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The Poetry and Prose of William Blake

Edited by David V. Erdman: Commentary by Harold Bloom
Blake, William (1757-1827)

expand sectionI. 
I THE WORKS IN ILLUMINATED PRINTING
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II [PROPHETIC WORKS, UNENGRAVED]
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III POETICAL SKETCHES.
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IV [AN ISLAND IN THE MOON]
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V [SONGS AND BALLADS]
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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 dont believe I wont attempt to make ye]
  
[If it is True What the Prophets write]
  
[I am no Homers Hero you all know]
  
[The Angel that presided oer my birth]
  
[Some Men created for destruction come]
  
[If I eer Grow to Mans Estate]
  
From Cratelos
  
[If Men will act like a maid smiling over a Churn]
  
[Anger & Wrath my bosom rends]
  
An Epitaph
  
Another [Epitaph]
  
Another [Epitaph]
  
[He is a Cock would]
  
[And his legs carried it like a long fork]
  
[Was I angry with Hayley who usd me so ill]
  
Blakes apology for his Catalogue
  
[Cosway Frazer & Baldwin of Egypts 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]
  
[To forgive Enemies H--- does pretend]
  
On H---ys Friendship
  
To H---
  
On H--- the Pick thank
  
Imitation of Pope A Compliment to the Ladies
  
William Cowper Esqre
  
[The only Man that eer I knew]
  
[Madman I have been calld Fool they call thee]
  
To F---
  
[Hes 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 observd the Golden Rule]
  
To S---d
  
On S---
  
[old acquaintance well renew]
  
On F--- & S---
  
Mr Stothard to Mr Cromek
  
Mr Cromek to Mr Stothard
  
[Cr--- loves artists as he loves his Meat]
  
[A Petty sneaking Knave I knew]
  
Cromek Speaks
  
English Encouragement of Art
  
English Encouragement of Art
  
[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 & Mountains meet]
  
[If you play a Game of Chance know before you begin]
  
[No real Style of Colouring ever appears]
  
[Can there be any thing more mean]
  
[Sir Joshua Praises Michael Angelo]
  
[Sir Jo[s]hua 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 of those who have Paid Great Sums in the Venetian & Flemish Ooze
  
[These are the Idiots chiefest arts]
  
[Rafael Sublime Majestic Graceful Wise]
  
On the Great Encouragement Given by English Nobility & Gentry to Correggio Rubens Rembrandt Reynolds Gainsborough Catalani DuCrowe & Dilbury Doodle
  
[Give pensions to the Learned Pig]
  
[When I see a Rubens Rembrant Correggio]
  
[Delicate Hands & Heads will never appear]
  
[I askd 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 & neatly pend]
  
[When a Man has Married a Wife he finds out whether]
  
[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 Chloes 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
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VII THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL
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XII [THE MARGINALIA]
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XIII [INSCRIPTIONS AND NOTES ON OR FOR PICTURES]
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XV [LETTERS, A SELECTION]

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[If it is True What the Prophets write]

If it is True What the Prophets write
That the heathen Gods are all stocks & stones
Shall we for the sake of being Polite
Feed them with the juice of our marrow bones
And if Bezaleel & Aholiab drew
What the Finger of God pointed to their View
Shall we suffer the Roman & Grecian Rods
To compell us to worship them as Gods
493

They stole them from the Temple of the Lord
And Worshippd them that they might make Inspired Art Abhorrd
The Wood & Stone were calld The Holy Things
And their Sublime Intent given to their Kings
All the Atonements of Jehovah spurnd
And Criminals to Sacrifices Turnd
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