Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience: The Classic Poetry of William Blake

William Blake (1757-1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language." His visual artistry has led one modern critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced." Although he only once journeyed farther than a day's walk outside London during his lifetime, he produced a diverse and symbolically rich corpus, which embraced 'imagination' as "the body of God," or "Human existence itself." "Songs of Innocence" (1789) and "Songs of Experience" (1794) are classic William Blake poetry, and the complete texts of both are assembled here.