The Cambridge Companion to William Blake

The Cambridge Companion to William Blake

Author: Morris Eaves

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2003-01-23

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 9780521786775

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Poet, painter, and engraver William Blake died in 1827 in obscure poverty with few admirers. The attention paid today to his remarkable poems, prints, and paintings would have astonished his contemporaries. Admired for his defiant, uncompromising creativity, he has become one of the most anthologized and studied writers in English and one of the most studied and collected British artists. His urge to cast words and images into masterpieces of revelation has left us with complex, forceful, extravagant, some times bizarre works of written and visual art that rank among the greatest challenges to plain understanding ever created. This Companion aims to provide guidance to Blake s work in fresh and readable introductions: biographical, literary, art historical, political, religious, and bibliographical. Together with a chronology, guides to further reading, and glossary of terms, they identify the key points of departure into Blake s multifarious world and work.


Book Synopsis The Cambridge Companion to William Blake by : Morris Eaves

Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to William Blake written by Morris Eaves and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-01-23 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poet, painter, and engraver William Blake died in 1827 in obscure poverty with few admirers. The attention paid today to his remarkable poems, prints, and paintings would have astonished his contemporaries. Admired for his defiant, uncompromising creativity, he has become one of the most anthologized and studied writers in English and one of the most studied and collected British artists. His urge to cast words and images into masterpieces of revelation has left us with complex, forceful, extravagant, some times bizarre works of written and visual art that rank among the greatest challenges to plain understanding ever created. This Companion aims to provide guidance to Blake s work in fresh and readable introductions: biographical, literary, art historical, political, religious, and bibliographical. Together with a chronology, guides to further reading, and glossary of terms, they identify the key points of departure into Blake s multifarious world and work.

William Blake's Religious Vision

William Blake's Religious Vision

Author: Jennifer Jesse

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2013-02-14

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 0739177915

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In this innovative study, Jesse challenges the prevailing view of Blake as an antinomian and describes him as a theological moderate who defended an evangelical faith akin to the Methodism of John Wesley. She arrives at this conclusion by contextualizing Blake’s works not only within Methodism, but in relation to other religious groups he addressed in his art, including the Established Church, deism, and radical religions. Further, she analyzes his works by sorting out the theological “road signs” he directed to each audience. This approach reveals Blake engaging each faction through its most prized beliefs, manipulating its own doctrines through visual and verbal guide-posts designed to communicate specifically with that group. She argues that, once we collate Blake’s messages to his intended audiences—sounding radical to the conservatives and conservative to the radicals—we find him advocating a system that would have been recognized by his contemporaries as Wesleyan in orientation. This thesis also relies on an accurate understanding of eighteenth-century Methodism: Jesse underscores the empirical rationalism pervading Wesley’s theology, highlighting differences between Methodism as practiced and as publicly caricatured. Undergirding this project is Jesse’s call for more rigorous attention to the dramatic character of Blake’s works. She notes that scholars still typically use phrases like “Blake says” or “Blake believes,” followed by some claim made by a Blakean character, without negotiating the complex narrative dynamics that might enable us to understand the rhetorical purposes of that statement, as heard by Blake’s respective audiences. Jesse maintains we must expect to find reflections in Blake’s works of all the theologies he engaged. The question is: what was he doing with them, and why? In order to divine what Blake meant to communicate, we must explore how those he targeted would have perceived his arguments. Jesse concludes that by analyzing the dramatic character of Blake’s works theologically through this wide-angled, audience-oriented approach, we see him orchestrating a grand rapprochement of the extreme theologies of his day into a unified vision that integrates faith and reason.


