William Blake wrote poetry and created illuminated books in which text and image work together to explore innocence, experience, religion, politics and visionary imagination. Songs of Innocence and of Experience pairs poems such as “The Lamb” and “The Tyger” to show contrasting ways of seeing childhood, authority and the world. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell uses aphorism, satire and prophetic imagery to challenge conventional moral oppositions, while longer works such as Jerusalem develop a highly personal mythology. Blake also engraved and coloured many of his own pages, so visual layout is part of the original reading experience. His work fits Romantic poetry, visionary literature and artist's books. Songs of Innocence and of Experience is the most accessible entry, ideally in an edition that reproduces the illuminated plates rather than presenting only plain text. Read more Less
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