“I know that this world is a world of

imagination & vision.”

“The nature of my work is visionary

imaginative.”

--- William Blake (1757-1827)

Born 28 November 1757
Soho, London, Great Britain Blake in a portrait
by Thomas Phillips (1807)
Died 12 August 1827 (aged 69)
Charing Cross, London, Great Britain

Occupation Poet, painter, printmaker

流派
Genre Visionary, poetry

Literary Romanticism
知名作
movement
品
Notable Songs of Innocence and of Experience, The
Marriage of Heaven and Hell, The Four Zoas,
works Jerusalem, Milton, And did those feet in
ancient time
Spouse Catherine Boucher (1782–1827, his death)

Signature
 Life Story
• Born in London on 28 November 1757 , the son of a hosie
r. William did not attend school, and was educated at ho
me by his mother.
制袜或售袜者
• At the age of 10, he entered a drawing school and later s
tudied for a time at the school of the Royal Academy of A
rts. 英国皇家
给……当学
雕刻师 美术院
徒
• At 14, Blake became apprenticed to engraver James
Basire of Great Queen Street, for the term of seven years.
Life Story
• At the age of 21, he was to become a professional
engraver.

• At 24 he married Catherine Boucher. Later, in addition to

teaching Catherine to read and write, he trained her as an
engraver.

• In 1800, Blake moved to a cottage at Felpham in Sussex to

take up a job illustrating the works of William Hayley, a
minor poet.
二流
的
 The cottage in
Felpham where Blake
lived from 1800 until
1803
Life Story
•In August 1803 Blake's trouble with authority came to a
head, when he was involved in a physical altercation with a
soldier called John Schofield.
争执

•In 1804, Blake returned to London and began to write and

illustrate Jerusalem, his most ambitious work.

•Later in his life, Blake began to sell a great number of his

works, particularly his Bible illustrations, to Thomas Butts.

•He died in his seventieth year.

Life Story

Monument near
Blake's unmarked
grave at Bunhill
Fields in London
Status

Blake was a rebel, making friends with those

radicals. 激进分子 资本家
He strongly criticized the capitalists’ cruel
exploitation.
He cherished great expectations and
enthusiasm for the French Revolution. 工厂
He once said that the “dark satanic mills left
men unemployed, killed children and forced
prostitution”. 邪恶
的
 轻视、蔑视

Blake was a Pre-Romantic or a forerunner of

the Romantic poetry of the 19th century,
Showing contempt for the rule of reason,
Opposing the classical tradition of the 18th
century,
Treasuring the individual’s imagination.
Works
描绘
Poetical Sketches
Blake’s first collection of poems is named Poetical
Sketches, in which he was strongly opposed to the
12-20in岁之间写作的诗。尝
classical tradition poetry composing of the 18th
century not 试写作莎士比亚的无韵诗以
only in form but also in content.
Poetical及民谣形式的诗和抒情诗。
Sketches is a collection of lyrical poems,
有对诗坛充斥的娇柔造作表
which are highly musical, and some of them sound like
anvil music,示毫无偏见的叹息，也有对
rhythmic, short and brief. (An anvil is a
large heavy 统治地位的理性法则充满轻
block of iron on which a smith hammers
heated metal 视，还有赞同伊丽莎白时期
into shape. )
清新的诗歌。
Collections of Blake’s Short Lyrics

• The best of Blake’s short poems of lyrics

are collected in two volumes:
Songs of Innocence and
Songs of Experience, published
respectively in 1789 and 1794. These two
collections reflect “two contrary states of
the human soul”.
Songs of Innocence （ 1809 ）

• A lovely volume of poems,

presenting a happy and
innocent world, though not
without its evils and sufferings.
• However, in “The little black
boy” and “The chimney
sweeper”, we find racial
discrimination and sufferings
of the poor.
A laughing child upon a cloud
Songs of Experience （ 1794 ）
成熟的
• A much mature work.
• Show the sufferings of the
miserable.
• It marks the poet’s
progress in his outlook on
life. To him, experience
had brought a fuller sense
of the power of evil, and
of the great misery and
pain of the people’s life.
London
I wander thro' each chartered street,
Near where the chartered Thames 诗的一节
doth flow,
And mark in every face I meet Stanzas 1-3: the
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
miseries of people
that the poet saw
In every cry of every Man,
and heard in
In every Infant's cry of fear,
daytime
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.
How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Stanza 4: the
Every blackening Church appalls; miseries of people
And the hapless Soldier's sigh that the poet saw
Runs in blood down Palace walls. and heard at night

But most thro' midnight streets I hear

How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new born Infant's tear.
And blights with plagues the Marriage
hearse.
Comment on London
四音步句；八音步
诗

As a poem taken from Songs of Experience written

in iambic tetrameter, it gives a comprehensive
picture of the many miseries, physical and spiritual
in London.
抑扬格；短
长格
The contradiction of the two collections

