View source for William Blake

{{short description|English poet and artist (1757–1827)}}
{{other people}}
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{{Use British English|date=December 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name             = William Blake
| image            = William Blake by Thomas Phillips.jpg
| caption          = ''[[Portrait of William Blake]]'' by [[Thomas Phillips]], 1807
| birth_date       = {{birth date|df=yes|1757|11|28}}
| birth_place      = [[Soho]], London, England
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1827|08|12|1757|11|28}}
| death_place      = [[Charing Cross]], London,<ref name="death">{{cite web|title=Blake & London|url=http://www.blakesociety.org/about-blake/blake-london/|publisher=The Blake Society|access-date=15 August 2014|date=28 March 2008|archive-date=15 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150915004604/http://www.blakesociety.org/about-blake/blake-london/|url-status=dead}}</ref> England
| education        = [[Royal Academy of Arts]]
| occupation       = {{flatlist|
* Poet
* painter
* [[printmaker]]
}}
| spouse           = {{marriage|[[Catherine Blake|Catherine Boucher]]|1782}}
| movement         = [[Romanticism]]
| genre            = 
| notableworks     = ''[[Songs of Innocence and of Experience]]'', ''[[The Marriage of Heaven and Hell]]'', ''[[Vala, or The Four Zoas|The Four Zoas]]'', ''[[Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion|Jerusalem]]'', ''[[Milton: A Poem in Two Books|Milton]]''
| signature        = William Blake signature.svg
}}

'''William Blake''' (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the [[Romantic poetry|poetry]] and visual art of the [[Romanticism|Romantic Age]]. What he called his "[[William Blake's prophetic books|prophetic works]]" were said by 20th-century critic [[Northrop Frye]] to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language".<ref>Frye, Northrop and Denham, Robert D. ''Collected Works of Northrop Frye''. 2006, pp 11–12.</ref> While he lived in [[London]] his entire life, except for three years spent in [[Felpham]],<ref>Thomas, Edward. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=bilDAAAAIAAJ&q=A+Literary+Pilgrim+in+England A Literary Pilgrim in England]''. 1917, p. 3.</ref> he produced a diverse and symbolically rich collection of works, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God",<ref>[[W. B. Yeats|Yeats, W. B.]] ''The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats''. 2007, p. 85.</ref> or "human existence itself".<ref>Wilson, Mona. ''The Life of William Blake''. The Nonesuch Press, 1927. p. 167.</ref>

Although Blake was considered mad by contemporaries for his [[idiosyncratic]] views, he came to be highly regarded by later critics and readers for his expressiveness and creativity, and for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work. His paintings and poetry have been characterised as part of the Romantic movement and as "Pre-Romantic".<ref>''The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge''. 2004, p. 351.</ref>  A theist who preferred his own [[Marcionite]] style of theology,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/marcionism-as-a-genealogical-category/ | title=Historiographic Sophistications: Marcionism as a Genealogical Category | date=29 December 2020 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2016/11/02/the-artful-religion-of-william-blake/ | title=The Artful Religion of William Blake | date=2 November 2016 }}</ref> he was hostile to the [[Church of England]] (indeed, to almost all forms of organised religion), and was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the [[French Revolution|French]] and [[American Revolution|American Revolutions]].<ref>Blake, William. ''Blake's "America, a Prophecy"; And, "Europe, a Prophecy"''. 1984, p. 2.</ref><ref>{{cite web | author=Wilson, Andy | year=2021 | title=William Blake as a Revolutionary Poet | url=https://www.travellerintheevening.com/blake_the_revolutionary/ | access-date=29 January 2021 | archive-date=18 December 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211218184356/https://www.travellerintheevening.com/blake_the_revolutionary/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> Although later he rejected many of these political beliefs, he maintained an amicable relationship with the political activist [[Thomas Paine]]; he was also influenced by thinkers such as [[Emanuel Swedenborg]].<ref>{{cite web | author=Kazin, Alfred | year=1997 | title=An Introduction to William Blake | url=http://www.multimedialibrary.com/Articles/kazin/alfredblake.asp | access-date=23 September 2006 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060926013159/http://www.multimedialibrary.com/Articles/kazin/alfredblake.asp | archive-date=26 September 2006 | df=dmy-all }}</ref> Despite these known influences, the singularity of Blake's work makes him difficult to classify. The 19th-century scholar [[William Michael Rossetti]] characterised him as a "glorious luminary",<ref>Blake, William and Rossetti, William Michael. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=fGYLAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22The+Poetical+Works+of+William+Blake:+Lyrical+and+Miscellaneous%22&pg=PP11 The Poetical Works of William Blake: Lyrical and Miscellaneous]''. 1890, p. xi.</ref> and "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors".<ref>Blake, William and Rossetti, William Michael. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=fGYLAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22The+Poetical+Works+of+William+Blake:+Lyrical+and+Miscellaneous%22&pg=PP11 The Poetical Works of William Blake: Lyrical and Miscellaneous]''. 1890, p. xiii.</ref>

Collaboration with his wife, [[Catherine Blake|Catherine Boucher]], was instrumental in the creation of many of his books. Boucher worked as a printmaker and colorist for his works. "For almost forty-five years she was the person who lived and worked most closely with Blake, enabling him to realize numerous projects, impossible without her assistance. Catherine was an artist and printer in her own right," writes literary scholar Angus Whitehead.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Whitehead |first=Angus |date=2011 |title="an excellent saleswoman": The last Years of catherine Blake |url=https://bq.blakearchive.org/45.3.whitehead |journal=Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly |volume=45 |issue=3 |pages=76–90 |via=Blake: An illustrated quarterly issue archive}}</ref>

== Early life ==
[[File:WilliamBlake'sHouse.jpg|thumb|upright|left|28 Broad Street (now [[Broadwick Street]]) in an illustration of 1912. Blake was born here and lived here until he was 25. The house was demolished in 1965.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.blakesociety.org/about-blake/blake-london/ |title=Blake & London |publisher=The Blake Society |access-date=18 January 2013}}</ref>]]
William Blake was born on 28 November 1757 at 28 Broad Street (now [[Broadwick Street]]) in [[Soho]], London. He was the third of seven children,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/116|title=William Blake|publisher=Academy of American Poets|date=3 April 1999|website=poets.org|access-date=18 November 2017}}</ref><ref name=bent>Bentley, Gerald Eades, and Bentley Jr., G. (1995), ''William Blake: The Critical Heritage'', pp. 34–5.</ref> two of whom died in infancy. Blake's father, James, was a [[hosier]],<ref name=bent /> who had lived in London.<ref>{{cite book |last=Yeats |first=W.B. |author-link= |date=2002 |title=William Blake, Collected Poems |url= |location=London |publisher=Routledge |page=xviii |isbn=0415289858}}</ref> William attended school only long enough to learn reading and writing, leaving at the age of 10, and was otherwise educated at home by his mother Catherine Blake (''née'' Wright).<ref name="Raine">{{Cite book |last=Raine|first=Kathleen|author-link= Kathleen Raine|title=World of Art: William Blake |publisher=Thames & Hudson |year=1970 |isbn=0-500-20107-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/williamblake00rain }}</ref> Even though the Blakes were [[English Dissenters]],<ref name="The Stranger From Paradise 2001">Bentley (2001), ''The Stranger From Paradise: A Biography of William Blake''.</ref> William was baptised on 11 December at [[St James's Church, Piccadilly|St James's Church]], Piccadilly, London.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Mona|title=The Life of William Blake|date=1978|publisher=Granada Publishing Limited|location=London|isbn=0-586-08297-2|page=2|edition=3rd}}</ref> The Bible was an early and profound influence on Blake, and remained a source of inspiration throughout his life. Blake's childhood, according to him, included [[Mysticism|mystical]] religious experiences such as "beholding God's face pressed against his window, seeing angels among the haystacks, and being visited by the Old Testament prophet [[Ezekiel]]."<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Longman Anthology of British Literature: Volume 2A: The Romantics and Their Contemporaries |publisher=[[Pearson Education, Inc.]] |year=2006 |isbn=0-321-33394-2 |location=United States |pages=150}}</ref>

Blake started engraving copies of drawings of [[Classical Greece|Greek]] [[antiquities]] purchased for him by his father, a practice that was preferred to actual drawing. In these drawings Blake found his first exposure to classical forms through the work of [[Raphael]], [[Michelangelo]], [[Maarten van Heemskerck]] and [[Albrecht Dürer]]. The number of prints and bound books that James and Catherine were able to purchase for young William suggests that the Blakes enjoyed, at least for a time, a comfortable wealth.<ref name="The Stranger From Paradise 2001" /> When William was ten years old, his parents knew enough of his headstrong temperament that he was not sent to school but instead enrolled in drawing classes at Henry Pars's drawing school in [[Strand, London|the Strand]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Mona|title=The Life of William Blake|date=1978|publisher=Granada Publishing Limited|location=London|isbn=0-586-08297-2|page=3|edition=3rd}}</ref> He read avidly on subjects of his own choosing. During this period, Blake made explorations into poetry; his early work displays knowledge of [[Ben Jonson]], [[Edmund Spenser]], and the [[Psalms]].

=== Apprenticeship ===
[[File:William Blake - Sconfitta - Frontispiece to The Song of Los.jpg|thumb|right|The archetype of the Creator is a familiar image in Blake's work. Here, the [[demiurge|demiurgic]] figure [[Urizen]] prays before the world he has forged. The ''[[The Song of Los|Song of Los]]'' is the third in a series of [[Illuminated manuscript|illuminated books]] painted by Blake and his wife, collectively known as the ''[[Continental Prophecies]]''.]]

On 4 August 1772, Blake was apprenticed to [[engraver]] [[James Basire]] of [[Great Queen Street]], at the sum of £52.10, for a term of seven years.<ref name=bent /> At the end of the term, aged 21, he became a professional engraver. No record survives of any serious disagreement or conflict between the two during the period of Blake's apprenticeship, but [[Peter Ackroyd]]'s biography notes that Blake later added Basire's name to a list of artistic adversaries; and then crossed it out.<ref>Ackroyd, Peter (1995), ''Blake'', London: [[Sinclair-Stevenson]], {{ISBN|1-85619-278-4}}, p. 48.</ref> This aside, Basire's style of line-engraving was of a kind held at the time to be old-fashioned compared to the flashier [[stipple]] or [[mezzotint]] styles.<ref>Blake, William (1893). ''The Poems of William Blake'', p. xix.</ref> It has been speculated that Blake's instruction in this outmoded form may have been detrimental to his acquiring work or recognition in later life.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Corrigan|first=Matthew|date=1969|title=Metaphor in William Blake: A Negative View|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/428568|journal=The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism|volume=28|issue=2|pages=187–199|doi=10.2307/428568|jstor=428568|issn=0021-8529|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

After two years, Basire sent his apprentice to copy images from the [[Gothic architecture|Gothic]] churches in London (perhaps to settle a quarrel between Blake and James Parker, his fellow apprentice). His experiences in [[Westminster Abbey]] helped form his artistic style and ideas. The Abbey in his day was decorated with suits of armour, painted funeral effigies and varicoloured waxworks. Ackroyd notes that "the most immediate [impression] would have been of faded brightness and colour".<ref>Ackroyd (1995), ''Blake'', p. 44.</ref> This close study of the Gothic (which he saw as the "living form") left clear traces in his style.<ref name="The Life of William Blake">{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Mona|title=The Life of William Blake|date=1978|publisher=Granada Publishing Limited|location=London|isbn=0-586-08297-2|page=5|edition=3rd}}</ref> In the long afternoons Blake spent sketching in the Abbey, he was occasionally interrupted by boys from [[Westminster School]], who were allowed in the Abbey. They teased him and one tormented him so much that Blake knocked the boy off a scaffold to the ground, "upon which he fell with terrific Violence".<ref>Blake, William, and Tatham, Frederick (1996). [https://books.google.com/books?id=cSxDAAAAIAAJ&q=The+Letters+of+William+Blake:+Together+with+a+Life ''The Letters of William Blake: Together with a Life''], p. 7.</ref> After Blake complained to the Dean, the schoolboys' privilege was withdrawn.<ref name="The Life of William Blake" /> Blake claimed that he experienced visions in the Abbey. He [[Visions of Jesus and Mary|saw Christ]] with his [[Apostles in the New Testament|Apostles]] and a great procession of monks and priests, and heard their chant.<ref name="The Life of William Blake" />

=== Royal Academy ===
On 8 October 1779, Blake became a student at the [[Royal Academy]] in Old Somerset House, near the Strand.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IwnLCQAAQBAJ&pg=PT103|title=Jerusalem!: The Real Life of William Blake|first=Tobias|last=Churton |author-link=Tobias Churton |date=16 April 2015|publisher=Watkins Media|access-date=18 November 2017|via=[[Google Books]]|isbn=9781780287881}}</ref> While the terms of his study required no payment, he was expected to supply his own materials throughout the six-year period. There, he rebelled against what he regarded as the unfinished style of fashionable painters such as [[Peter Paul Rubens|Rubens]], championed by the school's first president, [[Joshua Reynolds]]. Over time, Blake came to detest Reynolds' attitude towards art, especially his pursuit of "general truth" and "general beauty". Reynolds wrote in his ''Discourses'' that the "disposition to abstractions, to generalising and classification, is the great glory of the human mind"; Blake responded, in marginalia to his personal copy, that "To Generalize is to be an Idiot; To Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit".<ref>E691. All quotations from Blake's writings are from {{cite book |author=Erdman, David V |title=The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake |year=1982 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing |edition=2nd |isbn=0-385-15213-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/completepoetrypr00blak  }} Subsequent references follow the convention of providing plate and line numbers where appropriate, followed by "E" and the page number from Erdman, and correspond to Blake's often unconventional spelling and punctuation.</ref> Blake also disliked Reynolds' apparent humility, which he held to be a form of hypocrisy. Against Reynolds' fashionable [[oil painting]], Blake preferred the Classical precision of his early influences, [[Michelangelo]] and [[Raphael]].