Book Synopsis William Blake's Religious Vision by : Jennifer Jesse

Download or read book William Blake's Religious Vision written by Jennifer Jesse and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2013-02-14 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this innovative study, Jesse challenges the prevailing view of Blake as an antinomian and describes him as a theological moderate who defended an evangelical faith akin to the Methodism of John Wesley. She arrives at this conclusion by contextualizing Blake’s works not only within Methodism, but in relation to other religious groups he addressed in his art, including the Established Church, deism, and radical religions. Further, she analyzes his works by sorting out the theological “road signs” he directed to each audience. This approach reveals Blake engaging each faction through its most prized beliefs, manipulating its own doctrines through visual and verbal guide-posts designed to communicate specifically with that group. She argues that, once we collate Blake’s messages to his intended audiences—sounding radical to the conservatives and conservative to the radicals—we find him advocating a system that would have been recognized by his contemporaries as Wesleyan in orientation. This thesis also relies on an accurate understanding of eighteenth-century Methodism: Jesse underscores the empirical rationalism pervading Wesley’s theology, highlighting differences between Methodism as practiced and as publicly caricatured. Undergirding this project is Jesse’s call for more rigorous attention to the dramatic character of Blake’s works. She notes that scholars still typically use phrases like “Blake says” or “Blake believes,” followed by some claim made by a Blakean character, without negotiating the complex narrative dynamics that might enable us to understand the rhetorical purposes of that statement, as heard by Blake’s respective audiences. Jesse maintains we must expect to find reflections in Blake’s works of all the theologies he engaged. The question is: what was he doing with them, and why? In order to divine what Blake meant to communicate, we must explore how those he targeted would have perceived his arguments. Jesse concludes that by analyzing the dramatic character of Blake’s works theologically through this wide-angled, audience-oriented approach, we see him orchestrating a grand rapprochement of the extreme theologies of his day into a unified vision that integrates faith and reason.

William Blake and Religion

William Blake and Religion

Author: Magnus Ankarsjö

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-11-21

Total Pages: 173

ISBN-13: 0786455489

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Over the last ten years the field of Blake studies has profited from new discoveries about Blake's life and work. This book examines the effect that Blake's mother's recently discovered Moravianism has had on our understanding of his poetry, and gives special attention to Moravianism and Swedenborgianism and their relation to his sexual politics. This is accomplished by a close reading of Blake's poetry, which examines in detail the subjects of religion, sex, and the attempted colonization of Africa by a Swedenborgian utopian group.


Book Synopsis William Blake and Religion by : Magnus Ankarsjö

Download or read book William Blake and Religion written by Magnus Ankarsjö and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-11-21 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last ten years the field of Blake studies has profited from new discoveries about Blake's life and work. This book examines the effect that Blake's mother's recently discovered Moravianism has had on our understanding of his poetry, and gives special attention to Moravianism and Swedenborgianism and their relation to his sexual politics. This is accomplished by a close reading of Blake's poetry, which examines in detail the subjects of religion, sex, and the attempted colonization of Africa by a Swedenborgian utopian group.

All Religions Are One & There Is No Natural Religion (Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake)

All Religions Are One & There Is No Natural Religion (Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake)

Author: William Blake

Publisher: Good Press

Published: 2023-12-20

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13:

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This carefully crafted ebook: "All Religions Are One & There Is No Natural Religion (Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional table of contents. All Religions are One is the title of a series of philosophical aphorisms by William Blake, written in 1788. Following on from his initial experiments with relief etching in the non-textual The Approach of Doom (1787), All Religions are One and There is No Natural Religion represent Blake's first successful attempt to combine image and text via relief etching, and are thus the earliest of his illuminated manuscripts. As such, they serve as a significant milestone in Blake's career. William Blake (1757 – 1827) was a British poet, painter, visionary mystic, and engraver, who illustrated and printed his own books. Blake proclaimed the supremacy of the imagination over the rationalism and materialism of the 18th-century. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.


Book Synopsis All Religions Are One & There Is No Natural Religion (Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake) by : William Blake

Download or read book All Religions Are One & There Is No Natural Religion (Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake) written by William Blake and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2023-12-20 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This carefully crafted ebook: "All Religions Are One & There Is No Natural Religion (Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional table of contents. All Religions are One is the title of a series of philosophical aphorisms by William Blake, written in 1788. Following on from his initial experiments with relief etching in the non-textual The Approach of Doom (1787), All Religions are One and There is No Natural Religion represent Blake's first successful attempt to combine image and text via relief etching, and are thus the earliest of his illuminated manuscripts. As such, they serve as a significant milestone in Blake's career. William Blake (1757 – 1827) was a British poet, painter, visionary mystic, and engraver, who illustrated and printed his own books. Blake proclaimed the supremacy of the imagination over the rationalism and materialism of the 18th-century. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.