• Many poems in the two collections contradict

each other. They have the same title in the two
books, but are opposite in meanings. The contrast
is of great significance. It marks a progress in the
poet’s outlook on life.
• For example, in both collections there’re poems
entitled The Chimney Sweeper, but the tone and
atmosphere are entirely different.
 Chimney-sweepers
In the 18th century small boys,
sometimes no more than 4 or 5 years old,
were employed to climb up the narrow
chimneys and clean inside, collecting the
soot in bags.
Such boys, sometimes sold to the
master sweepers by their parents owing to
poverty, were miserably treated by their
masters and often suffered disease and
physical injuries.
• The chimney sweeper in Songs of
Innocence is really innocent. He works
very hard but earns little, however, he
does not pay any attention to that. He
forgets his misery because he is told
God will come to him and promises him
that “He’d have God for his father and
never lack joy.”
• In Songs of Experience, the chimney
sweeper is no longer innocent but
experienced. He is quite conscious of
his miserable living condition and the
causes. Now he curses at God and
priests and the king who made up a
heaven of their misery. 咒骂
 扫烟囱孩子（一）
选自《天真之歌》 （卞之琳译）

• 我母亲死的时候，我还小得很，
• 我父亲把我拿出来卖给了别人，
• 我当时还不大喊得清“扫呀，扫，”
• 我就扫你们烟囱，裹煤屑睡觉。

• 有个小托姆，头发卷得像小羊头，
• 剃光的时候，哭得好伤心，好难受，
• 我就说：“小托姆，不要紧，光了脑袋，
• 大起来煤屑就不会糟蹋你白头发。”
• 他就安安静静了，当天夜里，
• 托姆睡着了，事情就来得稀奇，
• 他看见千千万万的扫烟囱小孩
• 阿猫阿狗全都给锁进了黑棺材。

• 后来来了个天使，拿了把金钥匙，
• 开棺材放出了孩子们（真是好天使！）
• 他们就边跳，边笑，边跑过草坪，
• 到河里洗了澡，太阳里晒得亮晶晶。
• 光光的，白白的，把袋子都抛个一地，
• 他们就升上了云端，在风里游戏；
• “ 只要你做个好孩子，”天使对托姆说，
• “ 上帝会做你的父亲，你永远快乐。”

• 托姆就醒了；屋子里黑咕隆咚，
• 我们就起来拿袋子、扫帚去做工。
• 大清早尽管冷，托姆的心里可温暖；
• 这叫做：各尽本分，就不怕灾难。
The
Chimney
Sweeper
--William Blake
A little black thing among the snow:
风雪里一个满身乌黑的小东西
Crying weep, weep, in notes of woe!
“ 号呀，号”在那里哭哭啼啼 !
Where are thy father & mother? say?
“ 你的爹娘上哪儿去了，你讲讲 ?”
 They are both gone up to the church to pray.
“ 他们都去祷告了，上了教堂。 ”
 "

Because I was happy upon the heath,

因为我原先在野地里欢欢喜喜，
 And smil'd among the winters snow:
我在冬天的雪地里也总是笑嘻嘻 ,
They clothed me in the clothes of death,
他们就把我拿晦气的黑衣裳一罩，
And taught me to sing the notes of woe.
他们还叫我唱起了悲伤的曲调。
And because I am happy & dance & sing,
“ 因为我显得快活，还唱歌，还跳舞，
 
They think they have done me no injury:
他们就以为并没有把我害苦，
　 And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King,
就跑去赞美了上帝、教士和国王，
 
　 Who make up a heaven of our misery ？
夸他们拿我们苦难造成了天堂。”
 
And because I am happy & dance & sing,
“ 因为我显得快活，还唱歌，还跳舞，
 
They think they have done me no injury:
他们就以为并没有把我害苦，
And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King,
就跑去赞美了上帝、教士和国王，
 Who make up a heaven of our misery ？
夸他们拿我们苦难造成了天堂。”
Who make up a heaven of our misery ？
夸他们拿我们苦难造成了天堂。”
 Summary
虔诚的

The political and religious leaders,

伪 represented by God, Priest and King, are
善
地 hypocritically pious. They maintain a
sumptuous life, but ignore the poverty-
豪
华 stricken groups. Through the child’s simple
的 statement, the poet intends to attack them
for their indifference and ruthlessness.
Collection of Blake’s Long Poems
• Under the influence of the French Revolution, Blake 预言
wrote a series of long poems, which he called Prophecies.
They’re highly symbolic and difficult to understand, but
the gleams of revolutionary thought are shown in many
pages. 微光 资本家
• One poem entitled The French Revolution is included in
this collection. Blake wrote it at the moment of the very
outbreak of the French bourgeois revolution, in which he
predicts the final victory of the revolution. It is
considered the most significant because it describes an
important revolutionary event in modern European
history with a true progressive tendency.
Writing Features

• Blake writes his poems in plain an direct

language.
• He presents his view in visual images rather
than abstract ideas.
• Symbolism in wide range is a distinctive
feature of his poetry.
His Positions in English Literature
• The most extraordinary literary genius of his age.
• A Pre-Romantic or a forerunner of the Romantic poetry
of the 19th century.
• 1) His lyrics display all the characteristics of the
romantic spirit (natural sentiment & individual
originality). 情感
• 2) He influenced the Romantic poets with recurring
themes of good and evil, heaven and hell, knowledge
and innocence, and external reality versus inner
imagination. 与 ..... 相对，对
抗
 图、文结合，诗中有画，画中有诗

• Most of his works were designed and produced as

multimedia, combining verbal and visual modes of
expression with innovative technological methods
of engraving and printing”.
• -- Stephen Marx

• Blake is considered not only a major English writer

but an important figure in the history of art.