David Bindman suggests that Blake's antagonism towards Reynolds arose not so much from the president's opinions (like Blake, Reynolds held [[history painting]] to be of greater value than landscape and portraiture), but rather "against his hypocrisy in not putting his ideals into practice".<ref>Bindman, D. (2003), "Blake as a Painter" in ''The Cambridge Companion to William Blake'', ed. [[Morris Eaves]]. Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]], p. 86.</ref> Certainly Blake was not averse to exhibiting at the Royal Academy, submitting works on six occasions between 1780 and 1808.

Blake became a friend of [[John Flaxman]], [[Thomas Stothard]] and [[George Cumberland]] during his first year at the Royal Academy. They shared radical views, with Stothard and Cumberland joining the [[Society for Constitutional Information]].<ref>Ackroyd (1995), ''Blake'', pp. 69–76.</ref>

=== Gordon Riots ===
Blake's first biographer, [[Alexander Gilchrist]], records that in June 1780 Blake was walking towards Basire's shop in Great Queen Street when he was swept up by a rampaging mob that stormed [[Newgate Prison]].<ref>Gilchrist, A. (1842), ''The Life of William Blake'', London, p. 30.</ref> The mob attacked the prison gates with shovels and pickaxes, set the building ablaze, and released the prisoners inside. Blake was reportedly in the front rank of the mob during the attack. The riots, in response to a parliamentary bill revoking sanctions against Roman Catholicism, became known as the [[Gordon Riots]] and provoked a flurry of legislation from the government of [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]], and the creation of the first police force.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

== Marriage and collaboration with Catherine Boucher ==
In 1781 William met [[Catherine Blake|Catherine Boucher]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=William Blake - Marriage to Catherine Boucher {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Blake/Marriage-to-Catherine-Boucher |access-date=28 October 2022 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> when he was recovering from a relationship that had culminated in a refusal of his marriage proposal. He recounted the story of his heartbreak for Catherine and her parents, after which he asked Catherine: "Do you pity me?" When she responded affirmatively, he declared: "Then I love you". William married Catherine, who was five years his junior, on 18 August 1782 in [[St Mary's Church, Battersea]]. Illiterate, Catherine signed her wedding contract with an X. The original wedding certificate may be viewed at the church, where a commemorative stained-glass window was installed between 1976 and 1982.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://home.clara.net/pkennington/VirtualTour/windows_modern.htm#Blake | title = St. Mary's Church Parish website | quote = St Mary's Modern Stained Glass }}</ref> The marriage was successful and Catherine became William's "partner in both life and work", undertaking important roles as an engraver and colourist. According to the Tate Gallery, Catherine mixed and applied his paint colours.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last1=Thorpe |first1=Vanessa |last2=Arts |first2=Vanessa Thorpe |last3=correspondent |first3=media |date=7 September 2019 |title=How William Blake's wife brought colour to his works of genius |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/sep/07/william-blake-wife-catherine-brought-colour-works-of-genius-tate-britain |access-date=25 June 2024 |work=The Observer |language=en-GB |issn=0029-7712}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> One of Catherine Blake's most noted works is the colouring of the cover of  the book ''[[Europe a Prophecy|Europe: A Prophecy]].''<ref name=":1" /> William Blake's 1863 biographer, [[Alexander Gilchrist]], wrote, "The poet and his wife did everything in making the book – writing, designing, printing, engraving – everything except manufacturing the paper: the very ink, or colour rather, they did make."<ref name=":1" /> In 2019 [[Tate Britain]]'s Blake exhibition gave particular focus to Catherine Boucher's role in William Blake's work.<ref>{{cite web |last=Thorpe |first=Vanessa |date=7 September 2019 |title=How William Blake's wife brought colour to his works of genius |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/sep/07/william-blake-wife-catherine-brought-colour-works-of-genius-tate-britain |access-date=12 January 2024 |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>

== Career ==
=== Early work ===
[[File:Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing. William Blake. c.1786.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|''Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing'' (1786)]]
Around 1783, Blake's first collection of poems, ''[[Poetical Sketches]]'', was printed.<ref>Reproduction of 1783 edition: Tate Publishing, London, {{ISBN|978-1-85437-768-5}}</ref> In 1784, after his father's death, Blake and former fellow apprentice James Parker opened a print shop. They began working with radical publisher [[Joseph Johnson (publisher)|Joseph Johnson]].<ref>Ackroyd, Peter, ''Blake'', Sinclair-Stevenson, 1995, p. 96</ref> Johnson's house was a meeting-place for some leading English intellectual dissidents of the time: theologian and scientist [[Joseph Priestley]]; philosopher [[Richard Price]]; artist [[John Henry Fuseli]];<ref>[http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/romanticism/Henry-Fuseli-William-Blake.html Biographies of William Blake and Henry Fuseli], retrieved on 31 May 2007.</ref> early feminist [[Mary Wollstonecraft]]; and English-American revolutionary [[Thomas Paine]]. Along with [[William Wordsworth]] and [[William Godwin]], Blake had great hopes for the [[French Revolution|French]] and [[American Revolution|American]] revolutions and wore a [[Phrygian cap]] in solidarity with the French revolutionaries, but despaired with the rise of [[Maximilien Robespierre|Robespierre]] and the [[Reign of Terror]] in France. That same year, Blake composed his unfinished manuscript ''[[An Island in the Moon]]'' (1784).{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

Blake illustrated ''[[Original Stories from Real Life]]'' (2nd edition, 1791) by Mary Wollstonecraft. Although they seem to have shared some views on sexual equality and the institution of marriage, no evidence is known that would prove that they had met. In ''[[Visions of the Daughters of Albion]]'' (1793), Blake condemned the cruel absurdity of enforced chastity and marriage without love and defended the right of women to complete self-fulfilment.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

From 1790 to 1800, William Blake lived in North [[Lambeth]], London, at 13 Hercules Buildings, [[Hercules Road]].<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.blakesociety.org/about-blake/blake-london/| title = Blake's Residencies| website = William Blake Society| access-date = 18 January 2013| archive-date = 15 September 2015| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150915004604/http://www.blakesociety.org/about-blake/blake-london/| url-status = dead}}</ref> The property was demolished in 1918, but the site is marked with a plaque.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://openplaques.org/plaques/8357| title =Blake Hercules Road | website = Open Plaques}}</ref> A series of 70 mosaics commemorates Blake in the nearby railway tunnels of [[London Waterloo station|Waterloo Station]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.southbankmosaics.com/projects/blakes-lambeth/ | title = William Blake | website = South Bank Mosaic Project | url-status=dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140821043757/http://www.southbankmosaics.com/projects/blakes-lambeth/ | archive-date = 21 August 2014 | df = dmy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/london/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8081000/8081271.stm | title = Putting Blake back on Lambeth's streets | quote = Putting Blake back on Lambeth's streets |date=9 June 2009 |access-date=25 November 2014}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> The mosaics largely reproduce illustrations from Blake's illuminated books, ''[[Songs of Innocence and of Experience|The Songs of Innocence and of Experience]]'', ''[[The Marriage of Heaven and Hell]]'', and the [[William Blake's prophetic books|prophetic books]].<ref name=":0" />

=== Relief etching ===
In 1788, aged 31, Blake experimented with [[relief etching]], a method he used to produce most of his books, paintings, pamphlets and poems. The process is also referred to as illuminated printing, and the finished products as illuminated books or prints. Illuminated printing involved writing the text of the poems on copper plates with pens and brushes, using an acid-resistant medium. Illustrations could appear alongside words in the manner of earlier [[illuminated manuscript]]s. He then etched the plates in acid to dissolve the untreated copper and leave the design standing in relief (hence the name).

This is a reversal of the usual method of etching<!--same article as relief etching-->, where the lines of the design are exposed to the acid, and the plate printed by the [[Intaglio (printmaking)|intaglio]] method. Relief etching (which Blake referred to as "[[Stereotype (printing)|stereotype]]" in ''The Ghost of Abel'') was intended as a means for producing his illuminated books more quickly than via intaglio. Stereotype, a process invented in 1725, consisted of making a metal cast from a wood engraving, but Blake's innovation was, as described above, very different. The pages printed from these plates were hand-coloured in [[Watercolor painting|watercolours]] and stitched together to form a volume. Blake used illuminated printing for most of his well-known works, including ''[[Songs of Innocence and of Experience]]'', ''[[The Book of Thel]]'', ''[[The Marriage of Heaven and Hell]]'' and ''[[Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion|Jerusalem]]''.<ref>Viscomi, J. ''Blake and the Idea of the Book''. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993; Phillips, M. ''William Blake: The Creation of the Songs'', London: The British Library, 2000.</ref>

=== Engravings ===
[[File:William Blake-Europe Supported By Africa and America 1796.png|thumb|''Europe Supported by Africa and America'' engraving by William Blake]]
Although Blake has become better known for his relief etching, his commercial work largely consisted of [[Intaglio (printmaking)|intaglio engraving]], the standard process of engraving in the 18th century in which the artist incised an image into the copper plate, a complex and laborious process, with plates taking months or years to complete, but as Blake's contemporary, [[John Boydell]], realised, such engraving offered a "missing link with commerce", enabling artists to connect with a mass audience and became an immensely important activity by the end of the 18th century.<ref>Eaves, Morris. ''The Counter Arts Conspiracy: Art and Industry in the Age of Blake''. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1992. pp. 68–9.</ref>

''Europe Supported by Africa and America'' is an engraving by Blake held in the collection of the [[University of Arizona Museum of Art]]. The engraving was for a book written by Blake's friend [[John Gabriel Stedman]] called ''The Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam'' (1796).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gikandi |first1=Simon |title=Slavery and the Culture of Taste |date=2011 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0691160979 |page=48|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tr8d5H-aKMUC&pg=PA48 |access-date=4 August 2019}}.</ref> It depicts three women embracing one another. Black Africa and White Europe hold hands in a gesture of equality, as the barren earth blooms beneath their feet. Europe wears a string of pearls, while her sisters Africa and America are depicted wearing slave bracelets.<ref name="Erdman">{{cite book |last1=Erdman |first1=David V. |title=Blake: Prophet Against Empire |date=2013 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0486143903 |page=241 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r_nBAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT241}}</ref> Some scholars have speculated that the bracelets represent the "historical fact" of slavery in Africa and the Americas while the handclasp refer to Stedman's "ardent wish": "we only differ in color, but are certainly all created by the same Hand."<ref name="Erdman" /> Others have said it "expresses the climate of opinion in which the questions of color and slavery were, at that time, being considered, and which Blake's writings reflect."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Raine |first1=Kathleen |title=Blake and Tradition |date=2002 |orig-year=originally published 1969 | page=29 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-29087-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jc35AQAAQBAJ&pg=PP29 |access-date=4 August 2019}}</ref>

