2. Victorian literature Victorian poetry and Novel

Conclusion
Blake was not much understood by his contemporaries. He influenced them as little as he was influenced by them, and for many years after his death his name was unknown. His first full biography, written by Alexander Gilchrist, was published in 1863, and was reprinted under the supervision of D.G. Kossetti in 1880. Since that time his power and originality have gained fuller recognition, and he now holds a position as one of the greatest figures in English poetry and art. A bronze bust of him was placed in the Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey in November, 1957 to mark the bicentenary of his birth. Many of his pictures are to be seen in the Tate Gallery, London, and collections of his illuminated books in the British Museum. William Blake held Christian, nonconformist beliefs, which led his contemporaries to deem him 'radical'. He was vehemently opposed to the social and political oppression by the English monarchy during the 18th century. He also publicly rejected theological tyranny, which he expressed in his works.Blake's beliefs were greatly influenced by the American and French revolutions, although he later rejected the political beliefs underlying both. William Blake denounced the Industrial Revolution and his complicated relationship with religious beliefs is reflected in the complex mystical symbolism which characterised his work. Interestingly, Blake's sexual beliefs were aligned with the movement of 'free love,' which deemed marriage as slavery and called for the abolishment of all restrictions concerning sexual activities like homosexuality, polygamy, contraception, and prostitution. Regarding his views, he was vehemently opposed to organised religion and the way it constrained natural human activity, such as sex. In one of his poems, The Garden of Love, he specifically accuses the church of that. During a walk in the garden of love he sees ‘priests in black gowns were walking their rounds/And binding with briars my joys and desires.’Blake began training as an illustrator and engraver and worked at that as his day job. And in the meantime, he wrote his poems.The most important thing about Blake as a poet is his rejection of the highly sophisticated verse structures of the 18^th century: he looked back to the more immediate, accessible poetry of Shakespeare, Jonson and the Jacobeans. He used monosyllabic words and packed more meaning and feeling into them that any of the poets of his time did, writing their expansive, sophisticated poems full of figures of speech. For example, two of Blake’s most famous collections: Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience contain some of the finest and most profound of English poems, all done in the most simple language.