William Blake's Idiosyncratic Beliefs and His Poetry

William Blake's Idiosyncratic Beliefs and His Poetry

Author: Selina Kunz

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2009-09

Total Pages: 29

ISBN-13: 3640412311

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Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Trier (Fachbereich II, Anglistik), course: Literature and Religion: From the Renaissance to Romanticism, language: English, abstract: The English poet and painter William Blake appears to be mysterious, mainly because his works are not easy to comprehend. His poems and books are full of religious and philosophical questions and metaphors, some of his works are even accompanied by paintings which make his legacy even more complex. Blake lived in revolutionary times. The era can be characterised as a time of big upheavals and major changes in society. Reasons for this are the French and the American Revolution which had an influence on writers of the early Romantic period. Furthermore the first signs of industrialisation in the late 18th century showed the need for political reforms. A connection between the events in France and the apocalyptic prophecies in the bible was drawn - a belief in a universal peace, similar to the promise of paradise following this apocalypse in the bible. When this hope was not satisfied, thinkers did not abandon it, but started a quiet, moralistic revolution. In Blake's work, both the social criticism and the religious aspect can clearly be found. This paper wants to find out about William Blake's (religious) beliefs which are often seen as idiosyncratic. It tries to explain the most significant influences on Blake and his writing by illustrating his relationship with the Church of his time, the ideas of the Deist movement and the influence of the mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. Afterwards it will describe the influences of religion on the well-known volumes of poetry "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience" by commenting on exemplary poems of both volumes.


Book Synopsis William Blake's Idiosyncratic Beliefs and His Poetry by : Selina Kunz

Download or read book William Blake's Idiosyncratic Beliefs and His Poetry written by Selina Kunz and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2009-09 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Trier (Fachbereich II, Anglistik), course: Literature and Religion: From the Renaissance to Romanticism, language: English, abstract: The English poet and painter William Blake appears to be mysterious, mainly because his works are not easy to comprehend. His poems and books are full of religious and philosophical questions and metaphors, some of his works are even accompanied by paintings which make his legacy even more complex. Blake lived in revolutionary times. The era can be characterised as a time of big upheavals and major changes in society. Reasons for this are the French and the American Revolution which had an influence on writers of the early Romantic period. Furthermore the first signs of industrialisation in the late 18th century showed the need for political reforms. A connection between the events in France and the apocalyptic prophecies in the bible was drawn - a belief in a universal peace, similar to the promise of paradise following this apocalypse in the bible. When this hope was not satisfied, thinkers did not abandon it, but started a quiet, moralistic revolution. In Blake's work, both the social criticism and the religious aspect can clearly be found. This paper wants to find out about William Blake's (religious) beliefs which are often seen as idiosyncratic. It tries to explain the most significant influences on Blake and his writing by illustrating his relationship with the Church of his time, the ideas of the Deist movement and the influence of the mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. Afterwards it will describe the influences of religion on the well-known volumes of poetry "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience" by commenting on exemplary poems of both volumes.

All Religions Are One & There Is No Natural Religion

All Religions Are One & There Is No Natural Religion

Author: William Blake

Publisher: DigiCat

Published: 2022-05-25

Total Pages: 45

ISBN-13:

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All Religions are One is the title of a series of philosophical aphorisms by William Blake, written in 1788. Following on from his initial experiments with relief etching in the non-textual The Approach of Doom (1787), All Religions are One and There is No Natural Religion represent Blake's first successful attempt to combine image and text via relief etching, and are thus the earliest of his illuminated manuscripts. As such, they serve as a significant milestone in Blake's career. William Blake (1757 – 1827) was a British poet, painter, visionary mystic, and engraver, who illustrated and printed his own books. Blake proclaimed the supremacy of the imagination over the rationalism and materialism of the 18th-century. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.


Book Synopsis All Religions Are One & There Is No Natural Religion by : William Blake

Download or read book All Religions Are One & There Is No Natural Religion written by William Blake and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-05-25 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All Religions are One is the title of a series of philosophical aphorisms by William Blake, written in 1788. Following on from his initial experiments with relief etching in the non-textual The Approach of Doom (1787), All Religions are One and There is No Natural Religion represent Blake's first successful attempt to combine image and text via relief etching, and are thus the earliest of his illuminated manuscripts. As such, they serve as a significant milestone in Blake's career. William Blake (1757 – 1827) was a British poet, painter, visionary mystic, and engraver, who illustrated and printed his own books. Blake proclaimed the supremacy of the imagination over the rationalism and materialism of the 18th-century. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.

