Poetry Codex

Romantic

William Blake

1757–1827

William Blake (1757–1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker, largely unrecognised in his lifetime and now seen as a seminal figure of the Romantic age.

He engraved and hand-coloured his own illuminated books, most famously Songs of Innocence and of Experience, where word and image are inseparable.

Major Works (14)

  1. America: A Prophecy — Prophetic book, 1793
  2. The Book of Ahania — Prophetic book, 1795
  3. The Book of Los — Prophetic book, 1795
  4. The Book of Thel — Narrative poem, 1789
  5. The Book of Urizen — Prophetic book, 1794
  6. Europe: A Prophecy — Prophetic book, 1794
  7. The French Revolution — Prophetic book, 1791
  8. Jerusalem — Epic poem, 1804–1820
  9. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell — Prophetic book (verse and poetic prose), c. 1790-93
  10. Milton — Epic poem, 1804–1811
  11. The Song of Los — Prophetic book, 1795
  12. Tiriel — Narrative poem, c. 1789 (first printed 1874)
  13. Vala, or The Four Zoas — Epic poem, 1797–1807
  14. Visions of the Daughters of Albion — Prophetic book, 1793

Poems (256)

  1. Introduction (Innocence)
  2. The Shepherd
  3. The Echoing Green
  4. The Lamb
  5. The Little Black Boy
  6. The Blossom
  7. The Chimney-Sweeper
  8. The Little Boy Lost
  9. The Little Boy Found
  10. Laughing Song
  11. A Cradle Song
  12. The Divine Image
  13. Holy Thursday (Innocence)
  14. Night
  15. Spring
  16. Nurse’s Song (Innocence)
  17. Infant Joy
  18. A Dream
  19. On Another’s Sorrow
  20. Introduction (Experience)
  21. Earth’s Answer
  22. The Clod And The Pebble
  23. Holy Thursday (Experience)
  24. The Little Girl Lost
  25. The Little Girl Found
  26. The Chimney Sweeper
  27. Nurse’s Song (Experience)
  28. The Sick Rose
  29. The Fly
  30. The Angel
  31. The Tyger
  32. My Pretty Rose Tree
  33. Ah Sunflower
  34. The Lily
  35. The Garden Of Love
  36. The Little Vagabond
  37. London
  38. The Human Abstract
  39. Infant Sorrow
  40. A Poison Tree
  41. A Little Boy Lost
  42. A Little Girl Lost
  43. The Schoolboy
  44. To Tirzah
  45. The Voice Of The Ancient Bard
  46. A Divine Image
  47. Fair Eleanor
  48. How sweet I roam'd from field to field
  49. My silks and fine array
  50. Memory, hither come
  51. Mad Song
  52. Fresh from the dewy hill, the merry year
  53. To the Muses
  54. When silver snow decks Susan's clothes
  55. The Defiled Sanctuary
  56. Broken Love
  57. The Two Songs
  58. Never seek to tell thy love
  59. The Everlasting Gospel
  60. The Crystal Cabinet
  61. Auguries of Innocence
  62. To Thomas Butts
  63. From 'Milton'
  64. To the Christians
  65. To Spring
  66. To Summer
  67. To Autumn
  68. To Winter
  69. To the Evening Star
  70. To Morning
  71. Love and harmony combine
  72. A Cradle Song (Experience)
  73. Daybreak
  74. The Wild Flower’s Song
  75. The Birds
  76. The Land of Dreams
  77. To Mrs. Butts
  78. To My Dear Friend, Mrs. Anna Flaxman
  79. The Keys of the Gates of Paradise
  80. Night and Day
  81. The Throne of Mammon
  82. The World
  83. Smile and Frown
  84. Barren Blossom
  85. Opportunity
  86. Fragment for 'Jerusalem'
  87. Cupid
  88. The Golden Net
  89. William Bond
  90. Los
  91. Dedication of the Designs to Blair's 'Grave'
  92. For a Picture of the Last Judgment
  93. Scoffers
  94. The Sword sang on the barren heath
  95. Great things are done when men and mountains meet
  96. The errors of a wise man make your rule
  97. Some people admire the work of a fool
  98. He's a blockhead who wants a proof of what he can't perceive
  99. The Angel that presided at my birth
  100. At a friend's errors anger show
  101. From Jerusalem: To the Jews
  102. From Jerusalem: To the Deists
  103. I love the jocund dance
  104. When early morn walks forth in sober grey
  105. Gwin, King of Norway
  106. An Imitation of Spenser
  107. Prologue, Intended for a Dramatic Piece of King Edward the Fourth
  108. A War Song to Englishmen
  109. Song by a Shepherd
  110. Song by an Old Shepherd
  111. When old corruption first begun
  112. The Song of Phebe and Jellicoe
  113. Hail Matrimony, made of Love!
  114. To be or not to be
  115. This city & this country has brought forth many mayors
  116. Leave, O leave me to my sorrows
  117. Little Phebus came strutting in
  118. Honour & Genius is all I ask
  119. Hear then the pride & knowledge of a Sailor
  120. I cry my matches as far as Guildhall
  121. As I walk'd forth one may morning
  122. This frog he would a wooing ride
  123. O, I say, you Joe
  124. There's Doctor Clash
  125. A crowned king
  126. I asked a thief to steal me a peach
  127. O lapwing! thou fliest around the heath
  128. Why should I care for the men of thames
  129. Thou hast a lap full of seed
  130. In a Mirtle Shade
  131. To My Mirtle
  132. To Nobodaddy
  133. Are not the joys of morning sweeter
  134. They said this mystery never shall cease
  135. Love to faults is always blind
  136. There souls of men are bought & sold
  137. Soft Snow
  138. Merlin's Prophecy
  139. The sun arises in the East
  140. The Fairy
  141. Abstinence sows sand all over