Blake employed intaglio engraving in his own work, such as for his [[William Blake's Illustrations of the Book of Job|''Illustrations of the Book of Job'']], completed just before his death. Most critical work has concentrated on Blake's relief etching as a technique because it is the most innovative aspect of his art, but a 2009 study drew attention to Blake's surviving plates, including those for the [[Book of Job]]: they demonstrate that he made frequent use of a technique known as "[[repoussage]]", a means of obliterating mistakes by hammering them out by hitting the back of the plate. Such techniques, typical of engraving work of the time, are very different from the much faster and fluid way of drawing on a plate that Blake employed for his relief etching, and indicates why the engravings took so long to complete.<ref>Sung, Mei-Ying. ''William Blake and the Art of Engraving''. London: Pickering and Chatto, 2009.</ref>

== Later life ==
[[File:William Blake House in Felpham.JPG|thumb|right|The cottage in [[Felpham]], [[Blake’s Cottage]], where Blake lived from 1800 until 1803]]
Blake's marriage to Catherine was close and devoted until his death. Blake taught Catherine to write, and she helped him colour his printed poems.<ref>Bentley, G. E, ''Blake Records'', p 341</ref> Gilchrist refers to "stormy times" in the early years of the marriage.<ref>Gilchrist, ''Life of William Blake'', 1863, p. 316</ref> Some biographers have suggested that Blake tried to bring a [[concubine]] into the marriage bed in accordance with the beliefs of the more radical branches of the [[Swedenborgianism|Swedenborgian Society]],<ref>Schuchard, MK, ''Why Mrs Blake Cried'', Century, 2006, p. 3</ref> but other scholars have dismissed these theories as conjecture.<ref>Ackroyd, Peter, ''Blake'', Sinclair-Stevenson, 1995, p. 82</ref>
In his Dictionary, Samuel Foster Damon suggests that Catherine may have had a stillborn daughter for which ''The Book of Thel'' is an elegy. That is how he rationalises the Book's unusual ending, but notes that he is speculating.<ref>Damon, Samuel Foster (1988). A Blake Dictionary</ref>

=== Felpham ===
[[File:Blake blue plaque felpham.jpg|alt=A blue memorial plaque on a wall outside of The Fox Inn at Felpham, West Sussex describing Blake's arrest. It reads "Arun District Council. William Blake 1757 - 1827. Poet, Painter, Visionary was arrested, in 1803, in this doorway after allegedly making seditious remarks to a soldier billeted at The Fox Inn.|thumb|A memorial plaque outside of The Fox Inn in Felpham describing Blake's arrest]]
In 1800, Blake moved to a [[Blake’s Cottage|cottage]] at [[Felpham]], in Sussex (now [[West Sussex]]), to take up a job illustrating the works of [[William Hayley]], a minor poet. It was in this cottage that Blake began ''[[Milton: A Poem in Two Books|Milton]]'' (the title page is dated 1804, but Blake continued to work on it until 1808). The preface to this work includes a poem beginning "[[And did those feet in ancient time]]", which became the words for the anthem "[[And did those feet in ancient time#Use as a national anthem|Jerusalem]]". Over time, Blake began to resent his new patron, believing that Hayley was uninterested in true artistry, and preoccupied with "the meer drudgery of business" (E724). Blake's disenchantment with Hayley has been speculated to have influenced ''Milton: a Poem'', in which Blake wrote that "Corporeal Friends are Spiritual Enemies". (4:26, E98)

[[File:William Blake - Jerusalem, Plate 51 - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|right|'Skofeld' wearing "mind forged manacles" in ''[[Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion]]'', Plate 51]]

Blake's trouble with authority came to a head in August 1803, when he was involved in a physical altercation with a soldier, John Schofield.<ref>Wright, Thomas. ''Life of William Blake''. 2003, p. 131.</ref> Blake was charged not only with assault, but with uttering seditious and treasonable expressions against the king. Schofield claimed that Blake had exclaimed "Damn the king. The soldiers are all slaves."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lilith-ezine.com/articles/williamblake1.html|title=The Gothic Life of William Blake: 1757–1827|website=www.lilith-ezine.com|access-date=18 November 2017|archive-date=12 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012185143/http://lilith-ezine.com/articles/williamblake1.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Blake was cleared in the [[Chichester]] [[assize]]s of the charges. According to a report in the Sussex county paper, "[T]he invented character of [the evidence] was ... so obvious that an acquittal resulted".<ref>{{cite book |author=Lucas, E.V.|author-link=E. V. Lucas|title=Highways and byways in Sussex|url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Highways_and_Byways_in_Sussex|publisher=Macmillan|location=United States|year=1904 |id=ASIN B-0008-5GBS-C}}</ref> Schofield was later depicted wearing "mind forged manacles" in an illustration to ''[[Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Peterfreund |first=Stuart |title=The Din of the City in Blake's Prophetic Books |journal=[[ELH]] |volume=64 |issue=1 |date=Spring 1997 |pages=99–130 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |doi=10.1353/elh.1997.0007 |jstor=30030248|s2cid=162326554  |issn = 0013-8304}}</ref>

=== Return to London ===
[[File:William Blake by John Flaxman c1804.jpg|thumb|right|Sketch of Blake from, {{Circa|1804}}, by [[John Flaxman]]]]

Blake returned to London in 1804 and began to write and illustrate ''[[Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion|Jerusalem]]'' (1804–20), his most ambitious work. Having conceived the idea of portraying the characters in [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer]]'s ''[[The Canterbury Tales|Canterbury Tales]]'', Blake approached the dealer [[Robert Cromek]], with a view to marketing an engraving. Knowing Blake was too eccentric to produce a popular work, Cromek promptly commissioned Blake's friend Thomas Stothard to execute the concept. When Blake learned he had been cheated, he broke off contact with Stothard. He set up an independent exhibition in his brother's [[haberdashery]] shop at 27 Broad Street in [[Soho]]. The exhibition was designed to market his own version of the Canterbury illustration (titled ''The Canterbury Pilgrims''), along with other works. As a result, he wrote his ''[[Descriptive Catalogue (1809)|Descriptive Catalogue]]'' (1809), which contains what [[Anthony Blunt]] called a "brilliant analysis" of Chaucer and is regularly anthologised as a classic of Chaucer criticism.<ref>Blunt, Anthony, ''The Art of William Blake'', p 77</ref> It also contained detailed explanations of his other paintings. The exhibition was very poorly attended, selling none of the temperas or watercolours. Its only review, in ''[[The Examiner (1808–86)|The Examiner]]'', was hostile.<ref>Peter Ackroyd, "Genius spurned: Blake's doomed exhibition is back", ''The Times Saturday Review'', 4 April 2009</ref>

[[File:William Blake 003.jpg|thumb|left|Blake's ''The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with Sun'' (1805) is [[The Great Red Dragon Paintings|one of a series of illustrations]] of [[Book of Revelation|Revelation]] 12.]]

Also around this time (circa 1808), Blake gave vigorous expression of his views on art in an extensive series of polemical annotations to the ''Discourses'' of [[Joshua Reynolds|Sir Joshua Reynolds]], denouncing the [[Royal Academy]] as a fraud and proclaiming, "To Generalize is to be an Idiot".<ref>[[Lorenz Eitner]], ed., ''Neoclassicism and Romanticism, 1750–1850: An Anthology of Sources and Documents'' (New York: Harper & Row/Icon Editions, 1989), p. 121.</ref>

In 1818, he was introduced by George Cumberland's son to a young artist named [[John Linnell (painter)|John Linnell]].<ref>Bentley, G.E., ''The Stranger from Paradise'', Yale University Press, 2001, pp. 366–367</ref> A [[blue plaque]] commemorates Blake and Linnell at Old Wyldes' at North End, Hampstead.<ref name="EngHet">{{cite web| url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/search/blake-william-1757-1827|title=BLAKE, WILLIAM (1757–1827) & LINNELL, JOHN (1792–1882)|publisher=English Heritage| access-date=5 August 2012}}</ref> Through Linnell he met [[Samuel Palmer]], who belonged to a group of artists who called themselves the [[Ancients (art group)|Shoreham Ancients]]. The group shared Blake's rejection of modern trends and his belief in a spiritual and artistic New Age. Aged 65, Blake began work on [[William Blake's Illustrations of the Book of Job|illustrations]] for the ''[[Book of Job]]'', later admired by [[John Ruskin|Ruskin]], who compared Blake favourably to [[Rembrandt]], and by [[Ralph Vaughan Williams|Vaughan Williams]], who based his ballet ''[[Job: A Masque for Dancing]]'' on a selection of the illustrations.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

In later life Blake began to sell a great number of his works, particularly his Bible illustrations, to [[Thomas Butts]], a patron who saw Blake more as a friend than a man whose work held artistic merit; this was typical of the opinions held of Blake throughout his life.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

[[File:Blake Dante Hell XII.jpg|thumb|William Blake's image of the [[Minotaur]] to illustrate ''Inferno'', Canto XII, 12–28, The Minotaur XII.]]
The commission for [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]]'s ''[[Divine Comedy]]'' came to Blake in 1826 through Linnell, with the aim of producing a series of engravings. Blake's death in 1827 cut short the enterprise, and only a handful of watercolours were completed, with only seven of the engravings arriving at proof form. Even so, they have earned praise:

{{blockquote|[T]he Dante watercolours are among Blake's richest achievements, engaging fully with the problem of illustrating a poem of this complexity. The mastery of watercolour has reached an even higher level than before, and is used to extraordinary effect in differentiating the atmosphere of the three states of being in the poem.<ref>Bindman, David. "Blake as a Painter" in ''The Cambridge Companion to William Blake'', Morris Eaves (ed.), Cambridge, 2003, p. 106</ref>}}

[[File:Blake Dante Hell V.jpg|thumb|left|Blake's ''The Lovers' Whirlwind'' illustrates Hell in Canto V of [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]]'s ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]''.]]
Blake's illustrations of the poem are not merely accompanying works, but rather seem to critically revise, or furnish commentary on, certain spiritual or moral aspects of the text.

Because the project was never completed, Blake's intent may be obscured. Some indicators bolster the impression that Blake's illustrations in their totality would take issue with the text they accompany: in the margin of ''[[Homer]] Bearing the Sword and His Companions'', Blake notes, "Every thing in Dantes Comedia shews That for Tyrannical Purposes he has made This World the Foundation of All & the Goddess Nature & not the Holy Ghost." Blake seems to dissent from Dante's admiration of the poetic works of [[ancient Greece]], and from the apparent glee with which Dante allots punishments in Hell (as evidenced by the grim humour of the [[canto]]s).{{cn|date=April 2025}}

At the same time, Blake shared Dante's distrust of materialism and the corruptive nature of power, and clearly relished the opportunity to represent the atmosphere and imagery of Dante's work pictorially. Even as he seemed to be near death, Blake's central preoccupation was his feverish work on the illustrations to Dante's ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]''; he is said to have spent one of the last [[shilling]]s he possessed on a pencil to continue sketching.<ref>''Blake Records'', p. 341</ref>

== Final years ==
[[File:James S De Ville 1776-1846 Head of William Blake - Plaster cast - Sept 1823 Fitzwilliam Museum2.jpg|thumb|"Head of William Blake" by [[James De Ville]]. Life mask taken in plaster cast in September 1823, [[Fitzwilliam Museum]].]]
[[File:Finsbury bunhill blake 1.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Headstone in [[Bunhill Fields]], London, erected on Blake's grave in 1927 and moved to its present location in 1964–65]]
[[File:Bunhill Blake 2018.jpg|thumb|upright|right|[[Ledger stone]] on Blake's grave, unveiled in 2018]]

Blake's last years were spent at Fountain Court off the [[Strand, London|Strand]] (the property was demolished in the 1880s, when the [[Savoy Hotel]] was built).<ref name="death" /> On the day of his death (12 August 1827), Blake worked relentlessly on his Dante series. Eventually, it is reported, he ceased working and turned to his wife, who was in tears by his bedside. Beholding her, Blake is said to have cried, "Stay Kate! Keep just as you are – I will draw your portrait – for you have ever been an angel to me." Having completed this portrait (now lost), Blake laid down his tools and began to sing hymns and verses.<ref>Ackroyd, ''Blake'', 389</ref> At six that evening, after promising his wife that he would be with her always, Blake died. Gilchrist reports that a female lodger in the house, present at his expiration, said, "I have been at the death, not of a man, but of a blessed angel."<ref>Gilchrist, ''The Life of William Blake'', London, 1863, 405</ref>

[[George Richmond (painter)|George Richmond]] gives the following account of Blake's death in a letter to [[Samuel Palmer]]:

