William Blake Article

William Blake summary

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Explore the life of William Blake, poems, and illustrations

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see William Blake.

William Blake, (born Nov. 28, 1757, London, Eng.—died Aug. 12, 1827, London), English poet, painter, engraver, and visionary. He was trained as an engraver by James Basire and afterward attended classes at the Royal Academy. Blake married in 1782, and in 1784 he opened a print shop in London. He developed an innovative technique for producing coloured engravings and began producing his own illustrated books of poetry—including Songs of Innocence (1789), The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790?), and Songs of Experience (1794)—with his new method of “Illuminated Printing.” Jerusalem (1804[–20?]), an epic treating the fall and redemption of humanity, is his most richly decorated book. His other major works include Vala; or, The Four Zoas (manuscript 1796?–1807?) and Milton (1804[–11?]). A late series of 22 watercolours inspired by the Book of Job includes some of his best-known pictures. He was called mad because he was single-minded and unworldly; he lived on the edge of poverty and died in neglect. His books form one of the most strikingly original and independent bodies of work in the Western cultural tradition. Ignored by the public of his day, he is now regarded as one of the earliest and greatest figures of Romanticism.