Selected Poems (Blake, William)

Writer and religious rebel, William Blake ((1757'¬"1827) sowed the seeds for Romanticism in his innovative poems concerning faith and the visions that inspired him throughout his life. Whether describing his own spirituality, the innocence of youth or the corruption caused by mankind, his writings depict a world in which spirits dominate and the mind is the gateway to Heaven. This collection of his greatest works spans his entire poetic life from the early, exquisite lyrics of Poetic Sketches to his Songs of Innocence and Experience '¬" a compelling exploration of good and evil. Together, they illuminate a self-made realm that has fascinated artists and poets as diverse as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Yeats and Ginsberg.

William Blake (1757-û1827) was a British poet, painter, engraver, and visionary mystic who proclaimed the supremacy of the imagination over the rationalism and materialism of the eighteenth century.
G. E. Bentley, Jr., has taught at the University of Chicago and the University of Toronto and is an authority on Blake and his world.