1. WILLIAM BLAKE • A poet and an engraver • A medieval artist • An illustrator of his own poems • His philosophy

2. A POET AND AN ENGRAVER • Trained as an engraver • Illuminated his own poems • Made drawings for texts from other poets (Milton, Dante, contemporaries)

3. A MEDIEVAL ARTIST • A complete artist • Lines more important than colours • Influence of Michelangelo

4. AN ILLUSTRATOR OF HIS OWN POEMS • Wordsas part of the image • Illustrations complete the meaning • Focus on mankind

5. BLAKE’S PHILOSOPHY • Duality • Imagination • Mysticism • Revolutionary spirit

6. IMAGINATION • refusal of “REASON” • a quality of the state of INNOCENCE • A VISIONARY faculty

7. BLAKE’S MYSTICAL SYSTEM • He believed to be in contact with the world of the spirits • He developed his own mythological system • He embodied his theories in his Prophetic Books

8. BLAKE’S POSITION IN THE HISTORY OF LITERATURE • An eighteenthcentury man in • Hisinfluencefromneoclassicallinear design • Hisinsistence on the importanceof man • A Romantic in • Hisrejectionof science and fact • Hisemphasis on the imagination and the spiritual

9. A Vision of the Last Judgment

10. designsby Michelangelo for THE LAST JUDGMENT London, BritishMuseum

12. The Lamb

13. The ChimneySweeper A littleblackthingamong the snow…

14. Withoutcontrariesthereis no Progression

15. THE TYGER TygerTyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? When the stars threw down their spears And water'd heaven with their tears: Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee? TygerTyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

16. NEWTON Nature, and Nature's laws lay hid in night, God said, Let Newton be! and all was light. He who sees the Infinite in all things sees God. He who sees the Ratio only sees himself only.

17. LONDON Whatwordsdoes Blake usetoreferto the poet? Whatdo thesewordssuggest?

18. London I wander thro' each charter'd street,Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,And mark in every face I meetMarks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every Man,In every Infant's cry of fear,In every voice, in every ban,The mind-forg'd manacles I hear. How the Chimney-sweeper's cryEvery blackning Church appalls,And the hapless Soldier's sighRuns in blood down Palace walls. But most thro' midnight streets I hearHow the youthful Harlot's curseBlasts the new-born Infant's tear,And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

19. The creation of man • What image comes to your mind ? • What do you expect God to look like in the act of creating Adam? • What do you expect Adam to look like?

21. ELOHIM CREATING ADAM