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University of California Press

About the Book

"An essential book in the study of an always fascinating author."—Times Literary Supplement

Since its first publication in 1965, this collection has been widely hailed as the best available text of William Blake's poetry and prose. It is now expanded to include a new foreword by Harold Bloom, his definitive statement on Blake's greatness.

About the Author

Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, William Blake (1757-1827) was a visionary English poet, painter, and printmaker. His wide-ranging influence can be seen in genres from theology and literature to popular music and graphic novels.

Table of Contents

FOREWORD TO THE 2008 EDITION
PREFACE

I. THE WORKS IN ILLUMINATED PRINTING
All Religions are One
There is No Natural Religion a
There is No Natural Religion b
The Book of Thel
Thel's Motto
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Songs of Innocence
Introduction
The Shepherd
The Ecchoing Green
The Lamb
The Little Black Boy
The Blossom
The Chimney Sweeper
The Little Boy lost
The Little Boy Found
Laughing Song
A Cradle Song
The Divine Image
Holy Thursday
Night
Spring
Nurse's Song
Infant Joy
A Dream
On Anothers Sorrow
Songs of Experience
Introduction
Earth's Answer
The Clod & the Pebble
Holy Thursday
The Little Girl Lost
The Little Girl Found
The Chimney Sweeper
Nurse's Song
The Sick Rose
The Fly
The Angel
The Tyger
My Pretty Rose Tree
Ah! Sun-flower
The Lilly
The Garden of Love
The Little Vagabond
London
The Human Abstract
Infant Sorrow
A Poison Tree
A Little Boy Lost
A Little Girl Lost
To Tirzah
The School Boy
The Voice of the Ancient Bard
A Divine Image
For Children: The Gates of Paradise
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
The Argument
The Voice of the Devil
A Memorable Fancy
Proverbs of Hell
A Memorable Fancy
A Memorable Fancy
A Memorable Fancy
A Memorable Fancy
A Song of Liberty
Visions of the Daughters of Albion
The Argument
Visions
America a Prophecy
Preludium
A Prophecy
Canceled Plates
Fragment "As when a dream of Thiralatha"
Europe a Prophecy
"Five windows light the cavern'd Man"
Preludium 
A Prophecy 
The Song of Los 
Africa
Asia
The First Book of Urizen
Preludium
The Book of Ahania
The Book of Los
Milton a Poem in 2 Books

Preface 

"And did those feet in ancient time"
Book the First
Book the Second
Jerusalem: The Emanation of The Giant Albion
Frontispiece
To the Public

Chap: 1
To the Jews
"The fields from Islington to Marybone"

Chap: 2
To the Deists
"I saw a Monk of Charlemaine"

Chap: 3
To the Christians
"I give you the end of a golden string"
"I stood among my valleys of the south"
"England! awake!"

Chap: 4
For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise
Prologue "Mutual Forgiveness of each Vice"
Frontispiece
The Keys of the Gates
Epilogue To The Accuser who is The God of This World
On Homers Poetry
On Virgil
The Ghost of Abel
The Laocoon

II. PROPHETIC WORKS, UNENGRAVED
Tiriel
The French Revolution
The Four Zoas
Vala Night the First
Vala Night the Second
Vala Night the Third
Vala Night the Fourth
Vala Night the Fifth
Vala Night the Sixth
Vala Night the Seventh
Vala Night the Eighth
Vala Night the Ninth Being The Last Judgment

III. POETICAL SKETCHES
Miscellaneous Poems
To Spring
To Summer
To Autumn
To Winter
To the Evening Star
To Morning
Fair Elenor
Song "How sweet I roam'd from field to field"
Song "My silks and fine array"
Song "Love and harmony combine"
Song "I love the jocund dance"
Song "Memory, hither come"
Mad Song
Song "Fresh from the dewy hill, the merry year"
Song "When early morn walks forth in sober grey"
To the Muses
Gwin, King of Norway
An Imitation of Spen ser
Blind-man's Buff
King Edward the Third
"O sonds of Trojan Brutus, cloath'd in war"
Prologue, intended for a dramatic piece of King Edward the Fourth
Prologue to King John
A War Song to Englishmen
The Couch of Death
Contemplation
Samson
Further Sketches
"the She bore Pale desire..."
"Woe cried the muse..."

