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William Blake: Poetry
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Arch misfit, cockney mystic, surfer of cosmic vibes - William Blake was a pretty extreme dude, alright. So who better to interpret the man's poetry musically than East End shaman, punk survivor and all time diamond geezer Jah Wobble? Two maverick visionaries collaborating a century apart.
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William Blake's poetry contains far-reaching critiques and commentaries of a variety of social issues of his time, particularly regarding human nature, public education, the British monarchy, and the Church of England. These critiques and commentaries were safe from prosecution, as Blake expertly disguised them in symbolism untranslatable by most of his contemporaries.
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William Blake is often considered a prophet that was ignored by his contemporary society. One of the earliest poets of the Romanticism movement, his poetry insisted that readers should realise their perception of reality is crafted by means other than their eyes - that if we relied on superficial vision alone we would be mislead by the myths our world presented.
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William Blake was a native Christian mystic. That he had visions is totally within that frame of reference and should be respected. It is unfair to describe his drawing and poetry as `duff'; some of the imagery grips your attention forever. He was struggling to say something but could not quite get it all out. A good, simple man!
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![[blake.bmp]](http://retrieverimages.lycos.com/images/w/i/l/william-blake/i/033.gif)
Blake's work can be difficult at times, mainly because the reader is offered Blake's visions in Blake's own terms. Blake draws on a highly powerful, but essentially personal, mythological system of his own devising, but one that ... draws on a variety of mythological, poetic and philosophical sources. On this, Blake himself remarked that he had to "create a System, or be enslav'd by another Man's." In part also, what Blake seeks to express can only be presented in terms of vague abstractions and allusions, with a cosmic perspective on issues of faith, religion, philosophy and belief, and this must also mean that the reader has to work hard. Yet the effort is worth it. Blake is a revolutionary and visionary artist and poet, and his work represented a decisively new direction in the course of English Poetry and the Visual Arts.
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Blake drew upon religious, metaphysical, and literary themes to make strong points with both his works of art and his moving prose and poetry. He often challenged his readers to think about the quality of the work they do in their own lives. Aristotle once said, "It is the mark of an insane. Failing to penetrate the waggish exterior of his work, they did not see the deeper meaning within, the details of which are still up for debate.
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