William Blake: life and works

William Blake was one of Britain's greatest poets. His long history of mental illness also makes him one of England's most colourful and interesting literary figures. He lived his life in poverty, in the company of his devoted wife, and created a great deal of controversy due to his unconventional views on religion and rationalism.

He was born on November 28, 1757 in London.

Blake's parents were James, a hosier, and Catherine. As was common at the time, two of his six siblings died as infants.

Blake had a long and consistent history of mental illness. As a child, he reported having visions. At the age of four, Blake said that God had put his head to the window, and he saw a tree filled with angels. He spoke often with the angel Gabriel, and the Virgin Mary, and often saw visions of ghosts and monks. Blake's parents tried to keep him from these "fanciful" flights, but they did not force him to attend conventional school. (Blake was taught to read and write at home, mostly by his mother. His parents sent him to Henry Pars' drawing school age ten 91767). At age twelve, he began to write poetry, and at age fourteen hi apprenticed with an engraver, as art school was too expensive for the Blake family to afford. As the apprentice engraver, Blake sketched the tombs at Westminster Abbey. This exposed him to the Gothic styles that inspired him for years. Blake studied for a short period at the Royal Academy after his apprenticeship ended.

He married Catherine Boucher in 1772. She was illiterate, and he taught her to read, write, and paint, and instructed her in draftsmanship. In return, she was his devout assistant, and played an important role in producing his works. The couple never had children.

Blake set up a print shop in 1784 with his close friend James Parker. The print shop soon failed, and Blake spent the rest of his life working as an engraver, and as a book and magazine illustrator. This existence did not pay much money, and Blake lived the large majority of his life in poverty.

Blake produced his first printed in 1783. Called Poetical Sketches, it was largely a work of apprentice verse that imitated classical. In general, the poems in Poetical Sketches protested war and oppression.

In 1783 Blake published Songs of Innocence in 1779, his most popular collection. Songs of Experience followed in 1794. Both books were finely illustrated, with text and illustrations printed from copper plates, and pictures finished, by hand, in watercolour. Blake's once-illiterate wife, Catherine, helped him print these illustrated works.

Blake's most famous poem, 'The Tyger', appeared in Songs of Experience. The poem is about the nature of the creator. Blake is in awe and terror of God, and wonders how the creator could create the evil side of human nature, as well as good side of human nature.

Blake was an independent and nonconformist individual. He was closely associated with Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft, and often wrote poetry that was critical of authority and state, as seen in the poems in Poetical Sketches. He highly valued imagination over reason and materialism in the creation of poetry and art.

In addition to his art and poetry, Blake wrote a series of books that were concerned with the struggle against reason and organized religion. These include The Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793), The Book of Urizen (1794), and the Song of Los (1795).