Audiobook53 minutes
The Poetry Of William Blake
Written by William Blake
Narrated by Richard Mitchley and Gideon Wagner
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
William Blake was born on 28th November 1757 in London to parents of modest income that could only afford a basic education of reading and writing although he did attend a drawing school for a short time. His artistic skill was apparent relatively early and at the age of 14 he stopped working in his father’s hosiery shop and became an apprentice engraver. This apprenticeship finished when he was 21 and at 25 he married Catherine Boucher. He taught her to read and write and together in 1789 they published Songs of Innocence with text and engravings printed from copper plates and illustrations finished by hand with watercolours. It did not sell well and throughout his life he remained largely unrecognised often on the verge of poverty. This led to a deep depression for many years and he was often considered mad by his contemporaries. His creativity and imagination with its undercurrents of mysticism, spiritualism and philosophy are apparent in this selection of poems and whilst classed as a seminal figure in the Romantic Age it wasn’t until the late 19th century that his work was recognised. The 20th century saw an even greater appreciation of his poetry with Blake’s voyage beyond the rational and material chiming with the Beat poets, Dylan, Van Morrison and Jim Morrison of the band the Doors , named after Blake’s phrase Doors of Perception from his poem Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Further acclaim has been attributed to him from many scholars of art, psychology and of course literature. His poems have inspired composers such as Vaughn Williams, Britten and Taverner and Jerusalem a hymn still sung today. Blake’s vivid and intense work is still relevant to all to this day and he is recognised as a saint in the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica. William Blake died on 12th August 1827 and in 1957 a memorial was erected at Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey. Here we present two of his exceptionally fine epic poems.
Author
William Blake
William Blake (1757-1827) was a nonconformist who associated with some of the leading radical thinkers of his day, such as Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft. A skilled engraver and illustrator, his illustrated poetry collections resembled the illuminated books of the Middle Ages.
More audiobooks from William Blake
William Blake Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5William Blake - The Epics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to The Poetry Of William Blake
Related audiobooks
The Great Poets: W.B. Yeats Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Classic American Poetry Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5John Milton Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5John Keats: Poems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great Poets of the Romantic Age Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hope Is the Thing with Feathers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Voices of Poetry, Volume 2 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Don Juan Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Faerie Queene Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Childe Harold's Pilgrimage Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Robert Burns Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5John Keats - The Poetry Of Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Walt Whitman's Selected Poems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Poetry of Walt Whitman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poetry Of Trees Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poems of T.S. Eliot Read by Jeremy Irons Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Oscar Wilde: The Poems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Poetry Please: The National Best-Loved Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Poets: Lord Byron Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5William Wordsworth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poetry Of Edgar Allan Poe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Alfred Lord Tennyson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leaves of Grass: 1855 Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Waste Land Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Poetry of Angels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Poetry Of William Wordsworth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5William Blake: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Classic Hundred Poems: All-Time Favorites Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Poetry For You
Tao Te Ching: A New English Version Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beowulf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad: A New Translation by Caroline Alexander Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Inferno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Other Eden Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pretty Boys Are Poisonous: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Milk and Honey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Promises of Gold Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beowulf: A New Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beowulf: Translated by Seamus Heaney Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gift of Rumi: Experiencing the Wisdom of the Sufi Master Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spirits in Bondage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Prophet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Raven Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beowulf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Temple Folk Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Citizen: An American Lyric Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Metamorphoses Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: with Pearl and Sir Orfeo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Raven and Other Poems: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Imagination: Black Voices on Black Futures Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rumi's Little Book of Life: The Garden of the Soul, the Heart, and the Spirit Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gilgamesh: A New English Version Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Inferno of Dante Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Strength In Our Scars Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5W. B. Yeats: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey: The Fitzgerald Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Poetry Of William Blake
Rating: 4.437499921875 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
32 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Well read, went around it more than once and will listen to it more I’m sure, but in this case I find the printed version more effective.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nobody in HISTORY is weirder or more intense than William Blake. Nobody. Not Luvah, not Urizen, not even Ololon, who came to earth as a skylark and then merged with John Milton's reanimated corpse to become an evangelizing hermaphordite angel. Nobody.