Showing posts with label 1789. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1789. Show all posts

Sunday, November 16, 2025

The Portable William Blake

The Portable William Blake by William Blake, edited by Alfred Kazin

This is a more complete collection than the audiobook I listened to before. However, it still has gaps. Some of the poems are just "selections" from a greater work.  I've added dates primarily for ones that have complete works and a single date. His works tend to be very "grand" in scope. He has an elaborate mythology created. He used pictures and words, so would probably be right at home as a comic book author today. He has a large scale universe with grand mythological porportions.


There is No Natural Religion (1788) - a logical deduction series that looks at man being limited by senses. God is infinite. Man is Finite.
All Religions are One (1788) - Another logical deduction. This one uses a "poetical genius" as the source of all religions.

Songs of Innocence - these were 
Songs of Experience
Additional Poems

Verses and fragments from the Rossetti and Pickering manuscripts

Selections from the Letters

The Prophetic Books
  • The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1793) - see previous entry
  • For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise
  • The Book of Thel (1789) - A sort of love poem. She is a deific woman who is all consuming. The boem ends with comparisons to many body parts.
  • Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793) - tied a bit of love with mythological grandeur. 
  • America - A Prophecy (1793) - Has a mixture of historical events and figured tied together with elaborate tales from Blake's mythology
  • Europe (1794) - does mention Music of the Spheres. Did Coldplay get ideas here? Other than a few references such as England and Thames, this is more of a mythological world than identifiable Europe
  • The First Book of Urizen (1794) - reminded me of Marvel works. This is a more typical epic poem of super beings 
  • The Book of Ahania (1795) - Urizen is mentioned a lot in this work that extends the universe
  • The Book of Los (1795) - another related Urizen work
  • The Song of Los (1795) - ties together Urizen with biblical and contemporary figures
  • Selections From ”The Four Zoas'' (1797) (or Vala) - This has nine "nights" each of which is a vvery long epic poem in its own right. It includes much of Blake's mythology 
  • Selections From “Milton'' 
  • Selections From “Jerusalem''
From The Laocoön Group
From A Descriptive Catalogue of Pictures, Poetrical and Historical inventions...

From Public Address [From the Rosetti MS.]
On Homer's Poetry and on Virgil (1820) - short prose from Blake discussing old poets
Marginalia, I
Epigrams and Verses Concerning Sir Joshua Reynolds
Marginalia, II
Epigrams, Verses, and Fragments

Fragments - Inscription in the autograph album of William Upcott
The Everlasting Gospel (1818) - a look at Christianity and musings on the details of events from the Bible
A Vision of the Book of Job
From A Vision of the Last Judgemet [From the Rosetti MS]


Monday, September 15, 2025

William Blake: Selected Poems

William Blake: Selected Poems by William Blake

This audiobook contains a lot of Blake's poetry, but suffers from lack of organization. There is no written table of contents or chapters in the audiobook. The Song of Innocence collection is roughly in order. Then it starts to get very random with the rest of the works. Blake's poems invoke imagery, and would probably be best read with the initial engravings. The audiobook format does not do them justice. Marriage of Heaven and Hell is an interesting longer work involving some conversations with biblical characters and situating them as people acting appropriately for their conditions. It has some interesting thoughts. "Why Was Cupid a Boy" is a fun little poem exploring gender roles and Cupid. I have a greater respect for Blake after listening to these, but now would like to read them as originally written

Song of Innocence (1789) - most of the poems are here

Song of Experience (1794) - the initial poems are present, then others are interspersed throughout.

I fear'd the fury of my wind (1793 from Blake's notebook)

Mental Traveler (written around 1803, published 1863)

Crystal Cabinet (written around 1801-1803 from pickering manuscript)

Grey Monk (written around 1803 in pickering manuscript)

Long John Brown and Little Mary Bell (pickering manuscript)

William Bond (1801-1803 pickering)

Why Was Cupid a Boy (1808-1811 in Blake's notebook)

And did those feet in ancient time (from Milton: a Poem 1804 or 1808)

Auguries of Innocence (written around 1803, published 1863)

A Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-1793) see above