William Blake (1757–1827) is one of the greatest visionary poets in the English language as well as one of England’s greatest visual artists. In 1782 he married Catherine Sophia Boucher, whom he taught to read and write and to whom he remained devoted throughout his life. Upon the occasion of an exhibition of his illuminated manuscripts in 1809, he was dismissed by one critic as “an unfortunate lunatic whose personal inoffensiveness secures him from confinement.” A profoundly religious visionary who claimed often to converse with God, he railed against the sins of the church, all forms of bigotry and oppression, and, as this poem suggests, the far too frequent absence of human compassion. Blake died in poverty in 1827 and was buried in an unmarked grave. Not till long after his death was his eccentric genius recognized. This excerpt is from The Four Zoas, composed in 1795. It remained unpublished until 1893.
William Blake (1757–1827) is one of the greatest visionary poets in the English language as well as one of England’s greatest visual artists. In 1782 he married Catherine Sophia Boucher, whom he taught to read and write and to whom he remained devoted throughout his life. Upon the occasion of an exhibition of his illuminated manuscripts in 1809, he was dismissed by one critic as “an unfortunate lunatic whose personal inoffensiveness secures him from confinement.” A profoundly religious visionary who claimed often to converse with God, he railed against the sins of the church, all forms of bigotry and oppression, and, as this poem suggests, the far too frequent absence of human compassion. Blake died in poverty in 1827 and was buried in an unmarked grave. Not till long after his death was his eccentric genius recognized. This excerpt is from The Four Zoas, composed in 1795. It remained unpublished until 1893.