William Blake (1757 - 1827) was the son of a London hosier. Having attended Henry Parr's drawing school, he was apprenticed as an engraver to the Society of Antiquaries in 1772 and later was admitted to teh Royal Academy. He married in 1782 and published his first work, Poetical Sketches, in 1783. The first of his 'illuminated books' was Songs of Innocence in 1789. Blake's work over the next twenty years chart the refining of his ideas and beliefs, from a recognition of repression in Songs of Experience to his epic works Milton and Jerusalem whihc present a renewed vision of reconciliation between humanity.
Alicia Ostriker is Professor of English at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, USA.
Poetical Sketches
Miscellaneous Poems
King Edward the Third
Dramatic Fragments
Poems Written in a Copy of Poetical Sketches
Songs from "An Island in the Moon"
There is No Natural Religion [a, b]
All Religions Are One
The Book of Thel
Tiriel
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Songs of Innocence
Songs of Experience
Notebook Poems and Fragments, c. 1789-93
The French Revolution
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
A Song of Liberty
Visions of the Daughters of Albion
America
Europe
The Song of Los
Africa
Asia
The Book of Urizen
The Book of Ahania
The Book of Los
Vala, or The Four Zoas
Notes Written on the Pages of The Four Zoas
Additional Fragments
Three Poems, ?c. 1800
Poems from Letters
Notebook Poems, c. 1800-1806
Poems from the Pickering Manuscript
Milton
Dedication to Blake's Illustrations to Blair's Grave
Notebook Epigrams and Satiric Verses, c. 1808-12
Miscellaneous Verses and Epigrams
Verse from the Marginalia to Reynolds's Discourses
Verse from the Advertisement to Blake's Exhibition of Paintings, 1809
Epigrams from A Descriptive Catalogue
Epigrams from "Public Address"
Jerusalem
The Everlasting Gospel
For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise
The Ghost of Abel
Notes
Dictionary of Proper Names
Note to the Indexes
Index of Titles
Index of First Lines