English poet & painter (1757-1827)
Angels are happier than men and devils, because they are not always prying after good and evil in one another, and eating the tree of knowledge for Satan's gratification.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"A Vision of the Last Judgement"
Can I see another's woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another's grief,
And not seek for kind relief?
WILLIAM BLAKE
"The Divine Image", Songs of Innocence
Bit from the dolorous groan on high a shadow of smoke appeared,
And human bones rattling together in the smoke and stamping
The nether abyss, and gnashing in fierce despair, and panting in sobs,
Thick, short, incessant, bursting, sobbing, deep despairing, stamping,
Struggling to utter the voice of man, to take features of man,
To take the limbs of man.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Vala
When the voices of children are heard on the green
And laughing is heard on the hill,
My heart is at rest within my breast
And everything else is still.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"Nurse's Song", Songs of Innocence
The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels and God, and at liberty when of Devils and Hell, is because he was a true poet and of the Devils' party without knowing it.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"The Voice of the Devil", The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
For a tear is an intellectual thing,
And a sigh is the sword of an Angel King,
And the bitter groan of the martyr's woe
Is an arrow from the Almighty's bow.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"The Gray Monk", Poems from the Pickering Manuscript
To Generalize is to be an Idiot. To Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds's Discourses
Never seek to tell thy love
Love that never told can be;
For the gentle wind does move
Silently, invisibly.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Poems from Blake's Notebook
God appears and god is light
To those poor souls who dwell in night
But does a human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Auguries of Innocence
The true method of knowledge is experiment.
WILLIAM BLAKE
All Religions are One
O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stain'd
With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit
Beneath my shady roof, there thou mayest rest,
And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe,
And all the daughters of the year shall dance!
Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"To Autumn"
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell
Terror in the house does roar,
But Pity stands before the door.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"Terror in the House"
The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell
Every Harlot was a Virgin once.
WILLIAM BLAKE
For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise
Forgiveness of enemies can only come upon their repentance.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Annotations to Lavater
The sword sung on the barren heath,
The sickle in the fruitful field;
The sword he sung a song of death,
But could not make the sickle yield.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"Love to Faults", Poems from Blake's Notebook
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell
But to the Eyes of the Man of Imagination, Nature is Imagination itself. As a man is, So he Sees. As the Eye is formed, such are its Powers.
WILLIAM BLAKE
letter to Rev. Dr. Trusler, August 23, 1799
A dog starved at his master's gate
Predicts the ruin of the state.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Auguries of Innocence