Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William BlakeThis brilliant outline of Blake's thought and commentary on his poetry comes on the crest of the current interest in Blake, and carries us further towards an understanding of his work than any previous study. Here is a dear and complete solution to the riddles of the longer poems, the so-called "Prophecies," and a demonstration of Blake's insight that will amaze the modern reader. The first section of the book shows how Blake arrived at a theory of knowledge that was also, for him, a theory of religion, of human life and of art, and how this rigorously defined system of ideas found expression in the complicated but consistent symbolism of his poetry. The second and third parts, after indicating the relation of Blake to English literature and the intellectual atmosphere of his own time, explain the meaning of Blake's poems and the significance of their characters. |
From inside the book
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... Blake as operating or manipulating a “system” of thought, nor should we be ... calls “mathematic form,” the automatic and mindless universe that has no ... Blake's cosmology, of which the symbol is Ezekiel's vision of the chariot of God ...
... Blake's chief preoccupations, just as “self-contradiction” is always one of ... called There Is No Natural Religion and the third All Religions Are One ... call'd Corporeal, Nobody Knows of its Dwelling Place: it is in Fallacy, 8c its ...
... Blake calls indifferently a “form” or an “image.” If there is such a thing as a key to Blake's thought, it is the fact that these two words mean the same thing to him. He makes no consistent use of the term “idea.” Forms or images, then ...
... called “spectres” in Blake's symbolism. But all that can be produced from this must be spun out of the philosopher's ... call a “body.” “Body” in Blake means the whole man as an object of perception. We need another word to describe the ...
... call'd Body is a portion of Soul discern'd by the five Senses.85 At the time ... Blake frequently employs it. We use five senses in perception, but if we ... calling digestion or sexual intercourse mental activities is a hazy association ...