Nov 28 2008
William Blake, Mad Man or Visionary?
Today is the 251st birthday of visionary poet, painter and print maker William Blake. He was a forerunner of the Romantic literary movement and was great influenced by the French and American Revolutions.
William Blake was born in London, England. He was the 3rd of 7 children. For most of his childhood he never attended school and was taught by his mother at home. At age 10 he did attend drawing school and started working as an apprentice etcher in a print shop at 14.
In 1782, Blake married Catherine Boucher, they had no children. At the time of their marriage, Catherine could only sign their wedding license with an x. Blake taught her how to write and how to etch. There was said by all account to be a very happy marriage.
In 1783 his first book of poems, Poetical Sketches, was published. In 1784, Blake and his brother opened a print shop which quickly became a meeting place of leading dissidents. In 1789, Songs of Innocence was published. Five-years-later Songs of Experience was published. In later publications both books of poetry were combined into one book. Blake went on to write many more poems and to illustrate many more books.
Blake illustrated many great works of literature, at the time of his death in 1827 he was working on the illustrations for The Divine Comedy. He was working on it on the day he died.
Today, William Blake is considered one of the most important poets in English literature as well as one of the most talented English artists. He was not as celebrated in his own lifetime and was considered by many to be a mad man, he was most certainly ahead of his time.
This amazing video shows Blake reading one of his poems, London:
