1. William Blake 1. Biography 2. Characteristics of his works 3. Some famous poems 4. His paintings

2. Biography • William Blake was born on November 28, 1757, in London in a poor family. • He produced his earliest known poems in 1769, and was apprenticed in 1771 to the engraver James Basire with whom he remained for seven years. • At the end of the apprenticeship in 1778, Blake studied painting briefly at the Royal Academy. but he left after a disagreement with his teacher, the famous artist George Michael Mōser. • In 1782, against his father's objections, Blake married an illiterate but intelligent girl named Catherine Boucher. • In 1783, his first volume of verse was published. • He opened a print shop in 1784 where he was assisted by his brother Robert.

3. Biography • In later years, he became more and more covert in his expression, and in his declining years shaped the mystic, often obscure, allegorical works known as the Prophetic Books. • He died on August 27, 1827, and was buried at Bunhill Fields in a pauper's grave which was soon forgotten.

4. Characteristics of his works • his symbolism 1. In order to express his unique perceptions, his view of history and his concept of Oneness, Blake used old Christian symbols, often enriching their meaning for his own purposes. For example, Jesus is God, the Redeemer, the Lamb, but He is also imagination. Hell, in the traditional sense, is the abode of the lost. In Blake, the lost are those without imagination. To Blake, Hell is also the home of energy, sex, passion, all the impulses which conventional religions suppressed, but which Blake saw as the life forces of mankind. 2. He created new symbols and myths in order to project his highly individual visions. Blake's original mind required original forms of expression. “I must create a System or be enslav'd to another man's,” Blake declared. “I will not Reason and Compare, my business is to create.”

5. Characteristics of his works • His symbol Blake's symbols were gods no one had ever heard of before; his myth of Creation was entirely new. The verbal and pictorial symbols and images which Blake created for his system were personal and highly ambiguous and are the subjects of much controversy among Blake's interpreters. • Only one of Blake's poems was published professionally during his lifetime: Poetical Sketches, 1783. The French Revolution, 1791, was prepared for the press by Joseph Johnson but was never printed. Other poems issued from his own engraving shop, made by his special process of etching called “Illuminated Printing.” The remainder of his poetry was left for posterity to disseminate.

6. Poetical Sketches There Is No Natural Religion Ｉ and II The Book of Thel Tiriel America Europe Milton Songs of Innocence Songs of Experience The Marriage of Heaven and Hell The French Revolution The Visions of the Daughters of Albion Some famous poems

7. His paintings

8. His paintings