William Blake's Religious Vision

William Blake's Religious Vision

Author: Jennifer G. Jesse

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 0739177907

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In this innovative study, Jesse challenges the prevailing view of Blake as an antinomian and describes him as a theological moderate who defended an evangelical faith akin to the Methodism of John Wesley. She arrives at this conclusion by contextualizing Blake's works not only within Methodism, but in relation to other religious groups he addressed in his art, including the Established Church, deism, and radical religions. Further, she analyzes his works by sorting out the theological "road signs" he directed to each audience. This approach reveals Blake engaging each faction through its most prized beliefs, manipulating its own doctrines through visual and verbal guide-posts designed to communicate specifically with that group. She argues that, once we collate Blake's messages to his intended audiences--sounding radical to the conservatives and conservative to the radicals--we find him advocating a system that would have been recognized by his contemporaries as Wesleyan in orientation. This thesis also relies on an accurate understanding of eighteenth-century Methodism: Jesse underscores the empirical rationalism pervading Wesley's theology, highlighting differences between Methodism as practiced and as publicly caricatured. Undergirding this project is Jesse's call for more rigorous attention to the dramatic character of Blake's works. She notes that scholars still typically use phrases like "Blake says" or "Blake believes," followed by some claim made by a Blakean character, without negotiating the complex narrative dynamics that might enable us to understand the rhetorical purposes of that statement, as heard by Blake's respective audiences. Jesse maintains we must expect to find reflections in Blake's works of all the theologies he engaged. The question is: what was he doing with them, and why? In order to divine what Blake meant to communicate, we must explore how those he targeted would have perceived his arguments. Jesse concludes that by analyzing the dramatic character of Blake's works theologically through this wide-angled, audience-oriented approach, we see him orchestrating a grand rapprochement of the extreme theologies of his day into a unified vision that integrates faith and reason.


Book Synopsis William Blake's Religious Vision by : Jennifer G. Jesse

Download or read book William Blake's Religious Vision written by Jennifer G. Jesse and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2013 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this innovative study, Jesse challenges the prevailing view of Blake as an antinomian and describes him as a theological moderate who defended an evangelical faith akin to the Methodism of John Wesley. She arrives at this conclusion by contextualizing Blake's works not only within Methodism, but in relation to other religious groups he addressed in his art, including the Established Church, deism, and radical religions. Further, she analyzes his works by sorting out the theological "road signs" he directed to each audience. This approach reveals Blake engaging each faction through its most prized beliefs, manipulating its own doctrines through visual and verbal guide-posts designed to communicate specifically with that group. She argues that, once we collate Blake's messages to his intended audiences--sounding radical to the conservatives and conservative to the radicals--we find him advocating a system that would have been recognized by his contemporaries as Wesleyan in orientation. This thesis also relies on an accurate understanding of eighteenth-century Methodism: Jesse underscores the empirical rationalism pervading Wesley's theology, highlighting differences between Methodism as practiced and as publicly caricatured. Undergirding this project is Jesse's call for more rigorous attention to the dramatic character of Blake's works. She notes that scholars still typically use phrases like "Blake says" or "Blake believes," followed by some claim made by a Blakean character, without negotiating the complex narrative dynamics that might enable us to understand the rhetorical purposes of that statement, as heard by Blake's respective audiences. Jesse maintains we must expect to find reflections in Blake's works of all the theologies he engaged. The question is: what was he doing with them, and why? In order to divine what Blake meant to communicate, we must explore how those he targeted would have perceived his arguments. Jesse concludes that by analyzing the dramatic character of Blake's works theologically through this wide-angled, audience-oriented approach, we see him orchestrating a grand rapprochement of the extreme theologies of his day into a unified vision that integrates faith and reason.