{{blockquote|He died ... in a most glorious manner. He said He was going to [[Heaven in Christianity|that Country]] he had all His life wished to see & expressed Himself Happy, hoping for [[Salvation in Christianity|Salvation]] through [[Jesus Christ]] – Just before he died His Countenance became fair. His eyes Brighten'd and he burst out Singing of the things he saw in Heaven.<ref>Grigson, ''Samuel Palmer'', p. 38</ref>}}

Catherine paid for Blake's funeral with money lent to her by Linnell. Blake's body was buried in a plot shared with others, five days after his death – on the eve of his 45th wedding anniversary – at the [[English Dissenters|Dissenter]]'s burial ground in [[Bunhill Fields]], in the City of London area.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Kennedy|first1=Maev|title=Burial ground of Bunyan, Defoe and Blake earns protected status|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/feb/22/bunhill-fields-bunyan-defoe-blake|access-date=21 January 2015|newspaper=The Guardian|date=22 February 2011}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Davies|first=Peter|date=December 2018|title=A Mosaic Marvel on Lambeth's Streets|journal=The London Magazine |pages=43–47 |url=https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-london-magazine/20181201/282179357148586}}</ref> His parents' bodies were buried in the same graveyard. Present at the ceremonies were Catherine, [[Edward Calvert (painter)|Edward Calvert]], [[George Richmond (painter)|George Richmond]], [[Frederick Tatham]] and John Linnell. Following Blake's death, Catherine moved into Tatham's house as a housekeeper. She believed she was regularly visited by Blake's spirit. She continued selling his illuminated works and paintings, but entertained no business transaction without first "consulting Mr. Blake".<ref>Ackroyd, ''Blake'', 390</ref> On the day of her death, in October 1831, she was as calm and cheerful as her husband, and called out to him "as if he were only in the next room, to say she was coming to him, and it would not be long now."<ref>''Blake Records'', p. 410</ref>

On her death, longtime acquaintance Frederick Tatham took possession of Blake's works and continued selling them. Tatham later joined the fundamentalist [[Edward Irving|Irvingite]] church and under the influence of conservative members of that church burned manuscripts that he deemed heretical.<ref>Ackroyd, ''Blake'', p. 391</ref> The exact number of destroyed manuscripts is unknown, but shortly before his death Blake told a friend he had written "twenty tragedies as long as ''[[Macbeth]]''", none of which survive.<ref>Davis, p. 164</ref> Another acquaintance, William Michael Rossetti, also burned works by Blake that he considered lacking in quality,<ref>Gerald Eades Bentley, Martin K. Nurmi. ''A Blake Bibliography: Annotated Lists of Works, Studies, and Blakeana.'' University of Minnesota Press, 1964. pp.41-42.</ref> and John Linnell erased sexual imagery from a number of Blake's drawings.<ref>Marsha Keith Schuchard, ''Why Mrs Blake Cried: Swedenborg, Blake and the Sexual Basis of Spiritual Vision'', pp. 1–20</ref> At the same time, some works not intended for publication were preserved by friends, such as [[Notebook of William Blake|his notebook]] and ''[[An Island in the Moon]]''.

Blake's grave is commemorated by two stones. The first was a stone that reads "Near by lie the remains of the poet-painter William Blake 1757–1827 and his wife Catherine Sophia 1762–1831". The memorial stone is situated approximately {{convert|20|m}} away from the actual grave, which was not marked until 12 August 2018.<ref name=":0" /> For years since 1965, the exact location of William Blake's grave had been lost and forgotten. The area had been damaged in the [[Second World War]]; gravestones were removed and a garden was created. The memorial stone, indicating that the burial sites are "nearby", was listed as a [[listed building|Grade II listed structure]] in 2011.<ref>{{NHLE|num=1396493 |desc=Monument to William and Catherine Sophia Blake, Central Broadwalk|date=21 February 2011|access-date=11 August 2018}}</ref><ref name="theguardian1">{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/aug/11/how-amateur-sleuths-finally-tracked-down-burial-place-william-blake|title=How amateur sleuths finally tracked down the burial place of William Blake|work=The Guardian|date=11 August 2018|access-date=11 August 2018}}</ref> A Portuguese couple, Carol and Luís Garrido, rediscovered the exact burial location after 14 years of investigatory work, and the Blake Society organised a permanent memorial slab, which was unveiled at a public ceremony at the site on 12 August 2018.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="theguardian1" /><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/blake-s-final-stop-on-the-road-to-jerusalem-is-recognised-at-last-gdfvx2jm2|title=William Blake's final stop on the road to Jerusalem is recognised at last|work=[[The Times]]|date=23 July 2018|access-date=11 August 2018|last1=Kennedy|first1=Dominic}}</ref><ref>(12 Aug 2018). [http://www.itv.com/news/2018-08-12/iron-maiden-frontman-joins-hundreds-at-unveiling-of-william-blake-gravestone/ Iron Maiden frontman joins hundreds at unveiling of William Blake gravestone]. ITV.com</ref> The new stone is inscribed "Here lies William Blake 1757–1827 Poet Artist Prophet" above a verse from his poem ''Jerusalem''.

The [[Blake Prize for Religious Art]] was established in his honour in Australia in 1949. In 1957 a memorial to Blake and his wife was erected in Westminster Abbey.<ref>{{cite web | author=Tate UK | title= William Blake's London | url=http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/william-blake/william-blakes-london/westminster-abbey |access-date=26 August 2006}}</ref> Another memorial lies in [[St James's Church, Piccadilly]], where he was baptised.
[[File:A memorial to William Blake in St James's Church, Piccadilly.jpg|thumb|A memorial to William Blake in [[St James's Church, Piccadilly]]]]

At the time of Blake's death, he had sold fewer than 30 copies of ''Songs of Innocence and of Experience.''<ref name="flavorwire1">{{Cite news|url=http://flavorwire.com/549274/the-radical-sex-and-spiritual-life-of-william-blake/2|title=The Radical Sex and Spiritual Life of William Blake|date=29 November 2015|work=Flavorwire|access-date=7 December 2017|language=en-US|archive-date=2 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190702105154/http://flavorwire.com/549274/the-radical-sex-and-spiritual-life-of-william-blake/2|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Opinions ==
=== Politics ===
Blake was not active in any well-established political party. His poetry consistently embodies an attitude of rebellion against the abuse of class power as documented in David Erdman's major study ''[[Blake: Prophet Against Empire|Blake: Prophet Against Empire: A Poet's Interpretation of the History of His Own Times]]'' (1954). Blake was concerned about senseless wars and the blighting effects of the [[Industrial Revolution]]. Much of his poetry recounts in symbolic allegory the effects of the French and American revolutions. Erdman claims Blake was disillusioned with the political outcomes of the conflicts, believing they had simply replaced monarchy with irresponsible mercantilism. Erdman also notes Blake was deeply opposed to slavery and believes some of his poems, read primarily as championing "[[free love]]", had their anti-slavery implications short-changed.<ref>Erdman ''William Blake: Prophet Against Empire'' p. 228</ref> A more recent study, ''William Blake: Visionary Anarchist'' by Peter Marshall (1988), classified Blake and his contemporary [[William Godwin]] as [[Precursors to anarchism|forerunners of modern anarchism]].<ref name="marshall">{{cite book|last=Marshall|first=Peter|title=William Blake: Visionary Anarchist|publisher=Freedom Press|date=1 January 1994|edition=Revised|isbn=0-900384-77-8}}</ref> British [[Marxism|Marxist]] historian [[E. P. Thompson]]'s last finished work, ''[[Witness Against the Beast|Witness Against the Beast: William Blake and the Moral Law]]'' (1993), claims to show how far he was inspired by [[English Dissenters|dissident religious ideas]] rooted in the thinking of the most radical opponents of the monarchy during the [[English Civil War]].

=== Development of views ===
Because Blake's later poetry contains a private mythology with complex symbolism, his late work has been less published than his earlier more accessible work. The [[Vintage Press|Vintage]] anthology of Blake edited by [[Patti Smith]] focuses heavily on the earlier work, as do many critical studies such as ''William Blake'' by D. G. Gillham. 

[[File:Europe a Prophecy, copy D, object 1 (Bentley 1, Erdman i, Keynes i) British Museum.jpg|thumb|right|[[Urizen]] − from Blake's ''[[The Ancient of Days|Ancient of Days]]'', 1794. The "[[Ancient of Days]]" is described in Chapter 7 of the [[Book of Daniel]]. This image depicts Copy D of the illustration currently held at the British Museum.<ref>{{cite web |editor2=Robert N. Essick |editor3=Joseph Viscomi |title=Europe a Prophecy, copy D, object 1 (Bentley 1, Erdman i, Keynes i) "Europe a Prophecy" |url=http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/object.xq?objectid=europe.d.illbk.01&java=no |access-date=25 September 2013 |publisher=[[William Blake Archive]] |editor1=Morris Eaves}}</ref> ]]

The earlier work is primarily rebellious in character and can be seen as a protest against dogmatic religion especially notable in ''The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'', in which the figure represented by the "Devil" is virtually a hero rebelling against an imposter authoritarian deity. In later works, such as ''Milton'' and ''Jerusalem'', Blake carves a distinctive vision of a humanity redeemed by self-sacrifice and forgiveness, while retaining his earlier negative attitude towards what he felt was the rigid and morbid authoritarianism of traditional religion. Not all readers of Blake agree upon how much continuity exists between Blake's earlier and later works.

Psychoanalyst June Singer has written that Blake's late work displayed a development of the ideas first introduced in his earlier works, namely, the humanitarian goal of achieving personal wholeness of body and spirit. The final section of the expanded edition of her Blake study ''The Unholy Bible'' suggests the later works are the "Bible of Hell" promised in ''The Marriage of Heaven and Hell''. Regarding Blake's final poem, ''Jerusalem'', she writes: "The promise of the divine in man, made in ''The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'', is at last fulfilled."<ref>''The Unholy Bible'', June Singer, p. 229.</ref>

[[John Middleton Murry]] notes discontinuity between ''Marriage'' and the late works, in that while the early Blake focused on a "sheer negative opposition between Energy and Reason", the later Blake emphasised the notions of self-sacrifice and forgiveness as the road to interior wholeness. This renunciation of the sharper dualism of ''Marriage of Heaven and Hell'' is evidenced in particular by the humanisation of the character of [[Urizen]] in the later works. Murry characterises the later Blake as having found "mutual understanding" and "mutual forgiveness".<ref>''William Blake'', Murry, p. 168.</ref>

=== Religious views ===

Regarding conventional religion, Blake was a satirist and ironist in his viewpoints which are illustrated and summarised in his poem ''[[Vala, or The Four Zoas]]'', one of his uncompleted [[William Blake's prophetic books|prophetic books]] begun in 1797. The demi-mythological and demi-religious main characters of the book are the Four Zoas ([[Urthona]], [[Urizen]], [[Luvah]] and [[Tharmas]]), who were created by the fall of [[Albion (Blake)|Albion]] in [[William Blake's mythology|Blake's mythology]]. It consists of nine books, referred to as "nights". These outline the interactions of the Zoas, their fallen forms and their [[Emanationism|Emanations]]. Blake intended the book to be a summation of his [[William Blake's mythology|mythic universe]]. Blake's Four Zoas represent four aspects of the [[God in Christianity|Almighty God]], and ''Vala'' is the first work to mention them.<ref>Bentley 2003 pp. 198–199, 247, 310</ref> In particular, Blake's God/Man union is broken down into the bodily components of Urizen (head), Urthona (loins), Luvah (heart), and Tharmas (unity of the body) with paired [[Emanationism|Emanations]] being [[Ahania]] (wisdom, from the head), [[Enitharmon]] (what can't be attained in nature, from the loins), [[Vala (Blake)|Vala]] (nature, from the heart), and [[Enion]] (earth mother, from the separation of unity).<ref>Bloom 1993 p. 32</ref> As connected to Blake's understanding of the divine, the Zoas are the [[God the Father]] (Tharmas, sense), the [[Son of God]] (Luvah, love), the [[Holy Spirit|Holy Ghost]] (Urthona, imagination), and [[Christian teaching about the Devil|Satan]] who was originally of the divine substance (Urizen, reason) and their Emanations represent Sexual Urges (Enion), Nature (Vala), Inspiration (Enitharmon), and Pleasure (Ahania).<ref>Damon pp. 124, 255, 399, 419, 428</ref>

