William Blake's "Songs of Innocence and Experience" contain some of Blake's finest and best-loved poems, which are presented here in the form which best satisfied the high expectations of his poetic and artistic aspirations. The fifty-four plates which Blake originally etched and coloured by hand are beautifully reproduced, and each has the text of the poem printed on the facing page. Here the reader will find "The Lamb", "The Little Black Boy", "The Chimney Sweeper", "Infant Joy", "The Sick Rose", "The Tyger" and "Infant Sorrow".
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A really beautiful and handy edition. --Tracey Chevalier
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
About the Author
William Blake (1757–1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry has led one British art journalist to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced". Although he lived in London his entire life except for three years spent in Felpham he produced a diverse and symbolically rich corpus, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God", or "Human existence itself". Considered mad by contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, Blake is held in high regard by later critics for his expressiveness and creativity, and for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work. His paintings and poetry have been characterized as part of both the Romantic movement and "Pre-Romantic", for its large appearance in the 18th century. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the Church of England, Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American revolutions, as well as by such thinkers as Jakob Böhme and Emanuel Swedenborg. Despite these known influences, the singularity of Blake's work makes him difficult to classify. The 19th century scholar William Rossetti characterised Blake as a "glorious luminary," and as "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors." Historian Peter Marshall has classified Blake as one of the forerunners of modern anarchism, along with Blake's contemporary William Godwin.
--This text refers to the
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
My favourite edition of Blake's immortal poems. This book is in hardback and has the original paintings. It is small enough to slip into a pocket or bag so that you can have it handy to reach. Unfortunately some people will find the print too small, and so if you want a slightly larger print version with the illustrations I would advise you to look at other editions on this website.
Each poem is printed clearly in easy print with the facing page showing how it originally appeared when first produced in a painting. Over the years Blake has been considered both insane, and a genius. With this collection it is nowadays rightly considered that he was a genius. The title of the book gives you some idea what the poems are about, but although they are easy to read, and seem to just trip off the tongue they are deceptively more complicated that at first sight. Blake uses so much symbolism that every time you read one of these poems something extra appears, especially with the incorporation of the paintings.
Blake is so hard to pin down as specifically meaning this or that, so much so that his poems have a life of their own, coming to mean different things to different people. We all have our own favourites, mine being London and The Tyger, which I can just sit down and read over and over again. This is definitely a book that you come back to time and again, whether it is just to read them for pleasure or for inspiration.
Each poem is printed clearly in easy print with the facing page showing how it originally appeared when first produced in a painting. Over the years Blake has been considered both insane, and a genius. With this collection it is nowadays rightly considered that he was a genius. The title of the book gives you some idea what the poems are about, but although they are easy to read, and seem to just trip off the tongue they are deceptively more complicated that at first sight. Blake uses so much symbolism that every time you read one of these poems something extra appears, especially with the incorporation of the paintings.
Blake is so hard to pin down as specifically meaning this or that, so much so that his poems have a life of their own, coming to mean different things to different people. We all have our own favourites, mine being London and The Tyger, which I can just sit down and read over and over again. This is definitely a book that you come back to time and again, whether it is just to read them for pleasure or for inspiration.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By ADAM
Format:Hardcover
Words and pictures, some people claim words are pictures, i suppose they are, but words signify something a little more concrete, a specific idea, moreso than pictures can. A picture is worth a thousand words, so they say, thats probably because pictures are ambiguous, a picture can have more diverse understandings because there's no one right meaning. Whereas words can be defined, cutting off any opportunity for creativity of meaning.
This little book is one of the greatest art pieces ever, the poems which are like childrens stories, like fairytales, are accompanied by beautiful little paintings, and there's no attempt by Blake to make one bow down to the other, it all just fits. Its poetry, some people, like e.e.cummings, would have the words spread out along the page in strange patterns, and the arrangement of words would be important to the understanding. Here, the pictures are actually a part of the poems, and the poems of the pictures. No real distinction is made, and yet it causes absolutely no (visible) anxiety to Blake to break rules and rebuild new ones in such a way.
I guess that's William Blake though, a one of a kind sort of fellow, seems like the kind of person whose asides and throwaway lines would be golden to a lesser artist. And this book is a must.
This little book is one of the greatest art pieces ever, the poems which are like childrens stories, like fairytales, are accompanied by beautiful little paintings, and there's no attempt by Blake to make one bow down to the other, it all just fits. Its poetry, some people, like e.e.cummings, would have the words spread out along the page in strange patterns, and the arrangement of words would be important to the understanding. Here, the pictures are actually a part of the poems, and the poems of the pictures. No real distinction is made, and yet it causes absolutely no (visible) anxiety to Blake to break rules and rebuild new ones in such a way.
I guess that's William Blake though, a one of a kind sort of fellow, seems like the kind of person whose asides and throwaway lines would be golden to a lesser artist. And this book is a must.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
Songs of Innocence and Experience is a collection of wonderful poems. However this edition does not work on the Kindle at all well. The poems are not formatted into verses, as they should be. Also some longer poems disappear off the bottom of the page. These sections are inaccessible. It seems that the page breaks are not set correctly. All in all, it is most frustrating.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Please ignore the negative reviews
This is an excellent little book to slip in your pocket. It's also Smyth-Sewn, so should last a lifetime if you look after it. Read more
Published 1 month ago by 81641
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good for a tablet
I nearly did not buy this because of the 1 star review that complained about the quality of the illustrations. But when I did, I was very pleased. Read more
Published 7 months ago by the other half
1.0 out of 5 stars
Very disappointing kindle edition
I love my kindle app on iPad. I was grabbed by a few lines of poetry found on a wall, and found they were penned by William Blake. Read more
Published 19 months ago by D. Sim
2.0 out of 5 stars
No sence and inexperience
Great idea - but badly implemented on the Kindle. Poems run off the bottom of the page, but if you go to the next page you don't find the rest of the poem. Read more
Published on 24 Feb 2011 by Simon Knights
2.0 out of 5 stars
Missed opportunity
Downloaded this for the Kindle iPhone app. While the content is (of course!) excellent, there's a problem with linebreaks that results in a significant portion of some of the poems... Read more
Published on 22 Feb 2011 by A Hutchinson
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful, but too small
This is an excellent edition of William Blakes SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE. It features both a more legible text as well as the original paintings/drawings, in which the... Read more
Published on 15 Feb 2009 by Cyril L. Caspar
5.0 out of 5 stars
William Blake? Yeah, he's pretty great
William Blake is one of the most influencial poets in history, and would make my list of top five poets ever any day of the week. Read more
Published on 14 May 2006 by Stev White
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic.
Granted Blake is perhaps not to everyone's taste, one has to look at the period in which it was written to truly appreciate his work. Read more
Published on 22 Oct 2003 by Ms. E. A. Mabbott
4.0 out of 5 stars
A superb reflection of the time
This collection of poetry is a fascinating insight into the thoughts and imagination of a superb poet, who reflects the thought of the romantic era very well. Read more
Published on 6 Oct 2001
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