William Blake’s idiosyncratic beliefs and his poetry

William Blake’s idiosyncratic beliefs and his poetry

Author: Selina Kunz

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2009-08-31

Total Pages: 13

ISBN-13: 3640416104

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Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Trier (Fachbereich II, Anglistik), course: Literature and Religion: From the Renaissance to Romanticism, language: English, abstract: The English poet and painter William Blake appears to be mysterious, mainly because his works are not easy to comprehend. His poems and books are full of religious and philosophical questions and metaphors, some of his works are even accompanied by paintings which make his legacy even more complex. Blake lived in revolutionary times. The era can be characterised as a time of big upheavals and major changes in society. Reasons for this are the French and the American Revolution which had an influence on writers of the early Romantic period. Furthermore the first signs of industrialisation in the late 18th century showed the need for political reforms. A connection between the events in France and the apocalyptic prophecies in the bible was drawn - a belief in a universal peace, similar to the promise of paradise following this apocalypse in the bible. When this hope was not satisfied, thinkers did not abandon it, but started a quiet, moralistic revolution. In Blake’s work, both the social criticism and the religious aspect can clearly be found. This paper wants to find out about William Blake’s (religious) beliefs which are often seen as idiosyncratic. It tries to explain the most significant influences on Blake and his writing by illustrating his relationship with the Church of his time, the ideas of the Deist movement and the influence of the mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. Afterwards it will describe the influences of religion on the well-known volumes of poetry “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience” by commenting on exemplary poems of both volumes.


Book Synopsis William Blake’s idiosyncratic beliefs and his poetry by : Selina Kunz

Download or read book William Blake’s idiosyncratic beliefs and his poetry written by Selina Kunz and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2009-08-31 with total page 13 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Trier (Fachbereich II, Anglistik), course: Literature and Religion: From the Renaissance to Romanticism, language: English, abstract: The English poet and painter William Blake appears to be mysterious, mainly because his works are not easy to comprehend. His poems and books are full of religious and philosophical questions and metaphors, some of his works are even accompanied by paintings which make his legacy even more complex. Blake lived in revolutionary times. The era can be characterised as a time of big upheavals and major changes in society. Reasons for this are the French and the American Revolution which had an influence on writers of the early Romantic period. Furthermore the first signs of industrialisation in the late 18th century showed the need for political reforms. A connection between the events in France and the apocalyptic prophecies in the bible was drawn - a belief in a universal peace, similar to the promise of paradise following this apocalypse in the bible. When this hope was not satisfied, thinkers did not abandon it, but started a quiet, moralistic revolution. In Blake’s work, both the social criticism and the religious aspect can clearly be found. This paper wants to find out about William Blake’s (religious) beliefs which are often seen as idiosyncratic. It tries to explain the most significant influences on Blake and his writing by illustrating his relationship with the Church of his time, the ideas of the Deist movement and the influence of the mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. Afterwards it will describe the influences of religion on the well-known volumes of poetry “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience” by commenting on exemplary poems of both volumes.

The Book of Urizen (Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake)

The Book of Urizen (Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake)

Author: William Blake

Publisher: Good Press

Published: 2023-12-20

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13:

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This carefully crafted ebook: "The Book of Urizen (Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. The Book of Urizen is one of the major prophetic books of the English poet William Blake, illustrated by Blake's own plates. It was originally published as The First Book of Urizen in 1794. Later editions dropped the word "first". The book takes its name from the character Urizen in Blake's mythology, who represents alienated reason as the source of oppression. The book describes Urizen as the "primeaval priest", and describes how he became separated from the other Eternals to create his own alienated and enslaving realm of religious dogma. Los and Enitharmon create a space within Urizen's fallen universe to give birth to their son Orc, the spirit of revolution and freedom. In form, the book is a parody of the Book of Genesis, with Blake's Urizen being more similar to the demiurge of the Gnostics than a benevolent creator. The poems of William Blake reinterpret the spiritual history of the human race from the fall from Eden to the beginning of the French Revolution. Blake believed in the correspondence between the physical world and the spiritual world and used poetic metaphor to express these beliefs. In his poetry, we hear a man who look's for mankind to salvage his redemption from oppression through resurgence of imaginative life. The power of repression is a constant theme in Blake's poems and he articulates his belief in the titanic forces of revolt and the struggle for freedom against the guardians of tradition. "William Blake (1757 – 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.


