Born into poverty in London in 1757, but did Blake, art school, and teaching to an engraver. He had little formal education other than this, however. Here he developed his impressive techniques of engraving, which are the core of his poetry. If you can, get a copy of these poems with pictures, if it is missing a truly wonderful experience. (This does not mean that this book is not worth reading in its own name).

The eighteenth century is a time of turbulence. The revolution brewing in France and the old models and ways of thinking has been put aside. Blake grew up in a radical, liberal, deviating from the house and has never lost its rebel streak. This is shown in his approach to poetry.

In the eighteenth century, poetry is essentially to America in iambic pentameter, and most serious case of shoe-horned in verse. Probably the worst example of this is the Pope. “The Windsor Forest” for example, begins:

Its forests, Windsor! and thy green retreats,

While the monarch and the seats of the Muses

Invite my includes. Sylvain was well presented!

Unlock your springs, and open all its nuances.

Granville commands; muses you can help!

What Muse for Granville can sing it, to refuse?

That was incredibly sophisticated style, invoking the Muse, with lines very formal and a lot of pictures of the epic, like Blake and the Romantic Rebel disadvantages. Wordsworth and Coleridge said that poets write reflects the natural rhythm of the English language should be spoken and direct, and easy for everyone. But even their wonderful “Lyrical Ballads” is in front of Blake Burns in England and Scotland. The revolution was in the air and wanted to liberate the “spirit of iron have forged” from Latin and Greek.

I’ll take Blake “The Sick Rose” from songs of experience as an example:

O Rose, thou art sick!

The invisible worm

Flying in the Night

In the howling storm,

Do you have your bed

Of Crimson joy

And his dark secret love

Do you have destroyed your life.

Now you can see, the poetic voice of the individual Blake – direct and simple, without decoration or adornment. In eight short lines, he says – and it is much more interesting than the guff sprouted by the pope.

The rose is corrupt has always been a symbol of love and beauty, but here it is and has been infected. Blake is railing against the poverty that forced many women to a life of prostitution. The worm is a symbol of lost innocence in the Garden of Eden, in addition to being a phallic image. Blake saw the beauty and innocence of the sexual act is problematic as in “secret love”.