Skip directly to:Main content Main navigation

University of Virginia Library

The Poetry and Prose of William Blake

Edited by David V. Erdman: Commentary by Harold Bloom

Blake, William (1757-1827)

I.

I THE WORKS IN ILLUMINATED PRINTING

II.

II [PROPHETIC WORKS, UNENGRAVED]

III.

III POETICAL SKETCHES.

IV.

IV [AN ISLAND IN THE MOON]

V.

V [SONGS AND BALLADS]

collapse section

VI.

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]

[If Men will act like a maid smiling over a Churn]

[Anger & Wrath my bosom rends]

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]

[P--- loved me not as he lovd his Friends]

[The Sussex Men are Noted Fools]

[To forgive Enemies H--- does pretend]

On H---ys Friendship

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]

[Hes a Blockhead who wants a proof of what he Can't Percieve]

[S--- in Childhood on the Nursery floor]

[He has observd the Golden Rule]

[old acquaintance well renew]

Mr Stothard to Mr Cromek

Mr Cromek to Mr Stothard

[Cr--- loves artists as he loves his Meat]

[A Petty sneaking Knave I knew]

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

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]

[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

VII.

VII THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL

XII.

XII [THE MARGINALIA]

XIII.

XIII [INSCRIPTIONS AND NOTES ON OR FOR PICTURES]

XV.

XV [LETTERS, A SELECTION]

collapse section

Collapse All | Expand All expand section

[If I eer Grow to Mans Estate]

If I eer Grow to Mans Estate
O Give to me a Womans fate
May I govern all both great & small
Have the last word & take the wall