William Blake was born in Soho, London, England in November of 1757. After leaving school at the age of ten, and falling under the tutelage of his mother, Blake claimed to have had the first of his famous angelic vision. It was an experience that would become a reoccurring theme in his life.
As he aged, he developed a love for drawing, painting, engraving and writing. Some training in his youth helped prepare him for his later artistic endeavors. In 1782 he was married and during the following years he published his collection Poetical Sketches. After his brother died, Blake claimed he came to him in a vision, inspiring him to create an original printing method for his artwork, known as “illuminated printing”. Blake utilized this technique in his best-known collection Songs of Innocence and Experience.
‘The Tyger’ is a well-known poem by William Blake. It explores the dark and destructive side of God and his creation.
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
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.’
I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow.
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
‘The Sick Rose’ by William Blake describes the loss of a woman’s virginity through the metaphor of a rose and invisible worm.
O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:
The poem ‘A Poison Tree,’ published in the year 1794, is one of the most wonderful and appreciated works of poetry by William Blake.
I was angry with my friend;
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
‘The Lamb’ by William Blake was included in The Songs of Innocence published in 1789. It is regarded “as one of the great lyrics of English Literature.”
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
By the stream & o'er the mead;
‘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.
Never seek to tell thy love
Love that never told can be
For the gentle wind does move
Silently invisibly
In 1789 (the year of the beginning of the French Revolution), Blake brought out his Songs of Innocence, which included ‘The Chimney Sweeper.’
When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry " 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!"
So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.
‘The Little Boy Lost’ by William Blake is the story of a young child who while out searching for his father gets lost in the woods.
Father, father, where are you going
O do not walk so fast.
Speak father, speak to your little boy
Or else I shall be lost,
‘On Another’s Sorrow’ by William Blake describes the love God has for the world and how it has inspired the speaker to act similarly.
Can I see another's woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another's grief,
And not seek for kind relief?
‘Song: How sweet I roam’d from field to field’ by William Blake describes the wanderings of a woman who is captured by Apollo.
How sweet I roam'd from field to field,
And tasted all the summer's pride,
'Till I the prince of love beheld,
Who in the sunny beams did glide!
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.
I dreamt a dream! What can it mean?
And that I was a maiden Queen
Guarded by an Angel mild:
Witless woe was ne’er beguiled!
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.
Sweet dreams, form a shade
O'er my lovely infant's head!
Sweet dreams of pleasant streams
By happy, silent, moony beams!
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.’
Cruelty has a Human Heart
And Jealousy a Human Face
Terror the Human Form Divine
And Secrecy, the Human Dress
‘A Dream’ by William Blake paints a compassionate and thoughtful picture of the natural world through the personified story of an ant.
Once a dream did weave a shade,
O'er my Angel-guarded bed,
That an Emmet lost it's way
Where on grass methought I lay.
In ‘Ah! Sunflower,’ Blake takes a creative and memorable approach to depict a weary sunflower.
Ah Sun-flower! weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the Sun:
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the travellers journey is done.
‘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.
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour
‘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.
Is this a holy thing to see,
In a rich and fruitful land,
Babes reducd to misery,
Fed with cold and usurous hand?
William Blake’s poem, ‘Holy Thursday,’ was first published in 1789. It was included in a poetry collection called ‘Songs of Innocence’.
‘Twas on a holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,
The children walking two and two in red and blue and green:
Grey-headed beadles walked before, with wands as white as snow,
Till into the high dome of Paul’s they like Thames waters flow.
‘Infant Joy’ was published in 1789 in Songs of Innocence, its companion piece, ‘Infant Sorrow,’ appeared in Songs of Experience
I have no name
I am but two days old.—
What shall I call thee?
I happy am
‘Infant Sorrow’ was published in Songs of Experience in 1794. Its companion piece ‘Infant Joy’ was published several years earlier
My mother groand! my father wept.
Into the dangerous world I leapt:
Helpless, naked, piping loud;
Like a fiend hid in a cloud.
‘Introduction to the Songs of Innocence’ is the first poem in William Blake’s collection of poetry the ‘Songs of Innocence’
Piping down the valleys wild
Piping songs of pleasant glee
On a cloud I saw a child.
And he laughing said to me.
‘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.
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon Englands mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On Englands pleasant pastures seen!
‘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.
When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy,
And the dimpling stream runs laughing by;
When the air does laugh with our merry wit,
And the green hill laughs with the noise of it;
‘Mad Song’ by William Blake describes the intense madness a speaker feels and the frantic pain that accompanies the dawning of a new day.
The wild winds weep,
And the night is a-cold;
Come hither, Sleep,
And my griefs infold:
‘My Pretty Rose Tree’ by William Blake is a poem that represents the harshness that “jealousy” can bring to a relationship.
A flower was offered to me,
Such a flower as May never bore;
But I said, 'I've a pretty rose tree,'
And I passed the sweet flower o'er.
As someone who appreciates and enjoys poetry, it’s easy to quickly notice a title such as ‘Now Art Has Lost
`Now Art has lost its mental charms
France shall subdue the world in arms.'
So spoke an Angel at my birth;
Then said `Descend thou upon earth,
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.
When voices of children are heard on the green,
And laughing is heard on the hill,
My heart is at rest within my breast,
And everything else is still.
‘Spring’ by William Blake is a short lyric poem, first published in his collection Songs of Innocence (1789) and later
Sound the flute!
Now it's mute!
Birds delight,
Day and night,
‘The Chimney Sweeper: A little black thing among the snow’ by William Blake was included, along with one other poem
A little black thing among the snow,
Crying "weep! 'weep!" in notes of woe!
"Where are thy father and mother? say?"
"They are both gone up to the church to pray.
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.”
"Love seeketh not itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair."