3rd Edition

Blake: The Complete Poems

Edited By W.H. Stevenson Copyright 2007
    974 Pages
    by Routledge

    980 Pages
    by Routledge

    William Blake (1757 - 1827) is one of the great figures in literature, by turns poet, artist and visonary. Profoundly libertarian in outlook, Blake's engagement with the issues of his day is well known and this - along with his own idiosynratic concerns - flows through his poetry and art. Like Milton before him, the prodigality of his allusions and references is little short of astonishing. Consquently, his longer viosnary poems can challege the modern reader, who will find in this avowedly open edition all they might need to interpret the poetry.

    W. H. Stevenson's Blake is a masterpiece of scrupulous scholarship. It is, as the editor makes clear in his introduction, 'designed to be widely, and fluently, read' and this Third Edition incorporates many changes to further that aim. Many of the headnotes have been rewritten and the footnotes updated. The full texts of the early prose tracts, All Religions are One and There is no Natural Religion, are included for the first time. In many instances, Blake's capitalisation has been restored, better to convey the expressive individuality of his writing. In addition, a full colour plate section contains a representation of Blake's most significant paintings and designs. As the 250th anniversary of his birth approaches, Blake has perhaps more readers than ever before; Blake: The Complete Poems will stand those readers, new and old, in good stead for many years to come.

    CONTENTS

    List of Illustrations vii

    Acknowledgements   viii

    Note by the General Editor ix

    Preface    xi

    Chronological Table of the Life and Work of William Blake xv

    Abbreviations  xxiii

    POEMS

    1 Poetical Sketches3

    2 Poems written in a copy of Poetical Sketches 40

    3 Songs from An Islandin the Moon  41

    4 All Religions are One and There is No Natural Religion

    5 Songs of Innocence    53

    6 Tiriel 74

    7 Thel   93

    8 The Marriage of Heaven and Hell   101

    9 The French Revolution 124

    10   A Divine Image 143

    11   Poems from the Notebook, c. 1791–2 143

    12   Visions of the Daughters of Albion  172

    13   America187

    14   Songs of Experience    208

    15   Europe   223

    16   The Song of Los  241

    17   The First Book of Urizen   248

    18   The Book of Ahania    269

    19   The Book of Los  278

    20   Versus written with illustrations to Gray’s Poems 285

    21   Verses written c. 1798–1802    286

    22   Vala, or The Four Zoas 287

    23   ‘When Klopstock Englanddefied’   469

    24   Poems in letters (1800)   470

    25   On the Virginity of the Virgin Mary and Joanna Southcott 474

    26   Poems to Mr. & Mrs. Butts 475

    27   Notebook drafts, c. 1804   478

    28   Milton 487

    29   The ‘PickeringManuscript’    580

    30   To Tirzah    594

    31   ‘A fairy skip’d’   595

    32   ‘Grown old in love’   596

    33   To the Queen   596

    34   Miscellaneous Notebook Verses, c. 1807–9 597

    35   Miscellaneous Verses, 1809–12    608

    36   Jerusalem, the Emanation of the Giant Albion 623

    37   For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise 849

    38   The Everlasting Gospel 853

    39   The Ghost of Abel    869

    Appendix: Doubtful and Spurious Attributions    873

    Index of Titles and First Lines 876

    Index to Notes  886

    Index to Prose Quotations

    Biography

    W.H. Stevenson