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Poetry in English: William Blake

William Blake is an English poet, painter, engraver and printmaker.  He is born in London, on November the 28th, 1757, and dead in London on August the 12th, 1827.  He works for publisher Joseph Johnson, both publishing his own books and illuminating books as an artist.  As engraver and illustrator, Blake illuminates editions of his own books, and also editions of books from writers Mary Wollstonecraft, John Gay, Gottfried August Bürger, Edward Young, Thomas Gray, Robert Blair, John Milton, John Varley, Robert John Thornton, John Bunyan, Dante, and also an edition of The Book of Job.

His mostly known works are:

 Poetry:
  • Poetical Sketches
  • Songs of Innocence and of Experience (illuminated)
  • The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (poetry, prose and illustration)
  • The French Revolution
The prophetic books (poetry):
  • Tiriel
  • The Book of Thel (illuminated)
  • Visions of the Daughters of Albion (illuminated)
  • Continental prophecies (America a Prophecy, Europe a Prophecy, The Song of Los) (illuminated)
  • The First Book of Urizen (illuminated)
  • The Book of Los (illuminated)
  • The Book of Ahania (illuminated)
  • Milton (illuminated)
  • Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion (illuminated)
  • The Four Zoas (unfinished)
Aphorisms:
  • There is No Natural Religion
  • All Religions are One
Satire:
  • An Island in the Moon
Digital Libraries that hold available works of William Blake:

Blake wrote two poems called Nurse's Song, one in Songs of Innocence and other in Songs of Experience; it is worthwhile to compare them.

Nurse's Song (Songs of Innocence)

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.

‘Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down,
And the dews of night arise;
Come, come leave off play, and let us away
Till the morning appears in the skies.’

‘No, no, let us play, for it is yet day,
And we cannot go to sleep;
Besides, in the sky the little birds fly,
And the hills are all cover'd with sheep.’

‘Well, well, go and play till the light fades away,
And then go home to bed.’
The little ones leapèd, and shoutèd, and laugh'd
And all the hills echoèd.

Nurse's Song (Songs of Experience)

When the voices of children are heard on the green,
And whisperings are in the dale,
The days of my youth rise fresh in my mind,
My face turns green and pale.

Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down,
And the dews of night arise;
Your spring and your day are wasted in play,
And your winter and night in disguise.

Michael Blake has created a song mixing up both poems and made it available at YouTube:

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