  142. In a wife I would desire
  143. If you trap the moment before it's ripe
  144. Lacedemonian Instruction
  145. Riches
  146. An Answer to the Parson
  147. The Good are attracted by Men's perceptions
  148. Her Whole Life is an Epigram
  149. An Old maid early e'er I knew
  150. Several Questions Answered
  151. Let the Brothels of Paris be opened
  152. When a Man has Married a Wife
  153. When Klopstock England defied
  154. Whate'er is done to her she cannot know
  155. Terror in the house does roar
  156. No real Style of Colouring ever appears
  157. You don't believe — I won't attempt to make ye
  158. And in melodious accents I
  159. And his legs carried it like a long fork
  160. Was I angry with Hayley who us'd me so ill
  161. Anger & Wrath my bosom rends
  162. The Sussex Men are Noted Fools
  163. Madman, I have been call'd: Fool, they call thee
  164. You think Fuseli is not a Great Painter
  165. I mock thee not, though I by thee am Mocked
  166. Can there be anything more mean
  167. S in Childhood, on the nursery floor
  168. How can I help thy Husband's copying Me?
  169. Of H's birth this was the happy lot
  170. Sir Joshua praises Michael Angelo
  171. Cr loves artists as he loves his Meat
  172. A Petty Sneaking Knave I knew
  173. Sir Joshua praised Rubens with a smile
  174. He is a Cock would
  175. He has observ'd the Golden Rule
  176. You all your Youth observ'd the Golden Rule
  177. For Fortune's favours you your riches bring
  178. Fortune favours the Brave, old proverbs say
  179. I am no Homer's Hero you all know
  180. Sir Joshua sent his own Portrait to
  181. The Villain at the Gallows tree
  182. A Strange Erratum in all the Editions
  183. If it is true, what the Prophets write
  184. I found them blind: I taught them how to see
  185. P loved me not as he lov'd his friends
  186. To forgive enemies H does pretend
  187. You call me Mad; 'tis folly to do so
  188. When H y finds out what you cannot do
  189. Some men, created for destruction, come
  190. You say reserve and modesty he has
  191. Wondrous the Gods, more wondrous are the Men
  192. Thy friendship oft has made my heart to ake
  193. Cosway, Frazer, & Baldwin of Egypt's Lake
  194. An Epitaph
  195. I was buried near this dyke
  196. Here lies John Trot, the Friend of all mankind
  197. My title as a Genius thus is prov'd
  198. I, Rubens, am a Statesman and a Saint
  199. You must agree that Rubens was a Fool
  200. Swelled limbs, with no outline that you can descry
  201. A Pretty Epigram for the encouragement of those who have paid great sums in the Venetian and Flemish ooze
  202. These are the Idiots' chiefest arts
  203. Rafael, Sublime, Majestic, Graceful, Wise
  204. Learn the laborious stumble of a Fool!
  205. If I e'er Grow to Man's Estate
  206. The cripple every step drudges & labours
  207. On the great encouragement given by English Nobility & Gentry to Correggio, Rubens, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Catalani, Du Crow, and Dilbury Doodle
  208. Give Pensions to the Learned Pig
  209. All pictures that's painted with sense and with thought
  210. On H the Pickthank
  211. Cromek Speaks
  212. When you look at a picture, you always can see
  213. English Encouragement of Art: Cromek's opinions put into rhyme
  214. You say their Pictures well Painted be
  215. The Washerwoman's Song
  216. When I see a Rubens, Rembrandt, Correggio
  217. If you play a Game of Chance, Know, before you begin
  218. The only Man that e'er I knew
  219. For this is being a Friend just in the nick
  220. I will tell you what Joseph of Arimathea
  221. Grown old in Love from Seven till Seven times Seven
  222. I asked my Dear Friend Orator Prig
  223. O dear Mother Outline!
  224. To Venetian Artists
  225. Great Men and Fools do often me inspire
  226. Having given great offence by writing in Prose
  227. If men will act like a maid smiling over a churn
  228. Call that the Public Voice which is their Error?
  229. If you have form'd a Circle to go into
  230. To Chloe's breast young Cupid slily stole
  231. Now Art has lost its mental Charms
  232. Nail his neck to the Cross
  233. Do what you will this life's a fiction
  234. The Mental Traveller
  235. Mary
  236. The Grey Monk
  237. Long John Brown & Little Mary Bell
  238. A fairy leapt upon my knee
  239. Degrade first the Arts if you'd Mankind Degrade
  240. Some look to see the sweet Outlines
  241. When France got free, Europe, 'twixt fools & Knaves
  242. When Sir Joshua Reynolds died
  243. When Nations grow Old, the Arts grow Cold
  244. On the Venetian Painter
  245. A pair of Stays to mend the Shape
  246. Venetian! all thy Colouring is no more
  247. O Reader, behold the Philosopher's grave!
  248. Mutual Forgiveness of each Vice
  249. To the Accuser who is The God of This World
  250. The Sun's Light, when he unfolds it
  251. Thou waterest him with Tears
  252. The Argument (The Marriage of Heaven and Hell)
  253. Such visions have appear'd to me
  254. Each Man is in his Spectre's power
  255. Especially to the Female
  256. Lo! the Bat with Leathern wing

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