Blake believed that each person had a twofold identity with one half being good and the other evil. In ''Vala'', both the character [[Orc (Blake)|Orc]] and [[Albion (Blake)|The Eternal Man]] discuss their selves as divided. By the time he was working on his later works, including ''Vala'', Blake felt that he was able to overcome his inner battle but he was concerned about losing his artistic abilities. These thoughts carried over into ''Vala'' as the character Los (imagination) is connected to the image of Christ, and he added a Christian element to his mythic world. In the revised version of ''Vala'', Blake added Christian and Hebrew images and describes how Los experiences a vision of the Lamb of God that regenerates Los's spirit. In opposition to Christ is Urizen and the [[Synagogue of Satan]], who later crucifies Christ. It is from them that Deism is born.<ref>Bentley 2003 pp. 271–272, 301</ref>

[[File:Blake-Abel.jpg|thumb|right|''The Body of [[Cain and Abel|Abel]] Found by Adam and Eve'', c. 1825. Watercolour on wood.]]
Blake did not subscribe to the notion of a body distinct from the soul that must submit to the rule of the soul, but sees the body as an extension of the soul, derived from the "discernment" of the senses. Thus, the emphasis orthodoxy places upon the denial of bodily urges is a dualistic error born of misapprehension of the relationship between body and soul. Elsewhere, he describes Satan as the "state of error", and as beyond salvation.<ref>{{cite book |last=Damon |first=Samuel Foster |title=A Blake Dictionary |year=1988 |publisher=Brown University Press |page=358 |isbn=0-87451-436-3 |edition=Revised }}</ref>

Blake opposed the [[Sophism|sophistry]] of [[theology|theological]] thought that excuses pain, admits evil and apologises for injustice. He abhorred self-denial,<ref>[[Saree Makdisi|Makdisi, Saree]]. ''William Blake and the Impossible History of the 1790s''. 2003, pp. 226–7.</ref> which he associated with religious repression and particularly [[sexual repression]]:<ref>Altizer, Thomas J. J. ''The New Apocalypse: The Radical Christian Vision of William Blake''. 2000, p. 18.</ref>
<blockquote><poem>
[[Prudence]] is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.
He who desires but acts not breeds [[wikt:pestilence|pestilence]]. (7.4–5, E35)</poem></blockquote>
He saw the concept of "sin" as a trap to bind men's desires (the briars of ''Garden of Love''), and believed that restraint in obedience to a moral code imposed from the outside was against the spirit of life:
<blockquote><poem>
Abstinence sows sand all over
The ruddy limbs & flaming hair
But Desire Gratified
Plants fruits & beauty there. (E474)
</poem></blockquote>

He did not hold with the [[God the Father#Christianity|doctrine]] of God as Lord, an entity separate from and superior to mankind;<ref>{{cite book |last=Blake |first=Gerald Eades Bentley |title=William Blake: The Critical Heritage |year=1975 |publisher=Routledge & K. Paul |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/williamblakecrit0000unse/page/30 30] |isbn=0-7100-8234-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/williamblakecrit0000unse/page/30 }}</ref> this is shown clearly in his words about Jesus Christ: "He is the only God ... and so am I, and so are you." A telling phrase in ''The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'' is "men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast".

== Enlightenment philosophy ==
Blake had a complex relationship with [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] philosophy. His championing of the imagination as the most important element of human existence ran contrary to Enlightenment ideals of [[rationalism]] and [[empiricism]].<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2004/mayjune/feature/william-blake-visions-and-verses|title=William Blake: Visions and Verses|author-last=Galvin|magazine=Humanities|author-first=Rachel|volume=25|number=3|publisher=National Endowment for the Humanities|date=2004|access-date=2 March 2017|archive-date=3 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170303125228/https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2004/mayjune/feature/william-blake-visions-and-verses|url-status=dead}}</ref> Due to his visionary religious beliefs, he opposed the [[Isaac Newton#Religious thought|Newtonian]] view of the universe. This mindset is reflected in an excerpt from Blake's ''[[Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion|Jerusalem]]'':

[[File:Newton-WilliamBlake.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.1|Blake's [[Newton (Blake)|Newton]] (1795) demonstrates his opposition to the "single-vision" of [[Naturalism (philosophy)|scientific materialism]]: Newton fixes his eye on a pair of compasses (recalling [[Book of Proverbs|Proverbs]] 8:27,<ref>Prov 8:27 (NRSV trans.), "When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep ..."</ref> an important passage for [[John Milton|Milton]])<ref>Baker-Smith, Dominic. ''Between Dream and Nature: Essays on Utopia and Dystopia''. 1987, p. 163.</ref> to write upon a scroll that seems to project from his own head.<ref>Kaiser, Christopher B. ''Creational Theology and the History of Physical Science''. 1997, p. 328.</ref>]]
<blockquote><poem>
I turn my eyes to the Schools & Universities of Europe
And there behold the Loom of Locke whose Woof rages dire
Washd by the Water-wheels of Newton. black the cloth
In heavy wreathes folds over every Nation; cruel Works
Of many Wheels I view, wheel without wheel, with cogs tyrannic
Moving by compulsion each other: not as those in Eden: which
Wheel within Wheel in freedom revolve in harmony & peace. (15.14–20, E159)
</poem></blockquote>

Blake believed the paintings of [[Joshua Reynolds|Sir Joshua Reynolds]], which depict the naturalistic fall of light upon objects, were products entirely of the "vegetative eye", and he saw Locke and Newton as "the true progenitors of Sir Joshua Reynolds' aesthetic".<ref>*{{cite book |last=Ackroyd |first= Peter|title=Blake |year=1995 |publisher=Sinclair-Stevenson |location=London |isbn=1-85619-278-4 |page=285 }}</ref> The popular taste in the England of that time for such paintings was satisfied with [[mezzotint]]s, prints produced by a process that created an image from thousands of tiny dots upon the page. Blake saw an analogy between this and Newton's particle theory of light.<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Essick
  | first = Robert N.
  | title = William Blake, Printmaker
  | url = https://archive.org/details/williamblakeprin0000essi
  | url-access = registration
  | publisher=Princeton University Press
  | year = 1980
  | location = Princeton, NJ
  | page = [https://archive.org/details/williamblakeprin0000essi/page/248 248]
  | isbn = 9780691039541
 }}</ref> Accordingly, Blake never used the technique, opting rather to develop a method of engraving purely in fluid line, insisting that:

{{Blockquote|a Line or Lineament is not formed by Chance a Line is a Line in its Minutest Subdivision[s] Strait or Crooked It is Itself & Not Intermeasurable with or by any Thing Else Such is Job. (E784)}}

It has been supposed that, despite his opposition to Enlightenment principles, Blake arrived at a linear aesthetic that was in many ways more similar to the [[Neoclassicism|Neoclassical]] engravings of John Flaxman than to the works of the Romantics, with whom he is often classified.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Blake's Human Form Divine|last=Mellor|first=Anne|publisher=University of California Press|year=1974|isbn=0-520-02065-0|location=Berkeley, CA|pages=[https://archive.org/details/blakeshumanformd0000mell/page/119 119–120]|quote="Blake imitated Flaxman's austere, simple mode of pure outline engraving.  Blake's engravings for Cumberland's _Thoughts on Outline_ clearly demonstrate Blake's competency in and preference for this purely linear engraving style."|via=Google Books|url=https://archive.org/details/blakeshumanformd0000mell/page/119}}</ref> However, Blake's relationship with Flaxman seems to have grown more distant after Blake's return from Felpham, and there are surviving letters between Flaxman and Hayley wherein Flaxman speaks ill of Blake's theories of art.<ref>G.E. Bentley, The Stranger in Paradise, "Drunk on Intellectual Vision" pp500, Yale University Press, 2001</ref> Blake further criticised Flaxman's styles and theories of art in his responses to criticism made against his print of Chaucer's Caunterbury Pilgrims in 1810.<ref>Erdman, David ed. ''The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake'', Yale Anchor Press</ref>

== Sexuality ==

=== "Free Love" ===
[[File:William Blake Lot and His Daughters Butlin 381.jpg|thumb|Blake's ''Lot and His Daughters'', [[Huntington Library]], c. 1800]]
Since his death, Blake has been claimed by those of various movements who apply his complex and often elusive use of symbolism and allegory to the issues that concern them.<ref>Tom Hayes, "William Blake's AndrogYnous EGO-Ideal", ''ELH'', 71(1), 141–165 (2004).</ref> In particular, Blake is sometimes considered (along with [[Mary Wollstonecraft]] and her husband [[William Godwin]]) a forerunner of the 19th-century "[[free love]]" movement, a broad reform tradition starting in the 1820s that held that marriage is slavery, and advocated the removal of all state restrictions on sexual activity such as [[homosexuality]], [[prostitution]], and [[adultery]], culminating in the [[birth control]] movement of the early 20th century. Blake scholarship was more focused on this theme in the earlier 20th century, although it is still mentioned by the Blake scholar [[Magnus Ankarsjö]] who moderately challenges this interpretation. The 19th-century "free love" movement was not particularly focused on the idea of multiple partners, but did agree with Wollstonecraft that state-sanctioned marriage was "legal prostitution" and monopolistic in character. It has somewhat more in common with early feminist movements<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~women/papers/freelove.html|title=H-Women – H-Net|website=www2.h-net.msu.edu|access-date=18 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140427105337/http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~women/papers/freelove.html|archive-date=27 April 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> (particularly with regard to the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft, whom Blake admired).

Blake was critical of the marriage laws of his day, and generally railed against traditional Christian notions of chastity as a virtue.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/william-blake|title=William Blake|date=17 November 2017|website=Poetry Foundation|access-date=18 November 2017}}</ref> At a time of tremendous strain in his marriage, in part due to Catherine's apparent inability to bear children, he directly advocated bringing a second wife into the house.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hamblen |first=Emily |title=On the Minor Prophecies of William Blake |year=1995 |publisher=Kessinger Publishing |page=10}}{{cite book |last=Berger |first=Pierre |title=William Blake: Poet and Mystic |year=1915|publisher=E. P. Dutton & Company |page=45}}</ref> His poetry suggests that external demands for marital fidelity reduce love to mere duty rather than authentic affection, and decries jealousy and egotism as a motive for marriage laws. Poems such as "Why should I be bound to thee, O my lovely Myrtle-tree?" and "Earth's Answer" seem to advocate multiple sexual partners. In his poem "[[London (William Blake poem)|London]]" he speaks of "the Marriage-Hearse" plagued by "the youthful Harlot's curse", the result alternatively of false Prudence and/or Harlotry. ''Visions of the Daughters of Albion'' is widely (though not universally) read as a tribute to free love since the relationship between Bromion and Oothoon is held together only by laws and not by love. For Blake, law and love are opposed, and he castigates the "frozen marriage-bed". In ''Visions'', Blake writes:

<blockquote><poem>
Till she who burns with youth, and knows no fixed lot, is bound
In spells of law to one she loathes? and must she drag the chain
Of life in weary lust? (5.21-3, E49)
</poem></blockquote>

In the 19th century, poet and free love advocate [[Algernon Charles Swinburne]] wrote a book on Blake drawing attention to the above motifs in which Blake praises "sacred natural love" that is not bound by another's possessive jealousy, the latter characterised by Blake as a "creeping skeleton".<ref>Swinburne p. 260</ref> Swinburne notes how Blake's ''Marriage of Heaven and Hell'' condemns the hypocrisy of the "pale religious letchery" of advocates of traditional norms.<ref>Swinburne, p. 249.</ref> Another 19th-century free love advocate, [[Edward Carpenter]] (1844–1929), was influenced by Blake's mystical emphasis on energy free from external restrictions.<ref>Sheila Rowbotham's ''Edward Carpenter: A Life of Liberty and Love'', p. 135.</ref>

In the early 20th century, Pierre Berger described how Blake's views echo Mary Wollstonecraft's celebration of joyful authentic love rather than love born of duty,<ref>Berger pp. 188–190</ref> the former being the true measure of purity.<ref>Berger sees Blake's views as most embodied in the ''Introduction'' to the collected version of ''Songs of Innocence and Experience''.</ref> Irene Langridge notes that "in Blake's mysterious and unorthodox creed the doctrine of free love was something Blake wanted for the edification of 'the soul'."<ref>''William Blake: a study of his life and art work'', by Irene Langridge, pp. 11, 131.</ref> Michael Davis' 1977 book ''William Blake a New Kind of Man'' suggests that Blake thought jealousy separates man from the divine unity, condemning him to a frozen death.<ref>Davis, p. 55.</ref>

