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William BlakeA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
William Blake, posthumously, became a major British Romantic figure, and is often considered the beginning of the Romantic literary movement in England. He presented radical political and esoteric philosophy that later writers of the 19th century developed. Perhaps most significantly, Blake emphasized the idea that poetry should spring from an inspired origin.
The Book of Thel is part of Blake’s prophetic literature. Blake claimed to receive visions from angels; in a letter written to John Flaxman in 1800, Blake said he heard the voices of “Celestial inhabitants.” From these visions, Blake would often rewrite or create Christian and Christian-adjacent mythology. Prophetic literature is a genre that existed for centuries before Blake in many different cultures. In this genre, the poet or writer is merely a conduit for the divine. Prophetic literature became less common after the Enlightenment and the rise of secular thought, but vestiges of it remain in automatic writing and other oracular forms of poetry that exist in modern literature.
Blake is well known for his illuminated books, which are a form of visual poetry as well as visual art. Alongside being a writer, Blake was an accomplished visual artist skilled in drawing, painting, engraving, and printing.
By William Blake
A Poison Tree
A Poison Tree
William Blake
Auguries of Innocence
Auguries of Innocence
William Blake
London
London
William Blake
Night
Night
William Blake
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
William Blake
The Chimney Sweeper
The Chimney Sweeper
William Blake
The Garden of Love
The Garden of Love
William Blake
The Lamb
The Lamb
William Blake
The Little Boy Found
The Little Boy Found
William Blake
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
William Blake
The Sick Rose
The Sick Rose
William Blake
The Tyger
The Tyger
William Blake