Book Synopsis The Book of Urizen (Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake) by : William Blake

Download or read book The Book of Urizen (Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake) written by William Blake and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2023-12-20 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This carefully crafted ebook: "The Book of Urizen (Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. The Book of Urizen is one of the major prophetic books of the English poet William Blake, illustrated by Blake's own plates. It was originally published as The First Book of Urizen in 1794. Later editions dropped the word "first". The book takes its name from the character Urizen in Blake's mythology, who represents alienated reason as the source of oppression. The book describes Urizen as the "primeaval priest", and describes how he became separated from the other Eternals to create his own alienated and enslaving realm of religious dogma. Los and Enitharmon create a space within Urizen's fallen universe to give birth to their son Orc, the spirit of revolution and freedom. In form, the book is a parody of the Book of Genesis, with Blake's Urizen being more similar to the demiurge of the Gnostics than a benevolent creator. The poems of William Blake reinterpret the spiritual history of the human race from the fall from Eden to the beginning of the French Revolution. Blake believed in the correspondence between the physical world and the spiritual world and used poetic metaphor to express these beliefs. In his poetry, we hear a man who look's for mankind to salvage his redemption from oppression through resurgence of imaginative life. The power of repression is a constant theme in Blake's poems and he articulates his belief in the titanic forces of revolt and the struggle for freedom against the guardians of tradition. "William Blake (1757 – 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.

William Blake - a Literary Figure to Approach Religion

William Blake - a Literary Figure to Approach Religion

Author: Steffen Laaß

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2008-08

Total Pages: 42

ISBN-13: 3640146751

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Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, 13 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: "We have war, injustice, and unhappiness because our way of life is founded on mistaken beliefs." This quotation by William Blake set me thinking and distracted me from my actual project: I wanted to write an essay on a poem. But during my work I, fortunately, ended up in a chaos of philosophical questions: Who are we? Where do we come from? Is our universe only a dust particle of something larger? Is there a force guiding us? Who or what is God? From time immemorial, people have been racking their brains over these ageless and puzzling questions, and I doubt whether we are able to provide convincing responses to them. Someone who might give us a wise answer is William Blake (1757-1827). He is considered to be the first major Romantic poet, and a central theme of his works is religion (e.g. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, The Book of Urizen). Admittedly, there is no easy access to Blake because he is one of the most obscure and inscrutable poets. Nevertheless, I would like to make the daring attempt to uncover the secrets of Blake's religious mysticism. For this reason, I will discuss one of his first works There Is No Natural Religion (1788). My design is to make this essay accessible to a wide readership, especially to those who have so far avoided profoundly dealing with a particular topic: religion. I also had no serious interest in religion at all - until I started to learn Arabic. Once you have mastered "Allah's difficult but most ornate language", you have got a completely different outlook on the world. Beside this, I felt an urgent personal need to deal with the concept of faith in greater detail. This has in part something to do with the changing idea and role of religion in the 21st century. Unfortunately, a number of armed conflicts have be


Book Synopsis William Blake - a Literary Figure to Approach Religion by : Steffen Laaß

Download or read book William Blake - a Literary Figure to Approach Religion written by Steffen Laaß and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2008-08 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, 13 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: "We have war, injustice, and unhappiness because our way of life is founded on mistaken beliefs." This quotation by William Blake set me thinking and distracted me from my actual project: I wanted to write an essay on a poem. But during my work I, fortunately, ended up in a chaos of philosophical questions: Who are we? Where do we come from? Is our universe only a dust particle of something larger? Is there a force guiding us? Who or what is God? From time immemorial, people have been racking their brains over these ageless and puzzling questions, and I doubt whether we are able to provide convincing responses to them. Someone who might give us a wise answer is William Blake (1757-1827). He is considered to be the first major Romantic poet, and a central theme of his works is religion (e.g. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, The Book of Urizen). Admittedly, there is no easy access to Blake because he is one of the most obscure and inscrutable poets. Nevertheless, I would like to make the daring attempt to uncover the secrets of Blake's religious mysticism. For this reason, I will discuss one of his first works There Is No Natural Religion (1788). My design is to make this essay accessible to a wide readership, especially to those who have so far avoided profoundly dealing with a particular topic: religion. I also had no serious interest in religion at all - until I started to learn Arabic. Once you have mastered "Allah's difficult but most ornate language", you have got a completely different outlook on the world. Beside this, I felt an urgent personal need to deal with the concept of faith in greater detail. This has in part something to do with the changing idea and role of religion in the 21st century. Unfortunately, a number of armed conflicts have be