William Blake: Poet and Artist

William Blake, A great English romantic poet who also had talent as a painter, was known to link both his poetry and art together to make one fantastic piece of work. If you are interested in seeing William Blake's poems and art as one, check out this promising site: www.gailgastfield.com/Blake.html.

 Here you can view the complete sets of illustrations and colored plates from "The Book of Innocence", "Book of Experience", and "The Book of Job". "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" is still under construction, but still offers a large selection to look at. The site also allows you to see other works and paintings Blake has created and presents other web pages to where you can view other information concerning William Blake. I found this site quite useful in building my knowledge and understanding about this poet. The site is very thorough, and even has a brief background of Blake on the homepage that you can read before inquiring the art. This was a plus for me. I had previously read the poetry from "The Book of Innocence" and "Book of Experience" and thus learning a little bit more about what kind of person Blake was, helped me understand more about why Blake wrote about what he did and why he did it. Perhaps the reason why the majority of his poems depicted religious symbols and imagery was because he saw his works as expressions of prophecy, which is something I learned from the bio on the page.

 It was also insightful to see a picture drawn up by the poet himself to depict his writings. This also gave me a better understanding of what Blake was trying to convey in his poetry. A picture can bring more emotional connection to a poem such as the piece that accompanied the poem "The Chimney Sweeper". Seeing a sad boy with a sack almost as big as him over his shoulder walking in the snow, where it's clear he has no shoes on, clearly shows the distress William Blake had for these children. Both "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience" have poems titled “The Chimney Sweeper”.  It was nice see a transition not only in the words of the poems but also in the art. While the art for the chimney sweeper poem is dark and gloomy in the "Songs of Experience", a brighter colored and lighter feeling image is pictured with same titled poem in "Songs of Innocence". This helps me see that this version relates to some kind of positive message among the idea. Out of all of the illustrations my favorite was the one that went with the poem "The Sick Rose". It is beautiful, delicate, and doesn't give much at all away from the mystery of the poem.

Overall I found the site helpful and informative, but if you’re looking for literary criticisms or analysis of Blake poetry, you won't find it here, but this site still may be useful to you. The page kindly sites authors, links, and webpages to which you can go to if you seek such information. If you are studying Blake, love his poetry, art, or are curious in all of the above I do advise visiting this site, because you will most definitely learn something.