English literature the book is designed to acquaint students with the main outlines

Hard work destroyed the poet’s health. In 1796 he died in poverty at 37. After his death, his widow and children were left without a shilling. But the common Scottish people collected enough money to provide the widow with the sustenance for the rest of her life and give all his children an education.

William Blake (1757-1827)

William Blake was a poet, artist, and mystic, who followed no style but his own. Thus, his work stands alone in English literature, for no one saw life quite in the same way as he did. Blake grew in the middle of London, surrounded by the poverty of the new industrial age. His family was poor, and Blake had no opportunity to receive education as a child. When he was ten, his father was able to send him to a drawing school, and at fourteen he was apprenticed to an engraver. As an apprentice he had time to read

widely and bsgan to write the first verses ofhis poetry.

In 1778, when he had completed his apprenticeship, Blake became a professional engraver and earned a living over the next twenty year:; by supplying booksellers and publishers with copperplate engravings. In 1789, he published a volume of lyrical poems called “Songs of Innocence”. It was followed by a companion volume “Songs of Experience’. It was to be read in conjunction with “Songs of Innocence”. The two works contrast with each other: one deals with good, passivity, and reason; the other, with evii, violence, and emotion. They were the first of Blake’s books to be illustrated, engraved, and printed on copperplates by himself. Blake’s engravings and paintings are an important part ofhis artistic expression, for the verbal and visual work together evoke one unified impression. Blake himself manufactured all his poems thal appeared during his lifetime.