As a theological writer, Blake has a sense of human "[[Fall of man|fallenness]]". S. Foster Damon noted that for Blake the major impediments to a free love society were corrupt human nature, not merely the intolerance of society and the jealousy of men, but the inauthentic hypocritical nature of human communication.<ref>S. Foster Damon ''William Blake: His Philosophy and Symbols'' (1924), p. 105.</ref> Thomas Wright's 1928 book ''Life of William Blake'' (entirely devoted to Blake's doctrine of free love) notes that Blake thinks marriage should ''in practice'' afford the joy of love, but notes that in reality it often does not,<ref>Wright, p. 57.</ref> as a couple's knowledge of being chained often diminishes their joy. Pierre Berger also analyses Blake's early mythological poems such as ''Ahania'' as declaring marriage laws to be a consequence of the fallenness of humanity, as these are born from pride and jealousy.<ref>Berger, p. 142.</ref>

Some scholars have noted that Blake's views on "free love" are both qualified and may have undergone shifts and modifications in his late years. Some poems from this period warn of dangers of predatory sexuality such as ''The Sick Rose''. Magnus Ankarsjö notes that while the hero of ''Visions of the Daughters of Albion'' is a strong advocate of free love, by the end of the poem she has become more circumspect as her awareness of the dark side of sexuality has grown, crying "Can this be love which drinks another as a sponge drinks water?"<ref>Quoted by Ankarsjö on p. 68 of ''Bring Me My Arrows of Desire'' and again in his ''William Blake and Gender''</ref> Ankarsjö also notes that a major inspiration to Blake, Mary Wollstonecraft, similarly developed more circumspect views of sexual freedom late in life. In light of Blake's aforementioned sense of human 'fallenness' Ankarsjö thinks Blake does ''not'' fully approve of sensual indulgence merely in defiance of law as exemplified by the female character of Leutha,<ref>''William Blake and gender'' (2006) by Magnus Ankarsjö, p. 129.</ref> since in the fallen world of experience all love is enchained.<ref>Ankarsjö, p. 64</ref> Ankarsjö records Blake as having supported a commune with some sharing of partners, though David Worrall read ''The Book of Thel'' as a rejection of the proposal to take concubines espoused by some members of the Swedenborgian church.<ref>David Worrall, "Thel in Africa: William Blake and the Post-colonial, Post-Swedenborgian Female Subject", in ''The Reception of Blake in the Orient'', eds. Steve Clark and Masashi Suzuki. London: Continuum, 2006, pp. 17–29.</ref>

Blake's later writings show a renewed interest in [[Christianity]], and although he radically reinterprets Christian morality in a way that embraces sensual pleasure, there is little of the emphasis on sexual libertarianism found in several of his early poems, and there is advocacy of "self-denial", though such abnegation must be inspired by love rather than through authoritarian compulsion.<ref>See intro to Chapter 4 of Jerusalem.</ref> Berger (more so than Swinburne) is especially sensitive to a shift in sensibility between the early Blake and the later Blake. Berger believes the young Blake placed too much emphasis on following impulses,<ref>Berger, pp. 112, 284</ref> and that the older Blake had a better formed ideal of a true love that sacrifices self. Some celebration of mystical sensuality remains in the late poems (most notably in Blake's denial of the virginity of Jesus's mother). However, the late poems also place a greater emphasis on forgiveness, redemption, and emotional authenticity as a foundation for relationships.

== Legacy ==

=== Creativity ===
[[Northrop Frye]], commenting on Blake's consistency in strongly held views, notes that Blake <blockquote>himself says that his notes on [Joshua] Reynolds, written at fifty, are 'exactly Similar' to those on Locke and Bacon, written when he was 'very Young'. Even phrases and lines of verse will reappear as much as forty years later. Consistency in maintaining what he believed to be true was itself one of his leading principles ... Consistency, then, foolish or otherwise, is one of Blake's chief preoccupations, just as 'self-contradiction' is always one of his most contemptuous comments.<ref name="fearfulsymmetry">[[Northrop Frye]], ''Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake'', 1947, Princeton University Press</ref></blockquote>

[[File:Blake after John Gabriel Stedman Narrative of a Five Years copy 2 object 2-detail.jpg|thumb|right|Blake's ''A Negro Hung Alive by the Ribs to a Gallows'', an illustration to [[John Gabriel Stedman|J. G. Stedman's]] ''Narrative, of a Five Years' Expedition, against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam'' (1796)]]
Blake abhorred slavery,<ref>Parker, Lisa Karee, "A World of Our Own: William Blake and Abolition." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2006.
[http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_theses/16 online] (pdf, 11&nbsp;MB)</ref> and believed in racial and sexual equality.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}} Several of his poems and paintings express a notion of universal humanity: "As all men are alike (tho' infinitely various)". In one poem, narrated by a black child, white and black bodies alike are described as shaded groves or clouds, which exist only until one learns "to bear the beams of love":

<blockquote><poem>
When I from black and he from white cloud free,
And round the tent of God like lambs we joy:
I'll shade him from the heat till he can bear,
To lean in joy upon our fathers knee.
And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,
And be like him and he will then love me. (23-8, E9)
</poem></blockquote>

Blake retained an active interest in social and political events throughout his life, and social and political statements are often present in his mystical symbolism. His views on what he saw as oppression and restriction of rightful freedom extended to the Church. His spiritual beliefs are evident in ''Songs of Experience'' (1794), in which he distinguishes between the Old Testament God, whose restrictions he rejected, and the New Testament God whom he saw as a positive influence.

=== Visions ===
From a young age, William Blake claimed to have seen visions. The first may have occurred as early as the age of four when, according to one anecdote, the young artist "saw God" when God "put his head to the window", causing Blake to break into screaming.<ref name=bent78>Bentley, Gerald Eades and Bentley Jr., G. ''William Blake: The Critical Heritage''. 1995, pp. 36–7.</ref> At the age of eight or ten in [[Peckham Rye]], London, Blake claimed to have seen "a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars."<ref name=bent78 /> According to Blake's Victorian biographer Gilchrist, he returned home and reported the vision and only escaped being thrashed by his father for telling a lie through the intervention of his mother. Though all evidence suggests that his parents were largely supportive, his mother seems to have been especially so, and several of Blake's early drawings and poems decorated the walls of her chamber.<ref>A note of caution, however: Peter Ackroyd recounts that on one occasion "his mother beat him for declaring that he had seen visions", suggesting that, though "he was beaten only once... it became a source of perpetual discontent". Ackroyd, Peter (1995). Blake. London: Sinclair-Stevenson. p. 21-2, {{ISBN|1-85619-278-4}}.</ref> On another occasion, Blake watched haymakers at work, and thought he saw angelic figures walking among them.<ref name=bent78 />

[[File:William Blake 002.jpg|thumb|right|''[[The Ghost of a Flea]]'', 1819–1820. Having informed painter-astrologer [[John Varley (painter)|John Varley]] of his visions of apparitions, Blake was subsequently persuaded to paint one of them.<ref name=langr>Langridge, Irene. ''William Blake: A Study of His Life and Art Work''. 1904, pp. 48–9.</ref> Varley's anecdote of Blake and his vision of the flea's ghost became well-known.<ref name=langr />]]

Blake claimed to experience visions throughout his life. They were often associated with beautiful religious themes and imagery, and may have inspired him further with spiritual works and pursuits. Certainly, religious concepts and imagery figure centrally in Blake's works. God and Christianity constituted the intellectual centre of his writings, from which he drew inspiration. Blake believed he was personally instructed and encouraged by [[Archangel]]s to create his artistic works, which he claimed were actively read and enjoyed by the same Archangels. In a letter of condolence to [[William Hayley]], dated 6 May 1800, four days after the death of Hayley's son,<ref>{{cite book |title=Memoirs of the Life and Writings of William Haley, ESQ Vol II |last=Johnson |first=John |year=1823 |publisher=S. and R. Bentley, Dorset-Street |location=London |isbn= 9780576029568|page=506 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6vm8ao7Qks8C&pg=PA506 }}</ref> Blake wrote:

{{blockquote|I know that our deceased friends are more really with us than when they were apparent to our mortal part. Thirteen years ago I lost a brother, and with his spirit I converse daily and hourly in the spirit, and see him in my remembrance, in the region of my imagination. I hear his advice, and even now write from his dictate.}}

In a letter to John Flaxman, dated 21 September 1800, Blake wrote:

{{blockquote|[The town of] Felpham is a sweet place for Study, because it is more spiritual than London. Heaven opens here on all sides her golden Gates; her windows are not obstructed by vapours; voices of Celestial inhabitants are more distinctly heard, & their forms more distinctly seen; & my Cottage is also a Shadow of their houses. My Wife & Sister are both well, courting Neptune for an embrace... I am more famed in Heaven for my works than I could well conceive. In my Brain are studies & Chambers filled with books & pictures of old, which I wrote & painted in ages of Eternity before my mortal life; & those works are the delight & Study of Archangels. (E710)}}

In a letter to Thomas Butts, dated 25 April 1803, Blake wrote:

{{blockquote|Now I may say to you, what perhaps I should not dare to say to anyone else: That I can alone carry on my visionary studies in London unannoy'd, & that I may converse with my friends in Eternity, See Visions, Dream Dreams & prophecy & speak Parables unobserv'd & at liberty from the Doubts of other Mortals; perhaps Doubts proceeding from Kindness, but Doubts are always pernicious, Especially when we Doubt our Friends.}}

In ''A Vision of the Last Judgement'' Blake wrote:

{{blockquote|Error is Created Truth is Eternal Error or Creation will be Burned Up & then & not till then Truth or Eternity will appear It is Burnt up the Moment Men cease to behold it I assert for My self that I do not behold the Outward Creation & that to me it is hindrance & not Action it is as the Dirt upon my feet No part of Me. What it will be Questiond When the Sun rises do you not see a round Disk of fire somewhat like a Guinea O no no I see an Innumerable company of the Heavenly host crying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty I question not my Corporeal or Vegetative Eye any more than I would Question a Window concerning a Sight I look thro it & not with it. (E565-6)}}

Despite seeing angels and God, Blake has also claimed to have seen Satan on the staircase of his South Molton Street home in London.<ref name="flavorwire1" />

Aware of Blake's visions, [[William Wordsworth]] commented, "There was no doubt that this poor man was mad, but there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of [[Lord Byron]] and [[Walter Scott]]."<ref>{{cite web | title=Blake's vision on show | author=John Ezard | url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/jul/06/artsandhumanities.arts |work=The Guardian |location=UK | date=6 July 2004 | access-date=24 March 2008}}</ref> In a more deferential vein, John William Cousins wrote in ''A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature'' that Blake was "a truly pious and loving soul, neglected and misunderstood by the world, but appreciated by an elect few", who "led a cheerful and contented life of poverty illumined by visions and celestial inspirations".<ref>{{cite book |title=A Short Biographical Dictionary of English literature |last= Cousin |first=John William |year=1933 |publisher=Plain Label Books |isbn=978-1-60303-696-2 |page=81 }}</ref> Blake's sanity was called into question as recently as the publication of the [[1911 Encyclopædia Britannica|1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'']], whose entry on Blake comments that "the question whether Blake was or was not mad seems likely to remain in dispute, but there can be no doubt whatever that he was at different periods of his life under the influence of illusions for which there are no outward facts to account, and that much of what he wrote is so far wanting in the quality of sanity as to be without a logical coherence".

=== Cultural influence ===
{{Main|William Blake in popular culture}}
[[File:William Blake3.jpg|thumb|left|William Blake's portrait in profile, by [[John Linnell (painter)|John Linnell]]. This larger version was painted to be engraved as the frontispiece of Alexander Gilchrist's ''Life of Blake'' (1863).]]
Blake's work was neglected for a generation after his death and almost forgotten by the time [[Alexander Gilchrist]] began work on his biography in the 1860s. The publication of the ''[[Life of William Blake]]'' rapidly transformed Blake's reputation, in particular as he was taken up by [[Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood|Pre-Raphaelites]] and associated figures, in particular [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] and [[Algernon Charles Swinburne]]. In the 20th century, however, Blake's work was fully appreciated and his influence increased. Important early and mid-20th-century scholars involved in enhancing Blake's standing in literary and artistic circles included [[S. Foster Damon]], [[Geoffrey Keynes]], [[Northrop Frye]] and [[David V. Erdman]].

