William Blake

William Blake was mostly unknown during his lifetime but became well-known after his passing. He is today regarded as one of the greatest British artists and a hugely significant character in poetry history. Early in the twentieth century, his works began to receive widespread notice. Blake spent the majority of his life in South England's poverty. Blake had an unusual personality and thought of himself as a Christian prophet and visionary, like most Romantic poets. In order to communicate his religious message, he painted and wrote poems. a message that, despite his works being unique and unusual, his readers frequently found perplexing and puzzling.

Songs of Innocence and of Experience, considered one of the greatest lyrical works of the Romantic era, is Blake's most well-known piece of poetry. The collection frequently includes poems with similar subjects, and occasionally even the same title, to contrast the corrupt and oppressive adult world with the pristine world of infancy in Songs of Innocence.

Blake asserted that he had seen visions all of his life. He revered the Bible but despised the Church of England and all forms of organized religion. In addition to strongly criticizing industrial civilization and the enslavement of the individual, his poetry and art frequently conjured up fantastical realms populated by gods and other supernatural beings.

Because of his emphasis on individual vision and the capacity of the imagination, Blake is regarded as a fundamental figure in Romanticism. He is admired for his expressiveness, originality, and mystical and philosophical undercurrents in his work. William Blake was ranked number 38 in the BBC's list of the 100 Greatest Britons in 2002.

An extract from 'London'
I wander through each chartered street,

Near where the chartered Thames does flow,

And mark in every face I meet

Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man,

In every Infant's cry of fear,

In every voice, in ever ban,

The mind forged manacles I hear.

Famous Poems:

• The Tyger (1794)
• London (1794)
• And did those feet in ancient time (1808)

Lifespan: November 28, 1757 – August 12, 1827
Nationality: English