The Complexity of William Blake's Poetry

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The Complexity of William Blake's Poetry

Northrop Frye, in his critical essay, "Poetry and Design," states; "In a world as specialized as ours, concentration on one gift and a rigorous subordination of all others is practically a moral principle" (Frye 137). William Blake's refusal to follow this moral principle by putting his poetry before his art, or vice versa, makes his work extraordinary as well as complex and ambiguous. Although critics attempt to juggle Blake's equally impressive talents, they seem to land on either one side or the other; failing to transcend, as Blake did, that moral principle of concentration. Blake, not only controlled his art and poetry through innovative printing techniques, but controlled how his readers interacted with it. By activating the reader's imagination through images, Blake's poetry is no longer words on a page, but it is alive; his visions and ideas made real through the integration of design and text.

Blake did not merely combine "art and poetry," but on another level, came up with an innovative way to present this combination which allowed him to be independent of publishers. In Blake's time, divisions existed between author, illustrator, engraver, printer and publisher. "Exigencies of the production took precedence over originality, and imitation ruled over imagination" (Easson 35).

Blake's revolutionary method's of illuminated printing are startlingly similar the technological changes that are currently taking place in design and written communication fields. Today, writers and artists have freedom and control over their work. With technological advancements in computer software, all aspects of publishing and production can be eliminated. The illuminated book was a way for Bl...

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...ng all lesser images of man and accepting only those ultimate limits necessary to maintain its identity as an image" (see A Memorable Fancy ) (Mellor41).

Texual illustrations establish a tension between text and design in which the reader isolates a design to ascertain its meaning or its textual referent. Paradoxically, when the reader does this he or she is impelled to return to the text for meaning. Each has a share in the totality of a book's meaning; neither text or design can alone impart as much meaning as text and design together" (Easson 43).

Works Cited

Easson, Kay. "The Art of the Book." Blake in His Time. Essick and Pearce ed. 1978. (35-51).

Frye, Northrop. "Poetry and Design in William Blake." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 10 (Sept., 1951) 35-42.

Mellor, Anne. Blake's Human form divine. U of California P Berkeley; 1974.

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