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. |
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... Milton whose Raphael advised Adam that while studying the stars was all very well, keeping his own freedom of will was even more important. Blake's poetry, like that of every poet who knows what he is doing, is mythical, for myth is the ...
... Milton are of value only as sources of analogues. Blake is warning us of this when he says: I must Create a System or be enslav'd by another Man's. I will not Reason 8: Compare: my business is to Create.15 It is always dangerous to ...
... Milton suggests when he says that “a Commonwealth ought to be but as one huge Christian personage, one mighty growth, and stature of an honest man.”26 Hence these gigantic forms which inhabit the unfallen world are, on nearer view ...
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