William Blake: Life, Vision, and Poetic Legacy

Introduction: A Visionary Misunderstood in His Time

Although he was misunderstood and underappreciated throughout his lifetime, William Blake and his work only truly became influential after his death in 1827 (William Blake, 2014). Although he is best known for his poetry, Blake also created a significant body of artwork and other publications throughout his life. Despite finding no profound audience during his lifetime, William Blake was nonetheless a visionary whose work and life combined to make him an interesting and important poet — one who remains relevant today, nearly two centuries after his death.

Early Life, Spiritual Visions, and Artistic Education

William Blake found his calling at an early age. He was born on 28 November 1757 in Soho, London. From an early age, he reported seeing "visions," the first of which was the "face of God" he claimed to see at his window at the age of four. While his parents tried to ensure that he was truthful about his experiences, they did recognize that he was unlike others of his age (Poets.org, 2014). He was therefore mostly educated at home by his mother, who instilled in him a profound and deep respect for the Bible. This was one of the first and most long-lasting influences on Blake's work and spirituality (William Blake, 2014). It is evident from Blake's poetry that he remained close to his mother throughout her life (Pettinger, 2006). He expressed his love and fondness for his memories of her through many poems, including "Cradle Song." That poem, as the title suggests, is a lullaby a mother sings to her infant child. It is filled with tenderness and sweetness, and the reader can almost hear the soft voice of a mother singing to her child. The poem is infused with the love Blake clearly felt from his mother. Both of Blake's parents supported and encouraged his artistic temperament, the first manifestation of which was his collection of Italian prints.

When Blake was 10 years old, in 1767, he claimed to have had a vision of a tree full of angels. This inspired and fortified his spirituality and became evident in the art and poetry he studied and created. Pettinger (2006) mentions The Auguries of Innocence as a collection of poems that most clearly illustrates Blake's vision of the spirit world. In one poem, Blake sees "a world in a grain of sand" and "heaven in a wild flower." For Blake, even the simplest elements of the natural world were indicative of an eternal, spiritual dimension — and it was this spirituality that brought him the most profound meaning in his life and work.

It was also at the age of 10 that his artistic ability became apparent. At Henry Pars's drawing school, he sketched human figures using plaster casts of ancient statues as guides. At 14, he was apprenticed to an engraver and subsequently sent to Westminster Abbey, where his task of drawing tombs and monuments created a lifelong love of Gothic art (William Blake, 2014). During his years as a young artist, Blake tended to reject the prevailing trends in art and literature, preferring artists such as Dürer, Raphael, and Michelangelo, Elizabethan writers such as Shakespeare, Jonson, and Spenser, and ancient ballads.

Radicalism, Nonconformism, and Social Critique

In keeping with his nonconformist temperament, Blake associated with leading radical thinkers, including Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft (Poets.org, 2014). In addition to his prevailing spirituality, he preferred imagination over reason — an unpopular stance during his time. He insisted on creating images and poetry based not on the observation of external reality, but on his inner visions. He wrote against the English monarchy and social tyranny in works such as The French Revolution (1791), America, a Prophecy (1793), Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793), and Europe, a Prophecy (1794) (Poets.org, 2014).

In addition to rebelling against what he regarded as the inferior artistic trends and politics of his day, Blake also spoke out against the cruelty he witnessed people inflict upon one another — and especially upon children. His lofty mysticism was therefore often accompanied by an angry and frustrated lashing out against a world he saw as needlessly terrible. In his collection Songs of Experience, Blake gives frequent voice to this frustration (Pettinger, 2006). In the poem "The Schoolboy," for example, he laments a school system that forces young children to learn through fear of punishment rather than through love of learning or life. He compares the schoolboy to a bird locked in a cage whose wings "droop" under the weight of the fears imposed upon him by those in charge of his education.

When Blake turned 21, he also completed his seven-year apprenticeship (Blakearchive.org). He entered the profession of copy engraver while simultaneously cultivating his career in art and poetry, and he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Art's Schools of Design, where he began exhibiting his works in 1780. In 1783, he also published his Poetical Sketches privately, a collection that included poems composed over the previous fourteen years. That collection illustrated Blake's apprenticeship not only to engraving but also to verse; the poems generally imitated classical models while protesting the social evils he identified — among them war, tyranny, and the mistreatment of the American colonies.

Conclusion: Blake's Legacy and Enduring Influence

William Blake appears to be a good example of the classical case of the poet or artist who only becomes famous after his death. As both poet and artist, Blake adhered to his own values and principles even in the face of extreme opposition and setbacks. Throughout his life, he maintained a consistent spirituality and a stubborn loyalty to what he believed to be moral and right. Although many considered him mad on account of the visions he so freely proclaimed, those very visions inspired truly magnificent works for his later students and admirers.

Blake was buried in an unmarked grave, and his obituaries focused on his personal eccentricities rather than his artistic achievements. Yet his work subsequently influenced the Pre-Raphaelites and major poets such as T. S. Eliot and W. B. Yeats (Pettinger, 2006). Today, Blake's work continues to inspire scholars, writers, and artists alike. Hence, both Blake's life — his relationships, his visions, his unrelenting nonconformism — and his work serve as an inspiration for poets, artists, and human beings who have come after him. Despite his many setbacks and his failure to sustain a consistent stream of output, Blake remained active until the very end. In illness and in health, he was genuinely loyal to his art and to his love.