19th-century art classic-literature classics english english-literature poetry william-blake

Hear the voice of the Bard!
Who Present, Past, & Future sees
Whose ears have heard
The Holy Word
That walk'd among the ancient trees.
--from "Songs of Experience"

Both as poet and painter, William Blake created uncompromising, highly original art. He was strongly influenced by the spiritual: he claimed to have seen angels, and to have spoken with the many supernatural beings who populated his verses and visual images. The many remarkable works gathered in this very special collection come from his Poetical Sketches, There Is No Natural Religion, Songs of Innocence and Experience, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Visions of the Daughters of Albion, The Book of Urizen, For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise, and others. Blake's powerful use of language truly makes it possible--as he wrote in "Auguries of Innocence"--"To see a World in a Grain of Sand, And a Heaven in a Wild Flower."