blake was convinced that philosophy and reason destroyed the creative energies of the mind and believed that only intuition, the organ of the imagination could bring him into contact with true reality. Blake considered imagination as the means through which man could know the world. Imagination, or "the divine vision" means "to see more into the life of things". God, the child and the poet share this power of vision, which is also the power of creating things. The poet, therefore, becomes a sort of prophet who can see more deeply into reality.

Blake's interest in social problems

Blake was interested in political and social problems of his time: he supported the abolition of slavery, he believed in the egalitarian principles of the French Revolution. He believed in revolution as purifying violence necessary for the redemption of man, but later he was disillusioned by the social evils of the industrial revolution such as the exploitation of the human beings. In his poems he spoke about the victims of industrial society such as children and women, so we have a criticism of industrialisation.

Symbolism

In the choice of his themes, Blake anticipated the great Romantic poets. His poems present a very simple structure and an individual use of symbols, for example we can find the child, the father and Christ who represent the states of innocence. Another poem "the Lamb" is the symbol of innocence, the lamb is the Christ. The poem: "the tiger" is, on the contrary, the symbol of the violence and evil.