Those are perhaps the best known lines of the great poet, William Blake (1757-1827). Blake was, like Poe, Beethoven, Bosch, Joyce, and Borges, a true original of the finest sort. Though he was born of low means, and primarily self-educated, Blake attained the admiration of many of the radical illuminati of his time, including William Wordsworth, Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin (the parents of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley).

A number of other notables were convinced that he was a lunatic. From the time he was a child, Blake had visions of angels, devils, and historic figures; he would carry on conversations with these beings in some realm other than “reality”. I, myself, believe that these visions were the real thing – sort of like a painter/poet version of the prophets, Samuel, Daniel, and others from the Old Testament, or like an early wiccan “seer”. When his older brother, who had much influence on William culturally, died, Blake reported that he saw his spirit rise to heaven clapping his hands for joy. On one boyhood occasion, he told his father of seeing a swarm of angels in a tree. There were many other such incidents, including conversations with Lucifer, John Milton, and the Angel Gabriel. His wife is on record as saying that William spent more time in paradise than he did with her. Of course these supernatural beings also popuate Blake’s poetry and art in great diversity.

Philosophically, Blake was a mystic of the Swedenborgian school. His mysticism is inverted from the conventional, having the universe “arrive” at Man, rather than man attaining the Universe. The religious aspects of this philosophy involve a great dualism; that of the innocent child, and of his darker side, the experienced adult. His belief is that one must be seriously experienced in order to attain true innocence.  The Tyger poem quoted above is a perfect example of this dualism. It is also embodied, among other places, in two of Blake’s books, “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience”, citing metaphorically,  “The two Contrary states of the Human Soul”, and wondering “did he who made the lamb make thee”, with regard to the feral cat.

Blake was also a believer in “free love” and was something of a champion for women’s rights. This included complete sexual freedom for the fair sex, something that no doubt found resonance with Mary Wollstonecraft and her circle. He was quite an admirer of the American and French revolutions, though he hated war and deplored the aftermath of the French revolt with its bloody years of the guillotine. He is known to have warned the visiting American radical, Thomas Paine, of an imminent arrest, which was then narrowly averted by a flight to France. All this radicalism, and the man was still a devout and true Christian. Well, sort of. He loathed the church and organized religion in general and tended to see it as more of a yoke for the soul than anything that might free it. Take for example, these untitled lines:

His aversion for the church was especially magnified where typically severe religious constrictions upon female sexuality are concerned; he viewed sexuality as a powerful creative force and considered humanity to be more or less robbing itself with such strictures.

  At age 25, Blake, who lived near the poverty line his whole life, married Catherine Boucher, a woman who was perhaps even poorer than he was himself. Blake taught Catherine to read and write and trained her to assist him in his engraving work, the primary occupation by which he earned a living. Together they turned out Blake’s noteworthy books of “illuminated poetry” by a mysterious copper plate process that is still not fully understood by experts today. William etched the plates, which allowed for the printing of the text and illustrations in a single pass, and Catherine colored the plates for printing and bound the books. These books are worth a small fortune today if you can ever manage to find one.

The paintings, drawings, and engravings of William Blake are perhaps even more haunting than much of his poetry. A few examples can be seen at Webmuseum

One fairly well known use of Blake’s paintings was in the movie, “Manhunter”, which introduced the world to Hannibal Lecter before its sequel, “The Silence Of The Lambs”. “Manhunter” was later remade as “Red Dragon”. The serial killer from the earlier tale is driven in his madness by a series of Blake’s paintings called “The Great Red Dragon”. specifically “The Great Red Dragon And The Woman Clothed With The Sun“, which depicts Satan and the Bride of Christ in one of their scenes from The Book Of Revelations found in the New Testament of the Bible. One can only wonder if Blake actually saw Lucifer like this when conversing with him in his mystical otherworld. I should think it a bit difficult to manage speech while trembling in awe.

I will close by offering a link to my favorite Blake poem. A multifoliate one which, though it seems like much even at its first reading, is really always slightly different than it seems to be – and more – like the fruit depicted therein.