1. William Blake

2. Not Your Typical Romantic • He never travelled • He was relatively happily married • He and his wife lived in poverty • He was very interested in the Bible and much of his poetry dealt with complex views of Christianity

3. Blake the Artist • Blake is known for his art as much as his poetry. • He was sent to London’s finest drawing school at ten. • He was apprenticed to an engraver at fourteen. • He usually added drawings or engravings to his poetry himself. • He usually published and engraved his own poems.

4. Songs of Innocence and Experience • “The two contrary states of the human soul” • Published in one volume • Innocence is “a state of genuine love and naïve trust toward all humankind, accompanied by unquestioned belief in Christian doctrine.” • Experience “is a profound disillusionment with human nature . . . sees cruelty and hypocrisy only too clearly but is unable to imagine a way out.”