English poet & painter (1757-1827)
Without Time's swiftness, which is the swiftest of all things, all were eternal torment.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Milton
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
There is a smile of love,
And there is a smile of deceit,
And there is a smile of smiles
In which these two smiles meet.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"The Smile", Poems from the Pickering Manuscript
Every night, and every morn,
Some to misery are born.
Every morn, and every night,
Some are born to sweet delight.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Auguries of Innocence
My mother groan'd! my father wept.
Into the dangerous world I leapt:
Helpless, naked, piping loud:
Like a fiend hid in a cloud.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"Infant Sorrow", Songs of Experience
The strongest poison ever known
Came from Caesar's laurel crown.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Auguries of Innocence
Half friendship is the bitterest enmity.
WILLIAM BLAKE
frontispiece, Jerusalem
Love seeketh not itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Songs of Experience
England! awake! awake! awake!
Jerusalem thy sister calls!
Why wilt thou sleep the sleep of death
And close her from thy ancient walls?
WILLIAM BLAKE
Jerusalem
Great things are done when men and mountains meet;
This is not done by jostling in the street.
WILLIAM BLAKE
fragment
My silks and fine array,
My smiles and languished air,
By love are driv'n away;
And mournful lean Despair
Brings me yew to deck my grave:
Such end true lovers have.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"My Silks and Fine Arrays", Poetical Sketches
And we are put on earth a little space,
That we may learn to bear the beams of love,
And these black bodies and this sunburnt face
Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"The Little Black Boy", Songs of Innocence
I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Jerusalem
When a Man has Married a Wife
He finds out whether
Her Knees & elbows are only
glued together.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Poems from Blake's Notebook
The Foundation of Empire is Art & Science Remove them or Degrade them & the Empire is No More.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds's Discourses
I must create a system, or be enslav'd by another man's.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Jerusalem
I am not ashamed, afraid, or averse to tell you what Ought to be Told: That I am under the direction of Messengers from Heaven, Daily & Nightly; but the nature of such things is not, as some suppose, without trouble or care.
WILLIAM BLAKE
The Letters of William Blake
Love to faults is always blind,
Always is to joys inclined,
Lawless, winged, and unconfined,
And breaks all chains from every mind.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"Love to Faults", Poems from Blake's Notebook
True superstition is ignorant honesty & this is beloved of god and man.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Annotations to Lavater
It is easier to forgive an Enemy than to forgive a Friend.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Jerusalem