IV. AN ISLAND IN THE MOON
Chapter I
Chap 2
Chap 3
"Little Phebus came strutting in"
"Honour & Genius is all I ask"
Chap 4
Chap 5
Chap 6
"When old corruption first begun"
Chap 7
Chap 8
"Hear then the pride & knowledge of a Sailor"
"Phebe drest like beauties Queen"

Chap 9
"Lo the Bat with Leathern wing"
"Want Matches"
"I cry my matches as far as Guild hall"
"As I walkd forth one may morning"
"This frog he would a wooing ride"
"Fa ra so bo ro"
"Hail Matrimony made of Love"
"To be or not to be"
"This city & this country has brought forth many mayors"

Chap 10

Chap 11
"Upon a holy thursday thier innocent faces clean"
"When the tongues of children are heard on the green"
"O father father where are you going"
"O I say you Joe"
"Leave O leave me to my sorrows"
"Theres Doctor Clash"
"A crowned king"

V. SONGS AND BALLADS
Song 1st by a Shepherd
Song 3rd by an Old Shepherd
"Never pain to tell thy love"
"I feard the fury of my wind"
"I saw a chapel all of gold"
"I laid me down upon a bank"
A cradle song 
"I asked a thief to steal me a peach"
To my Mirtle
To go on 1 Plate
"O lapwing thou fliest around the heath"
An answer to the parson
Experiment "Thou hast a lap full of seed"
Riches
"If you trap the moment before its ripe"
Eternity
"I heard an Angel singing"
"Silent Silent Night"
To Nobodaddy
"Are not the joys of morning sweeter"
"How came pride in Man"
How to know Love from Deceit
The wild flowers Song
Soft Snow
Merlins prophecy
"Why Should I care for the men of thames"
Day
"The sword sung on the barren heath"
"Abstinence sows sand all over"
"In a wife I would desire"
Lacedemonian Instruction
"An old maid early eer I knew"
Several Questions Answered
"He who binds to himself a joy"
"The look of love alarms"
"Soft deceit & Idleness"
"What is it men in women do require"
An ancient Proverb
The Fairy
The Kid
"My Spectre around me night & day"
Postscript "Oer my Sins Thou sit & moan"
"Mock on Mock on Voltaire Rousseau"
Morning
"Terror in the house does roar"
The Birds
"Why was Cupid a Boy"
"Now Art has lost its mental Charms"
To the Queen
"The Caverns of the Grave I've seen"
"I rose up at the dawn of day"
"A fairy skipd upon my knee"
"Around the Springs of Gray my wild root weaves"
To M' Ann Flaxman
The Pickering Manuscript
The Smile
The Golden Net
The Mental Traveller
The Land of Dreams
Mary
The Crystal Cabinet
The Grey Monk
Augusries of Innocence
An Editorial Arrangement
Long John Brown & Little Mary Bell
William Bond
Mr Blake's Nursery Rhyme

