William Blake was unrecognized during his lifetime but since his death, he has become known as one of the greatest artistic and literary geniuses of the 18th and 19th centuries. Read more about William Blake.
Some of Blake’s most famous poems include The Tyger, The Schoolboy, The Lamb, A Poison Tree, and London.
After one and a half months of painful journey of hospitals, due to my son’s illness, I decided to read and analyze William Blake’s ‘A Cradle Song.’ Though I had read this poem during my graduation days, it touched me today when I experienced the same pain as a mother and a father.
Although prepared and etched for publication, William Blake dropped ‘A Divine Image’ from Songs of Innocence and Experience in favor of ‘The Human Abstract.’ This poem comes from Songs of Experience and was intended to be the counterpart to ‘The Divine Image.’
‘A Dream’ by William Blake paints a compassionate and thoughtful picture of the natural world through the personified story of an ant.
The poem ‘A Poison Tree,’ published in the year 1794, is one of the most wonderful and appreciated works of poetry by William Blake.
In ‘Ah! Sunflower,’ Blake takes a creative and memorable approach to depict a weary sunflower.
‘Auguries of Innocence’ by William Blake is a poem from his notebook, known as the Pickering Manuscript. This poem by presenting a series of paradoxical ideas revolves around the theme of innocence vs experience.
‘Holy Thursday’ by William Blake depicts the poor children of London attending church on Holy Thursday. Specifically, Blake describes their songs, appearance, and how their existence challenges the message the church is trying to convey.
William Blake’s poem, ‘Holy Thursday,’ was first published in 1789. It was included in a poetry collection called ‘Songs of Innocence’.
‘Jerusalem’ is a famous, prophetic, melancholic, and classic poem, penned by maestro William Blake in 1804. It may seem like a patriotic poem, yet it’s misleading, adding to the irony is the fact that it’s an unofficial national anthem of England.
‘Laughing Song’ is about an imagined instance of what will happen “[w]hen” a time comes, but will only happen after a series of impossible obstacles.
Imagine waking up in London in the 1800s. You might find yourself surrounded by prostitutes, the homeless, and many more suffering in dilapidated housing. These are only a few of the haunting sights William Blake documents in ‘London.’
‘Mad Song’ by William Blake describes the intense madness a speaker feels and the frantic pain that accompanies the dawning of a new day.
‘My Pretty Rose Tree’ by William Blake is a poem that represents the harshness that “jealousy” can bring to a relationship.
‘Never Seek to Tell thy Love’ by William Blake describes one man’s choice to reveal his true feelings to his “love” and the failure of that effort.
The poem ‘Nurse’s Song’ is a description of an unpretentious encounter between a nurse and a group of children who are playing on a hill.
‘Song: How sweet I roam’d from field to field’ by William Blake describes the wanderings of a woman who is captured by Apollo.
William Blake’s ‘The Angel,’ told through the frame of an angel that appears in a dream to the narrator throughout the course of their life. This poem was published in Blake’s collection “Songs of Experience” in 1794.
In 1789 (the year of the beginning of the French Revolution), Blake brought out his Songs of Innocence, which included ‘The Chimney Sweeper.’
In the three-stanza poem, ‘The Clod and the Pebble,’ William Blake takes on the subject of love and its meaning for two separate things, one being a “Clod” and another being a “Pebble.”
‘The Divine Image’ is a poem from Songs of Innocence. It was published in 1789 and portrays traditional Christian virtues.
‘The Ecchoing Green’ by William Blake is poem that presents a theme that is as beautiful as it is melancholy.
‘The Garden of Love’ is the antithesis to The Echoing Green of Innocence, as it uses the same setting and rhythm to stress the ugly contrast.
