J'Varis Steele

One of the greatest poets in the English language, ranking among the top individuals during the Romantic era, is William Blake. Blake was born in London on Nov. 28, 1757 into a working-class family. His father was James Blake, a hosier, and his mother Catherine Wright Armitage Blake. William Blake was one of six children. At an early age, Blake experienced visions. These visions continued through most of his childhood.

Considering the attention that could be drawn from his strange behavior, William’s father decided not to put him in school. He learned to read and write at home. He also showed a talent of drawing that his parents noticed. At age ten, he was enrolled at Henry Pars’ drawing school. At age fourteen, he was apprenticed to an engraver. Blake’s master was the engraver to the London Society of Antiquaries. Every print that he could afford, William bought it. He drew many sketches of monuments throughout the London area. At age twenty-one, Blake completed his seven-year apprenticeship and became a journeyman copy engraver. He worked on projects for book and print publishers. To prepare himself to become a painter, he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Art’s Schools of Design. His artistic energies then began to branch out at this point. He then privately published “Poetical Stretches”, a collection of poems that he had written for the past fourteen years.

William Blake became a married man in August 1782. He married Catherine Sophia Boucher, who was illiterate. Blake talk her how to read, write, color, and draw. He helped her to experience visions just as he did. Catherine explicitly believed in her husband’s visions and his genius. In 1800, Blake accepted an invitation from William Hayley to move to the litt...

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...in to this one. Comparing the creator to a blacksmith, he wonders about the anvil and furnace that the task would have required and the smith who could have created them. When the job was done, the speaker wondered how the creator would feel.

William Blake was unappreciated in life. He has yet to become a giant in literary circles and his visionary approach to art and writing has developed speculation about him. He inspired various artists and writers that the universe is an endless ocean of possibilities.

References

• http://www.william-blake.org/biography.html

• http://www.online-literature.com/blake/

• Swinburne, Algernon. William Blake: A Critical Essay.

John Camden Hotten, 1868.

• Stevens, Bethan. William Blake

British Museum Press, 2005.

• Garnett, Richard. William Blake: Painter and Poet

Seeley and Company, 1895.