what were the principal features of Blake's life ?
Born in London, he spent almost all life there. He lived in a period when Emanuel Swedenborg's theories on Mysticism wew spreadin in England and throughout his life Blake claimed to see visions all around him.
He was an engraver and a painter and earned his living as such, but he also devoted himself to poetry and to the interpretarion of his extraordinary visions.
In what ay was he influenced ?
If we accept what he used to say then we must believe that he had seen angels and strange apparitions since his childhood. His visions are recorded in his poems and in the illustrations to them in which the images and scenes are sometimes comprehensible only to himself.
What were his first work ?
His first poems under the title of Poetical Sketches were published in 1783 by some of his friends who helped him financially although in this collection he shows the influence of the Reinassance poets ( Spenser Shakespeare, etc) a new freshness emanates from his verses foreshadowing the harmony of his later works which are full of lyricism and immagination.
What are Blake's best knuopen works ?
Blake is at his best in his Songs of Innocence and later in Song of Experience. His deep sensibility his love of childhood nature and home are very evident in these poems as is his very fine appreciation of Good and Evil.
Is there any difference between the two collections of poems ?
In the first collection Song of Innocence published in 1789 the poet expresses his feeling of joy tenderness and devotion inspired by the beauty of Nature and his deep love for its creatures.
The nusiclity and the simplicity of the verse and its religious sublimity place these poems among the best in English literature.
In the Songs of Experience published in 1794 there is a chamge in his attitude to the world around him. It is in a sense a kind of reaction against the evils that followed the French revolution which the poet ha fervently supproted. The sweetness of the first collection gives way to sadness inspired by both moral and religious tyranny.
In both collections Blake shows his mysticism and spontaneity of a lyric Language that anticipates Wordsworth's Poems such as the lamb The little black Boy, Infant joy, The Tiger and A Dream all included in the two collections are among the best.
