Selected Poems (Blake, William)

by Blake, William (Author); Bentley, Gerald E. (Editor/introduction); Bentley, Gerald E. (Notes by)

• ISBN13: 9780140424461
• ISBN10: 0140424466
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-03-28
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

Writer and religious rebel, William Blake ((1757'¬"1827) sowed the seeds for Romanticism in his innovative poems concerning faith and the visions that inspired him throughout his life. Whether describing his own spirituality, the innocence of youth or the corruption caused by mankind, his writings depict a world in which spirits dominate and the mind is the gateway to Heaven. This collection of his greatest works spans his entire poetic life from the early, exquisite lyrics of Poetic Sketches to his Songs of Innocence and Experience '¬" a compelling exploration of good and evil. Together, they illuminate a self-made realm that has fascinated artists and poets as diverse as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Yeats and Ginsberg.

Author Biography

William Blake (1757-û1827) was a British poet, painter, engraver, and visionary mystic who proclaimed the supremacy of the imagination over the rationalism and materialism of the eighteenth century.
G. E. Bentley, Jr., has taught at the University of Chicago and the University of Toronto and is an authority on Blake and his world.

Table of Contents

Poetical sketches	p. 3
'An island in the moon'	p. 9
Songs by shepherds	p. 10
Tiriel	p. 12
Songs of innocence	p. 24
The book of Thel	p. 42
The marriage of heaven and hell	p. 47
'A fairy leapt'	p. 60
Visions of the daughters of Albion	p. 61
America a prophecy	p. 69
Notebook	p. 78
Songs of experience	p. 116
Europe a prophecy	p. 129
The first book of Urizen	p. 138
The song of Los	p. 154
A asked a thief	p. 158
Vala or the four Zoa's	p. 159
Letters	p. 233
Milton	p. 240
Jerusalem	p. 255
To the queen	p. 289
The ballads or Pickering manuscript	p. 290
The ghost of Abel	p. 299
For the sexes : the gates of paradise	p. 302
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

The Clod and the 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."

So sung a little Clod of Clay,
Trodden with the cattle's feet,
But a Pebble of the brook
Warbled out these metres meet:

"Love seeketh only Self to please,
To bind another to its delight,
Joys in another's loss of ease,
And builds a hell in heaven's despite."