VI. SATIRIC VERSES AND EPIGRAMS
Motto to the Songs of Innocence & of Experience
"Let the Brothels of Paris be opened"
"Who will exchange his own fire side"
"When Klopstock England defied"
On the Virginity of the Virgin Mary & Johanna Southcott
"You don't believe I won't attempt to make ye"
"If it is True What the Prophets write"
"I am no Homers Hero you all know"
"The Angel that resided oer my birth"
"Some Men created for destruction come"
"If I eer Grow to Mans Estate"
From Cratetos
"If Men will act like a maid smiling over a Churn"
"Anger & Wratch my bosom rends"
An Epitaph
Another
"He is a Cock would"
"And his legs carried it like a long fork"
"Was I angry with Hayley who used me so ill"
Blakes apology for his Catalogue
"Cosway Frazer & Baldwin of Egypt Lake"
"My title as a Genius thus is provd"
To H 
"P————loved me not as he lovd his Friends"
"The Sussex Men are Noted Fools"
"Of H s birth this was the happy lot"
On H————ys Friendship
To H———
On H————the Pick thank
Imitation of Pope    A Compliment to the Ladies
William Cowper Esq
"The only Man that eer I knew"
"Madman I have been calld Fool they call thee"
To F————
"He's a Blockhead who wants a proof of what he Can't Percieve"
To Nancy F———
To F———
"S——— in Childhood on the Nursery floor"
"He has observed the Golden Rule"
To S———d
On S———
"old acquaintance well renew"
On F——— & S———
M' Cromek to M' Stothard
"Cr———— loves artists as he loves his Meat"
"A Petty sneaking Knave I knew"
Cromek Speaks
English Encouragement of Art First reading
English Encouragement of Art Final reading
"When you look at a picture you always can see"
The Cunning sures & the Aim at yours
"All Pictures thats Panted with Sense & with Thought"
"You say their Pictures well Painted be"
"The Errors of a Wise Man make your Rule"
"Great things are done when Men & Mountain meet"
"If you play a Game of Chance know before you begin"
"No real Style of Colouring ever appears"
"Can there by any thing more mean"
"Sir Joshua Praises Michael Angelo"
"Sir Joshua praised Rubens with a Smile"
Florentine Ingratitude
A Pitiful Case
To the Royal Academy
"The Cripple every step Drudges & labours"
"I Rubens am a Statesman & a Saint"
To English Connoisseurs
"Swelld limbs, with no outline that you can descry"
A Pretty Epigram for the Entertainment...
"These are the Idiots chiefest arts"
"Rafael Sublime Majestic Graceful Wise"
On the Great Encouragement...
"Give pensions to the Learned Pig"
"When I see a Rubens Rembrant Correggio"
"Delicate Hands & Heads will never appear"
"I aksd my Dear Friend Orator Prigg"
"o dear Mother outline of knowledge most sage"
To Venetian Artists 
"Great Men & Fools do often me Inspire"
"Some people admire the work of a Fool"
"Her whole Life is an Epigram smack smooth & nobly pend"
"When a Man has Married a Wife"
"Grown old in Love from Seven till Seven times Seven"
"The Hebrew Nation did not write it"
To God
"Since all the Riches of this World"
"To Choles breast young Cupid slily stole"
"Nail his neck to the Cross nail it with a nail"
"A Woman Scaly & a Man all Hairy"
The Washer Womans Song

Reviews

“An essential book in the study of an always fascinating author.”
Times Literary Supplement
"'Blake's most reliable historical and textual scholar' presents the work of the poet, artist and engraver (1757-1827); included are "The Lamb" ("Little Lamb who made thee"), "Never Pain to Tell They Love" ("?Love that never told can be?"), and "The Poison Tree" ("I was angry with my friend; / I told my wrath, my wrath did end")."
Foreword Reviews
"The crucial preliminary problem [in establishing Blake’s text] is simply to make out what Blake wrote. . . . Erdman has used modern aids such as infrared photography and microphotography . . . but his real achievement has been to look at Blake’s text more closely and intelligently than any previous editor."
New York Review of Books
"Very much fuller textual annotations [than any other Blake edition]; and incorporates a remarkable number of new readings."
Southern Review
"Blake was a visionary, rather than a mystic, and like D. H. Lawrence and Sigmund Freud he hoped to encourage us to exalt our human potential. Perhaps William Blake can best be termed an apocalyptic humanist, who urges us never to forget that all deities reside within the human breast."—Harold Bloom, from the new foreword