William Blake

"Songs of Innocence" and
"Songs of Experience 		Back to English 213 Home Page
 

William Blake may not have been well known to people like William Wordsworth, but before the Romantic movement began he was anticipating, in his own visionary way, the concerns of the Romantic era.  

To see the special exhibit on Blake at the Tate Gallery in London, go to http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/blakeinteractive/ 

William Blake, 
"The Ancient of Days"

Compare to Paradise Lost, Book VII:

"He took the golden Compasses, prepar'd
In God's Eternal store, to circumscribe
This Universe, and all created things:
One foot he centered, and the other turn'd
Round through the vast profundity obscure,
And said, "Thus far exted, thus far thy bounds,
This be thy just Circumference, O World."

See also Proverbs 8:27:

"When he prepared the heavens, I was there, when he set a compass upon the face of the depth."

 

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