HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILLIAM BLAKE

Today marks the 250^th anniversary of the birth of William Blake, poet and printmaker. I regard him as one of the finest writers/artists ever because of the purity of his vision. Reading his biography, I discover that he chose to pursue his art without compromise. He did not write poetry that would sell. Most of his life, he lived in poverty rather than do work that did not fit his worldview. He never tailored his art to gain readers or to make money.

Many people want to view Blake as a precursor to the sixties, a hippy before his time. The Doors famously took their name from Blake’s verse – “when the doors of perception are cleansed, everything will appear as it is, infinite”. Yet someone more unlike the Lizard King is hard to imagine. Blake was faithful to his wife, Catherine. They had a  long and mostly happy marriage, and she supported her husband throughout. There’s no evidence, either, that Blake used mind-altering substances – he was no pale romantic like Keats or Coleridge.

Blake is revered as a political radical. There is no doubt that he was among those of his time who ardently approved of the American and French revolutions, how they took power from an aristocracy and gave it to the ordinary people. Yet, he cannot easily be claimed as a precursor by the leftwing movements of the 19^th and 20^th centuries – for one great reason – which is that God and religion  and especially the Bible forms the backdrop against which Blake wrote.

Here is the disconnect between Blake and the radicals of our own day. Most of them have swallowed whole the line peddled by Karl Marx – “religion is the opium of the people.” In this, they have been greatly helped by the propensity of many Christians to see their religion as justifying a wealthy and comfortable lifestyle because of their hard work. So faith is regarded with suspicion.

In William Blake’s case, though, the revolutionary times through which he lived reflect not only time but eternity. Liberation to Blake is not merely about achieving political freedom but is bound up with spiritual self-realisation. To him, the spiritual and political are one, and the Bible becomes a tool for liberating the mind from “the mind-forg’d manacles”. So political and religious freedom are intertwined. This surely is at the heart of his famous preface from “Milton”.

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England’s mountain green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England’s pleasant pastures seen?And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land.  

Indeed, that says it all.

~ by wr1tething on November 27, 2007.