While Blake had a significant role in the art and poetry of figures such as Rossetti, it was during the Modernist period that this work began to influence a wider set of writers and artists. [[William Butler Yeats]], who edited an edition of Blake's collected works in 1893, drew on him for poetic and philosophical ideas,<ref>Hazard Adams. ''Blake and Yeats: The Contrary Vision'', Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1955.</ref> while British surrealist art in particular drew on Blake's conceptions of non-mimetic, visionary practice in the painting of artists such as [[Paul Nash (artist)|Paul Nash]] and [[Graham Sutherland]].<ref>Shirley Dent and Jason Whittaker. ''Radical Blake: Influence and Afterlife from 1827''. Houndmills: Palgrave, 2002.</ref> 

His poetry came into use by a number of British classical composers, who set his works. The earliest such work known is [[Doyne Bell]]'s setting of the poem ''Can I see another's woe'', from ''Songs of Innocence and of Experience'', published in 1876.<ref>Steve Clark, T. Connolly, Jason Whittaker, ''Blake 2.0: William Blake in Twentieth-Century Art, Music and Culture'' (Springer, 2012), [https://books.google.com/books?id=aohMCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT146 p. 146]</ref> Notable settings are by [[Benjamin Britten]] and [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]], and [[John Tavener]] set several of Blake's poems, including ''The Lamb'' (as the 1982 work "[[The Lamb (Tavener)|The Lamb]]") and ''[[The Tyger]]''.

Many such as [[June Singer]] have argued that Blake's thoughts on human nature greatly anticipate and parallel the thinking of the psychoanalyst [[Carl Jung]]. In Jung's own words: "Blake [is] a tantalizing study, since he compiled a lot of half or undigested knowledge in his fantasies. According to my ideas they are an artistic production rather than an authentic representation of unconscious processes."<ref>Jung and William Blake. [https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/red-book-of-carl-jung/the-red-book-and-beyond.html#obj0]. Retrieved 6 March 2015.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.psy.dmu.ac.uk/drhiles/pdf%27s/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20Jung%20paper.web.pdf |title=Letter to Nanavutty, 11 Nov 1948, quoted by Hiles, David. ''Jung, William Blake and our answer to Job'' 2001. |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=psy.dmu.ac.uk |publisher=[[De Montfort University]] |access-date=13 December 2009 |archive-date=9 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100509053105/http://www.psy.dmu.ac.uk/drhiles/pdf%27s/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20Jung%20paper.web.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Similarly, Diana Hume George claimed that Blake can be seen as a precursor to the ideas of [[Sigmund Freud]].<ref>Diana Hume George. ''Blake and Freud''. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1980.</ref>

Blake had an enormous influence on the [[Beat Generation|beat poets]] of the 1950s and the [[counterculture of the 1960s]], frequently being cited by such seminal figures as beat poet [[Allen Ginsberg]], songwriters [[Bob Dylan]], [[Richard Ashcroft]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Babcock |first=Jay |date=17 May 2000 |title=Richard Ashcroft - Mean Magazine feature |url=https://www.thevervelive.com/2000/05/richard-ashcroft-mean-magazine-feature.html |access-date=30 May 2024 |work=Mean Magazine}}</ref> [[Jim Morrison]],<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20161104144618/http://zoamorphosis.com/2011/03/how-much-did-jim-morrison-know-about-william-blake/ zoamorphosis.com, ''How much did Jim Morrison know about William Blake''] Retrieved 16 September 2011</ref> [[Van Morrison]],<ref>Neil Spencer, [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/oct/22/classics.williamblake ''Into the Mystic,'' ''Visions of paradise to words of wisdom... an homage to the written work of William Blake.''] ''The Guardian'', October 2000, Retrieved 16 September 2011</ref> [[Bruce Dickinson]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Palmer |first=Robert |date=20 March 1985 |title=The Pop Life |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/20/arts/the-pop-life-105142.html |access-date=8 September 2024 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> and English writer [[Aldous Huxley]]. The Pulitzer-winning composer [[William Bolcom]] set ''Songs of Innocence and of Experience'' to music,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Di Salvo |first=Jackie |date=Spring 1988 |title=William Bolcom, Songs of Innocence and Experience |url=https://bq.blakearchive.org/21.4.disalvo |journal=Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=152}}</ref> with different poems set to different styles of music, "from modern techniques to Broadway to Country/Western" and reggae.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hoffman |first=Gary |date=January 2005 |title=BOLCOM: Songs of Innocence and of Experience |work=Opera Today |url=https://operatoday.com/2005/01/bolcom_songs_of_innocence_and_of_experience/}}</ref>

Much of the central [[conceit]] of [[Philip Pullman]]'s fantasy trilogy ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' is rooted in the world of Blake's ''The Marriage of Heaven and Hell''. Blake also features as a relatively significant character in [[Brian Catling]]'s fantasy novel ''The Erstwhile'', where his visions of angelic beings are figured into the story. Canadian music composer [[Kathleen Yearwood]] is one of many contemporary musicians that have set Blake's poems to music. After World War II, Blake's role in popular culture came to the fore in a variety of areas such as popular music, film, and the [[graphic novel]], leading Edward Larrissy to assert that "Blake is the Romantic writer who has exerted the most powerful influence on the twentieth century."<ref>Edward Larrissy. ''Blake and Modern Literature''. Houndmills: Palgrave, 2006. p. 1.</ref>

== Exhibitions ==
[[File:William Blake's birthplace marker, Soho.jpg|thumb|right|Memorial marking Blake's birthplace in [[Soho]], [[City of Westminster]]]]
<!-- Future exhibitions, focusing on the work and influence of William Blake, include: -->
Major recent exhibitions focusing on William Blake include:
* The [[Ashmolean Museum]]'s ([[Oxford]]) exhibition ''William Blake: Apprentice and Master'', open from December 2014 until March 2015, examined William Blake's formation as an artist, as well as his influence on young artist-printmakers who gathered around him in the last years of his life.<ref>{{cite web|title=Ashmolean Museum|url=http://www.ashmolean.org/exhibitions/details/?exh=87|work=Ashmolean website|access-date=29 October 2014}}</ref>
* The [[National Gallery of Victoria]]'s exhibition ''William Blake'' in summer 2014 showcased the Gallery's collection of works by William Blake which includes spectacular watercolours, single prints and illustrated books.<ref>{{cite web|title=NGV William Blake Exhibition|url=http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/exhibitions/william-blake|work=NGV website|access-date=29 October 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141029153804/http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/exhibitions/william-blake|archive-date=29 October 2014}}</ref>
* The [[Morgan Library & Museum]] exhibition ''William Blake's World: A New Heaven Is Begun'', open from September 2009 until January 2010, included more than 100 watercolours, prints, and illuminated books of poetry.<ref>{{cite web|title=Morgan Library William Blake Exhibition|url=http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/william-blakes-world|work=Morgan Library website|date=19 August 2013|access-date=29 October 2014}}</ref>
* An exhibition at [[Tate Britain]] in 2007–2008, ''William Blake'', coincided with the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of William Blake's birth and included Blake works from the Gallery's permanent collection, but also private loans of recently discovered works which had never before been exhibited.<ref>{{cite web|title=Tate William Blake Exhibition Themes|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/william-blake|work=Tate website|access-date=29 October 2014}}</ref>
* The [[Scottish National Gallery]] 2007 exhibition ''William Blake'' coincided with the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of William Blake's birth and featured all of the Gallery's works associated with Blake.<ref>{{cite web|title=National Galleries Scotland William Blake Exhibition|url=https://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/william-blake/|work=NGS website|access-date=29 October 2014}}</ref>
* An exhibition at [[Tate Britain]] in 2000–2001, ''William Blake'', displayed the full range of William Blake's art and poetry, together with contextual materials, arranged in four sections: One of the Gothic Artists; The Furnace of Lambeth's Vale; Chambers of the Imagination; Many Formidable Works.<ref>{{cite web|title=Tate William Blake Exhibition Themes|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/william-blake-2000-2001/william-blake-exhibition-themes|work=Tate website|access-date=29 October 2014}}</ref> The exhibit traveled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2001.<ref>{{Cite web |title=William Blake |url=https://localhost:5000/exhibitions/listings/2001/william-blake |access-date=2025-08-28 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art}}</ref>
* In 2016 the world's first William Blake antique bookstore and art gallery opened in [[San Francisco]], US.<ref name=SF>{{cite web|url=http://www.sfweekly.com/culture/art/evil-renderings-distempered-mind/|title=Evil Renderings of a Distempered Mind – November 10, 2016 – SF Weekly|date=10 November 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ebar.com/arts/art_article.php?sec=general&article=392|title=The Bay Area Reporter Online – William Blake, artist in Paradise}}</ref>
* A major exhibition on Blake at [[Tate Britain]] in London opened in the autumn of 2019.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/william-blake-artist|title=William Blake – Exhibition at Tate Britain|website=Tate}}</ref>
* An exhibition at the [[Fitzwilliam Museum]], [[Cambridge]], titled ''William Blake's Universe'', ran between 23 February and 19 May 2024.<ref>{{Cite web |title=William Blake's Universe |url=https://fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/plan-your-visit/exhibitions/william-blakes-universe |access-date=8 June 2024 |website=The Fitzwilliam Museum |language=en}}</ref>

== Bibliography ==
{{col-begin}}
{{col-2}}

=== Illuminated books ===
* ''[[Songs of Innocence and of Experience]]'' (edited 1794)
** ''[[Songs of Innocence]]'' (edited 1789)
* ''[[The Book of Thel]]''* (written 1788–1790, edited 1789–1793)
* ''[[The Marriage of Heaven and Hell]]'' (written 1790–1793)
* ''The Gates of Paradise'' (written 1793, edited 1818)
* ''[[Visions of the Daughters of Albion]]''* (edited 1793)
* ''[[Continental prophecies]]''*
** ''[[America a Prophecy]]'' (edited 1793)
** ''[[Europe a Prophecy]]'' (edited 1794–1821)
** ''[[The Song of Los]]'' (edited 1795)
* ''[[There is No Natural Religion]]'' (written 1788, possible edited 1794–1795)
* ''[[The First Book of Urizen]]''* (edited 1794–1818)
* ''[[All Religions are One]]''  (written 1788, possible edited 1795)
* ''[[The Book of Los]]''* (edited 1795)
* ''[[The Book of Ahania]]''* (edited 1795)
* ''[[Milton: A Poem in Two Books|Milton]]''* (written 1804–1810)
* ''[[Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion]]''* (written 1804–1820 additions even later, edited 1820–1827 and 1832)

=== Non-illuminated ===
* ''[[Poetical Sketches]]'' (written 1769–1777, edited 1783 and 1868 as a volume)
* ''[[An Island in the Moon]]'' (written 1784, unfinished)
* ''[[The French Revolution (poem)|The French Revolution]]'' (edited 1791)
* ''A Song of Liberty'' (edited 1792, published in ''The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'')
* ''[[Vala, or The Four Zoas]]''* (written 1797–1807, unfinished)
* ''[[Tiriel (poem)|Tiriel]]''* (written {{circa|1789}}, edited 1874)
''The works with'' * ''constitute the [[William Blake's prophetic books|prophetic books]].''
{{col-break}}

