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]

The Algerine Captive

The Algerine Captive: or the Life and Adventures of Doctor Updike Underhill: Six Years a Prisoner among the Algerines by Royall Tyler

A boy struggles with what to do with his life. He comes from an American family of some means, so he is sent off to college. He takes well to his studies, but runs into social problems. Even after learning medicine, he still runs into issues with the people and finds talking nonsense can be just as impressive as knowledge. He ends up being challenged in a duel, which he narrowly escapes by following appropriate protocol. (You are supposed to show you have character, but not actually kill somebody.) He encounters slaves in the south and later finds himself working a ship involved in the slave trade. As a doctor, he beseaches the crew to treat the Africans better, but it is to no avail. Later, he finds himself captured in Algiers and he becomes a slave. He details his treatment as well as the Islamic culture. He is able to practice medicine, however, people are reluctant to be treated by an infidel. They try to convert him to no avail.

This is one of the earliest American novels. It is also an early anti-slavery novel. It portrays the evils of African slavery. Then it flips things to show the evil that Americans experience when they are enslaved themselves. This makes it more relatable. The novel itself is easy to read and relatable to modern audiences, even though it is close to two and a half centuries old. The first part about academic training and usefulness (or lack thereof) is also a bright spot.