William Blake

Fun Facts!

• He said his first vision was of a "tree of angels" when he was age ten.
• Two of his six siblings died in infancy.
• Although his Songs of Innocence may seem straightforward, many believe there may be a parody or critique hidden within.
• His last words were "Stay Kate! Stay just as you are - I will draw your portrait - for you have ever been an angel to me." He then died while singing.

Fun Facts! (cont.)

• He suffered from a recurring, diagnosed disease near the end of his life that he called "the sickness to which there is no name."
• He sketched historical people and claimed that they would appear before him and sit in front of him.
• For most of his life, his works were either unknown or received negatively. It wasn't until after his death that he was appreciated.

EVen More Fun Facts

• He was accused of "uttering seditious statements" which was very serious at the time. He was tried and found not guilty.
• He believed strongly in individualistic thinking, saying that he "must create a system or be enslaved by another man's."

Holy Thursday (Songs of Experience)
Is this a holy thing to see,
In a rich and fruitful land,
Babes reducd to misery,
Fed with cold and usurous hand?
Is that trembling cry a song?
Can it be a song of joy?
And so many children poor?
It is a land of poverty!
And their sun does never shine.
And their fields are bleak & bare.
And their ways are fill'd with thorns.
It is eternal winter there.
For where-e'er the sun does shine,
And where-e'er the rain does fall:
Babe can never hunger there,
Nor poverty the mind appall.

What is Blake's tone in the first stanza (lines 1-4)?
1. playful
2. bitter
3. mocking
4. apathetic

Discussion topics

• How does Blake use the imagery of barren fields, no sun, and "eternal winter" to show his ideas on poverty?
• How do Blake's views show Romantic ideas of individual liberties?

more discussion

• How does this poem relate to the church? (give examples)
• What is the main message of the poem?