=== Illustrated by Blake ===
* [[Mary Wollstonecraft]], ''[[Original Stories from Real Life]]'' (1791)
* [[John Gay]], ''[[Fables by John Gay with a Life of the Author]]'', John Stockdale, Picadilly (1793)
* [[Gottfried August Bürger]], ''[[Lenore (ballad)|Leonora]]'' (not engraved by him)<ref>Wilson, Mona. ''The Life of William Blake'', 1948, London: Rupert Hart-Davis, p. 77.</ref> (1796)
* [[Edward Young]], ''[[Night-Thoughts]]'' (1797)
* [[Thomas Gray]], ''Poems'' (1798)
* [[Robert Blair (poet)|Robert Blair]], ''[[The Grave (poem)|The Grave]]'' (1805–1808)
* [[John Milton]], ''[[Paradise Lost]]'' (1808)
* [[John Varley (painter)|John Varley]], ''[[Visionary Heads]]'' (1819–1820)
* [[Robert John Thornton]], ''Virgil'' (1821)
* ''[[William Blake's Illustrations of the Book of Job|The Book of Job]]'' (1823–1826)
* [[John Bunyan]], ''[[The Pilgrim's Progress]]'' (1824–1827, unfinished)
* [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]], ''[[Divine Comedy]]'' (1825–1827). Blake died in 1827 with work on these illustrations still unfinished. Of the 102 watercolours, 7 had been selected for engraving.
{{col-end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
* {{cite journal |author=Peter Abbs |author-link=Peter Abbs |date=July 2014 |title=William Blake and the forging of the creative self |journal=[[The London Magazine]] |pages=49–62 }}
* [[Peter Ackroyd]] (1995). ''Blake''. Sinclair-Stevenson. {{ISBN|1-85619-278-4}}.
* [[Donald Ault]] (1974). ''Visionary Physics: Blake's Response to Newton''. University of Chicago. {{ISBN|0-226-03225-6}}.
* {{long dash}} (1987). ''Narrative Unbound: Re-Visioning William Blake's The Four Zoas''. Station Hill Press. {{ISBN|1-886449-75-9}}.
* Stephen C. Behrendt (1992). ''Reading William Blake''. London: Macmillan Press. {{ISBN|0-312-06835-2}} .
* [[Gerald Eades Bentley|G.E. Bentley]] (2001). ''The Stranger From Paradise: A Biography of William Blake''. Yale University Press. {{ISBN|0-300-08939-2}}.
* {{long dash}} (2006). ''Blake Records''. Second edition. Yale University Press. {{ISBN|0-300-09685-2}}.
* {{long dash}} (1977). ''Blake Books''. Clarendon Press. {{ISBN|0-19-818151-5}}.
* {{long dash}} (1995). ''Blake Books Supplement''. Clarendon Press.
* [[Harold Bloom]] (1963). ''Blake's Apocalypse''. Doubleday.
* [[Jacob Bronowski]] (1972). ''William Blake and the Age of Revolution''. Routledge & K. Paul. {{ISBN|0-7100-7277-5}} (hardback), {{ISBN|0-7100-7278-3}} (pbk.)
* {{long dash}} (1944). ''William Blake, 1757–1827. A man without a mask''. Secker and Warburg, London. Reprints: Penguin 1954; Haskell House 1967.
* Helen P. Bruder (1997). ''William Blake and the Daughters of Albion''. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, and New York: St. Martin's Press. {{ISBN|0-333-64036-5}}.
* [[G. K. Chesterton]], ''William Blake''. Duckworth, London, n.d. [1910]. Reprint: House of Stratus, Cornwall, 2008. {{ISBN|0-7551-0032-8}}.
* Steve Clark and David Worrall, eds (2006). ''Blake, Nation and Empire''. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, and New York: St. Martin's Press.
* Tristanne J. Connolly (2002). ''William Blake and the Body''. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
* {{cite SBDEL |wstitle= Arnold, Matthew |volume= | page= 13 |last= Cousin |first= John William |author-link= John William Cousin |year=1910|short=}}
* [[S. Foster Damon]] (1979). ''A Blake Dictionary''. Revised edition. University of New England. {{ISBN|0-87451-436-3}}.
* Michael Davis (1977) ''William Blake. A new kind of man''. University of California, Berkeley.
* [[Morris Eaves]] (1992). ''The Counter-Arts Conspiracy: Art and Industry in the Age of Blake''. Cornell University Press. {{ISBN|0-8014-2489-5}}.
* [[David V. Erdman]] (1977). ''[[Blake: Prophet Against Empire]]: A Poet's Interpretation of the History of His Own Times''. Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|0-486-26719-9}}.
* {{long dash}} (1988). ''The Complete Poetry & Prose of William Blake''. Anchor. {{ISBN|0-385-15213-2}}.
* R. N. Essick (1980). ''William Blake: Printmaker''. Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|0-691-03954-2}}.
* {{long dash}} (1989). ''William Blake and the Language of Adam''. Clarendon Press. {{ISBN|0-19-812985-8}}.
* R. N. Essick & D. Pearce, eds. (1978). ''Blake in his time''. Indiana University Press.
* Michael Ferber, ''The Social Vision of William Blake''. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1985.
* [[Irving Fiske]] (1951). ''Bernard Shaw's Debt to William Blake''. London: The [[George Bernard Shaw|Shaw]] Society [19-page pamphlet].
* [[Northrop Frye]] (1947). [[Fearful Symmetry (Frye)|''Fearful Symmetry'']]. Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|0-691-06165-3}}.
* {{long dash}} ed. (1966). ''Blake. A collection of critical essays''. Prentice-Hall.
* Christine Gallant, ''Blake and the assimilation of chaos'', Princeton University 1978. 
* [[Alexander Gilchrist]], ''Life and Works of William Blake'', (2d ed., London, 1880). Reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009. {{ISBN|978-1-108-01369-7}}.
* Jean H. Hagstrom, ''William Blake. Poet and Painter. An introduction to the illuminated verse'', University of Chicago, 1964.
* [[John Higgs]], ''William Blake vs the World'', Pegasus Books, 2021.
* {{cite journal| last= Hoeveler| first= Diane Long| year= 1979| title= Blake's Erotic Apocalypse: The Androgynous Ideal in "Jerusalem"| journal= Essays in Literature| volume= 6| issue= 1| pages= 29–41| publisher= Western Illinois University| format= PDF| access-date= 31 January 2013| url= http://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1076&context=english_fac| quote = To become [[androgynous]], to overcome the flaws inherent in each sex, emerges as the central challenge for all Blake's characters. }}
* [[Geoffrey Keynes]], editor 2nd ed. (1969) ''Blake Complete Writings''. Oxford University Press.
* [[James King (writer)|James King]] (1991). ''William Blake: His Life''. St. Martin's Press. {{ISBN|0-312-07572-3}}.
* [[Saree Makdisi]] (2003). ''William Blake and the Impossible History of the 1790s''. University of Chicago Press.
* [[Benjamin Heath Malkin]] (1806). ''A Father's Memoirs of his Child'' Longsmans, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, Paternoster Row, London. {See : : Arthur Symons, ''William Blake'' (1907, 1970) at 307–329.}
* [[Peter Marshall (author, born 1946)|Peter Marshall]] (1988). ''William Blake: Visionary Anarchist''. Freedom Press. {{ISBN|0-900384-77-8}}
* Emma Mason, "Elihu's Spiritual Sensation: William Blake's Illustrations to the Book of Job", in Michael Lieb, Emma Mason and Jonathan Roberts (eds), ''The Oxford Handbook of the Reception History of the Bible'' (Oxford, OUP, 2011), 460–475.
* [[W. J. T. Mitchell]] (1978). ''Blake's Composite Art: A Study of the Illuminated Poetry''. Yale University Press. {{ISBN|0-691-01402-7}}.
* [[Joseph Natoli]] (1982, 2016) ''Twentieth-Century Blake Criticism: Northrop Frye to the Present''. New York: Routledge.  {{ISBN|978-1-1389-3914-1}}.
* Victor N. Paananen (1996). ''William Blake''. New York: Twayne Publishers. {{ISBN|0-8057-7053-4}}.
* Laura Quinney (2010). ''William Blake on Self and Soul''. Harvard University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-674-03524-9}}.
* [[Kathleen Raine]] (1970). ''William Blake''. London: Thames and Hudson.
* George Anthony Rosso Jr. (1993). ''Blake's Prophetic Workshop: A Study of The Four Zoas''. Associated University Presses. {{ISBN|0-8387-5240-3}}.
* Gholam Reza Sabri-Tabrizi (1973). ''The 'Heaven' and 'Hell' of William Blake''. New York: International Publishers.
* [[Mark Schorer]] (1946). ''William Blake: The Politics of Vision''. New York: H. Holt and Co.
* [[Basil de Sélincourt]] (1909). ''[http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000412614 William Blake]''. London: Duckworth and co..
* [[June Singer]], ''The Unholy Bible: Blake, Jung, and the Collective Unconscious'' (New York: Putnam 1970). Reprinted as: ''Blake, Jung, and the Collective Unconscious'' (Nicolas-Hays 1986).
* Sheila A. Spector (2001). ''Wonders Divine: the Development of Blake's Kabbalistic Myth''. Bucknell Univ. Pr. {{ISBN|978-0838754689}}
* {{cite book |title=William Blake: His Life, Character |last= Story |first=Alfred Thomas |year=1893 |publisher=Swan Sonnenschein & Company|isbn= 9780841475373 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_jokAAAAMAAJ}}
* [[Algernon Charles Swinburne]], ''William Blake: A Critical Essay''. John Camden Hotten, Piccadilly, London, 2d. ed., 1868.
* [[Arthur Symons]], ''William Blake''. A. Constable, London 1907. Reprint: Cooper Square, New York 1970. {Includes documents of contemporaries about Wm. Blake, at 249–433.}
* [[E. P. Thompson]] (1993). ''[[Witness Against the Beast]]'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press {{ISBN|0-521-22515-9}}.
* Joseph Viscomi (1993). ''Blake and the Idea of the Book'' (Princeton University Press). {{ISBN|0-691-06962-X}}.
* David Weir (2003). ''Brahma in the West: William Blake and the Oriental Renaissance'' (SUNY Press).
* Mona Wilson (1927). ''The Life of William Blake'' (London: The Nonesuch Press)
* Roger Whitson and Jason Whittaker (2012). ''William Blake and the Digital Humanities: Collaboration, Participation, and Social Media'' (London: Routledge) {{ISBN|978-0415-6561-84}}
* Jason Whittaker (1999). ''William Blake and the Myths of Britain'' (London: Macmillan).
* [[W. B. Yeats]] (1903). ''Ideas of Good and Evil'' (London and Dublin: A. H. Bullen). {Two essays on Blake at 168–175, 176–225}.
* [http://www.graat.fr/krouboread3%5B1%5D.pdf A Comparative Study of Three Anti-Slavery Poems Written by William Blake, Hannah More and Marcus Garvey: Black Stereotyping] by [[Jérémie K. Dagnini|Jérémie Kroubo Dagnini]] for GRAAT On-Line, January 2010.
* [[William Michael Rossetti|W. M. Rossetti]], ed., ''Poetical Works of William Blake'', (London, 1874)
* A. G. B. Russell (1912). ''Engravings of William Blake''.
* Blake, William, ''William Blake's Works in Conventional Typography'', edited by G. E. Bentley, Jr., 1984. Facsimile ed., Scholars' : Facsimiles & Reprints, {{ISBN|978-0-8201-1388-3}}.
}}

== External links ==
{{Sister project links|author=yes|wikt=Blakean|v=no|n=no|b=no}}
* [http://www.blakesociety.org/ Blake Society]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140429194225/http://williamblakeprints.co.uk/making_the_plates.html Making facsimiles of Blake's prints] (archived 29 April 2014)
* [http://www.bl.uk/people/william-blake William Blake] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180731191108/http://www.bl.uk/people/william-blake |date=31 July 2018 }} at the British Library
* [https://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/william-blake-poems/ William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library]
* {{IMDb name|id=0086759|name=William Blake}}
* [https://poetry-index.net/WilliamBlake_/index.html Selected works at Poetry-Index]

===Profiles===
* [http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/116 Profile at the Academy of American Poets]
* [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/william-blake Profile] at the Poetry Foundation
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8451731.stm BBC etching gallery]

===Archives===
* [http://www.blakearchive.org/ The William Blake Archive] – A Comprehensive Academic Archive of Blake's works with scans from multiple collections
* {{Art UK bio}}
* Single Institution Holdings:
**[http://library.vicu.utoronto.ca/collections/special_collections/bentley_blake_collection/ The G. E. Bentley: William Blake Collection] Special Collections {{!}} Victoria University Library in the University of Toronto
**[http://digitalcollections.vicu.utoronto.ca/RS/pages/search.php?search=special:bentley%20blake%20collection The G. E. Bentley: William Blake Collection] Digital Collections {{!}} Victoria University Library in the University of Toronto
**[http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view?docId=ead/00185.xml&query=blake,%20william&query-join=and William Blake collection] at the [[Harry Ransom Center]] at the [[University of Texas at Austin]]
**[https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/rosenwald-blake.html ''William Blake Digital Material''] From the [https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/ Rare Book and Special Collections Division] at the [[Library of Congress]]
**[[hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.blake|William Blake Collection]]. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
'''Digital editions and research'''
* [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/295 Project Gutenberg – works by Blake downloadable]
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=William Blake}}
* {{Librivox author |id=590}}
* [http://www3.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/William_Blake Settings of William Blake's poetry] in the Choral Public Domain Library

{{Portalbar|Poetry|Biography}}
{{William Blake| state=collapsed}}
{{Romanticism| state=collapsed}}
{{mathematical art}}

{{Authority control}}

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