William Blake
Poet
1757-11-28 – 1827-08-12
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker, and a foundational figure of British Romanticism. Born in London on 1757-11-28, he produced visionary works including Songs of Innocence and of Experience and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. He died in London on 1827-08-12.
Books by William Blake
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Songs of innocence and of experience
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The marriage of Heaven and Hell
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Quotes by William Blake
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My mother groaned, my father wept,into the dangerous world I leapt.
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Thou art a manGod is no moreThy own humanityLearn to adore
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The following Discourse [on art, by Sir Joshua Reynolds] is particularly Interesting to Blockheads as it endeavours to prove that There is No such thing as Inspiration & that any Man of a plain Understanding may by Thieving from Others become a Mich Angelo.
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When nations grow old the Arts grow coldAnd commerce settles on every tree
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Man has no Body distinct from his soul; for that called Body is a portion of a Soul discerned by the five senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age.
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Did he who made the lamb make thee?
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How can a bird that is born for joySit in a cage and sing?
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We live as One Man for contracting our infinite senses we behold multitude or expanding: we behold as one.
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May God us keepFrom Single vision and Newton's sleep.
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Time is the mercy of Eternity without Time's swiftness/ Which is the swiftest of all things: all were eternal torment.
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He who replies to words of doubtdoth put the light of knowledge out.
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And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds, And binding with briars, my joys & desires.
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But when he has done this, let him not say that he knows better than his master, for he only holds a candle in sunshine.
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The Devil answer'd: bray a fool in a morter with wheat, yet shall not his folly be beaten out of him; if Jesus Christ is the greatest man, you ought to love him in the greatest degree; now hear how he has given his sanction to the law of ten commandments: did he not mock at the sabbath, and so mock the sabbaths God? murder those who were murder'd because of him? turn away the law from the woman taken in adultery? steal the labor of others to support him? bear false witness when he omitted making a defense before Pilate? covet when he pray'd for his disciples, and when he bid them shake off the dust of their feet against such as refused to lodge them? I tell you, no virtue can exist without breaking these ten commandments; Jesus was all virtue, and acted from impulse, not from rules.
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excuse my enthusiasm or rather madness, for I am really drunk with intellectual vision whenever I take a pencil or graver into my hand.
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Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius.
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I give you the end of a golden string,Only wind it into a ball,It will lead you in at Heaven's gateBuilt in Jerusalem's wall.
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How can the bird that is born for joySit in a cage and sing?How can a child, when fears annoy,But droop his tender wing,And forget his youthful spring?
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A Robin Redbreast in a CagePuts all Heaven in a Rage.A dove house fill'd with doves and pigeonsShudders Hell thro' all its regions.A Dog starv'd at his Master's GatePredicts the ruin of the State.A Horse misus'd upon the RoadCalls to Heaven for Human blood.Each outcry of the hunted HareA fiber from the Brain does tear.
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I went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen: A Chapel was built in the midst, Where I used to play on the green. And the gates of this Chapel were shut, And 'Thou shalt not' writ over the door; So I turn'd to the Garden of Love, That so many sweet flowers bore. And I saw it was filled with graves, And tomb-stones where flowers should be: And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds, And binding with briars, my joys & desires.
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