English poet & painter (1757-1827)
I told my love, I told my love,
I told her all my heart;
Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears--
Ah, she doth depart.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"Never Seek to Tell", Poems from Blake's Notebook
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell
Never seek to tell thy love
Love that never told can be;
For the gentle wind does move
Silently, invisibly.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Poems from Blake's Notebook
Angels are happier than men and devils, because they are not always prying after good and evil in one another, and eating the tree of knowledge for Satan's gratification.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"A Vision of the Last Judgement"
O thou who passest through our valleys in
Thy strength, curb thy fierce steeds, allay the heat
That flames from their large nostrils! Thou, O Summer,
Oft pitchest here thy golden tent, and oft
Beneath our oaks hast slept, while we beheld
With joy thy ruddy limbs and flourishing hair.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"To Summer"
He who doubts from what he sees
Will ne'er believe, do what you please.
If the sun and moon should doubt
They'd immediately go out.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Auguries of Innocence
The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell
The sword sung on the barren heath,
The sickle in the fruitful field;
The sword he sung a song of death,
But could not make the sickle yield.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"Love to Faults", Poems from Blake's Notebook
A crash ran through the universe; the bounds of Destiny were broken.
The bounds of Destiny crashed direful, and the swelling sea
Burst from its bonds in whirlpools fierce, and roaring with human voice.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Vala
How sweet is the Shepherd's sweet lot!
From the morn to the evening he stays;
He shall follow his sheep all the day,
And his tongue shall be filled with praise.
For he hears the lambs' innocent call,
And he hears the ewes' tender reply;
He is watching while they are in peace,
For they know when their Shepherd is nigh.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"The Shepherd", Songs of Innocence
No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell
It is an easy thing to triumph in the summer's sun,
And in the harvest to sing on the wagon loaded with corn.
It is an easy thing to talk of patience to the afflicted,
To speak the laws of prudence to the houseless wanderer,
To listen to the hungry raven's cry in the winter season,
When the red blood is filled with wine and with the marrow of lambs.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Vala
Terror in the house does roar,
But Pity stands before the door.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"Terror in the House"
The moon like a flower
In heaven's high bower,
With silent delight,
Sits and smiles on the night.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"Night"
Reason, or the ratio of all we have already known, is not the same that it shall be when we know more.
WILLIAM BLAKE
There is No Natural Religion
I see the Past, Present & Future existing all at once Before me.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Jerusalem
My mother bore me in the southern wild,
And I am black, but O! my soul is white;
White as an angel is the English child,
But I am black as if bereaved of light.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"The Little Black Boy", Songs of Innocence
The Goddess Fortune is the devil's servant, ready to kiss anyone's arse.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"The Goddess Fortune", Notes on Illustrations to Dante
The hours of folly are measured by the clock, but of wisdom no clock can measure.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green & pleasant land.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"Prefatory Poem", Milton