William Blake

Frae Wikipedia, the free beuk o knawledge
William Blake
Blake in a portrait
bi Thomas Phillips (1807)
Born28 November 1757(1757-11-28)
Soho, Lunnon, Great Breetain
Dee'd12 August 1827(1827-08-12) (aged 69)
Charing Cross, Lunnon, Great Breetain[1]
ThriftPoet, painter, prentmakker
GenreVeesionary, poetry
Leeterar muivementRomanticism
Notable warksSangs o Innocence an o Experience, The Marriage o Hiven an Hell, The Fower Zoas, Jerusalem, Milton, An did those feet in auncient time
SpooseCatherine Boucher (1782–1827, his daith)

Signatur

William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) wis an Inglis poet, penter, an prentmakker. Lairgely unrecognised in his lifetime, Blake is nou conseedert a seminal feegur in the history o the poetry an veesual airts o the Romantic Age. Whit he cried his prophetic warks war said bi 20t-century creetic Northrop Frye tae form "whit is in proportion tae its meerits the least read bouk o poetry in the Inglis leid".[2] His veesual airtistry led 21st-century creetic Jonathan Jones tae proclaim him "faur an awey the greatest airtist Breetain haes iver produced".[3] In 2002, Blake was placed at number 38 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.[4] While he lived in Lunnon his entire life, except for three years spent in Felpham,[5] he produced a diverse an seembolically rich œuvre, that embraced the eemagination as "the bouk o God"[6] or "human existence itself".[7]

Awtho Blake wis conseedert mad bi contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, he is held in heich regaird bi later creetics for his expressiveness an creauteevity, an for the filosofical an mystical unnercurrents within his wark. His pentins an poetry hae been chairacterised as pairt o the Romantic muivement an as "Pre-Romantic".[8] A committit Christian that wis hostile tae the Kirk o Ingland (indeed, tae awmaist aw forms o organised releegion), Blake wis influenced bi the ideals an ambeetions o the French an American Revolutions.[9] Tho later he rejectit mony o thir poleetical beliefs, he mainteened an amiable relationship wi the poleetical activist Thomas Paine; he wis an aw influenced bi thinkers sic as Emanuel Swedenborg.[10] Despite thir kent influences, the seengularity o Blake's wark maks him difficult tae clessifee. The 19t-century scholart William Rossetti chairacterised him as a "glorious luminar",[11] an "a man nae forestawed bi predecessors, nor tae be clessed wi contemporaries, nor tae be replaced bi kent or readily surmisable successors".[12]

References[eedit | eedit soorce]

  1. "Blake & London". The Blake Society. 28 Mairch 2008. Archived frae the original on 15 September 2015. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  2. Frye, Northrop and Denham, Robert D. Collected Works of Northrop Frye. 2006, pp 11–12.
  3. Jones, Jonathan (25 Apryle 2005). "Blake's heaven". The Guardian. UK.
  4. "BBC – Great Britons – Top 100". Internet Archive. Archived frae the original on 4 December 2002. Retrieved 12 Apryle 2013.
  5. Thomas, Edward. A Literary Pilgrim in England. 1917, p. 3.
  6. Yeats, W. B. The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats. 2007, p. 85.
  7. Wilson, Mona. The Life of William Blake. The Nonesuch Press, 1927. p. 167.
  8. The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge. 2004, p. 351.
  9. Blake, William. Blake's "America, a Prophecy"; And, "Europe, a Prophecy". 1984, p. 2.
  10. Kazin, Alfred (1997). "An Introduction to William Blake". Archived frae the original on 26 September 2006. Retrieved 23 September 2006. Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (help) "Archived copy". Archived frae the original on 26 September 2006. Retrieved 10 December 2018.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. Blake, William and Rossetti, William Michael. The Poetical Works of William Blake: Lyrical and Miscellaneous. 1890, p. xi.
  12. Blake, William and Rossetti, William Michael. The Poetical Works of William Blake: Lyrical and Miscellaneous. 1890, p. xiii.