English poet & painter (1757-1827)
Improvement makes straight roads; but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell
The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn of the crow.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell
Never seek to tell thy love
Love that never told can be;
For the gentle wind does move
Silently, invisibly.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Poems from Blake's Notebook
One thought fills immensity.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell
Terror in the house does roar,
But Pity stands before the door.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"Terror in the House"
Bit from the dolorous groan on high a shadow of smoke appeared,
And human bones rattling together in the smoke and stamping
The nether abyss, and gnashing in fierce despair, and panting in sobs,
Thick, short, incessant, bursting, sobbing, deep despairing, stamping,
Struggling to utter the voice of man, to take features of man,
To take the limbs of man.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Vala
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life and bid thee feed
By the stream and o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, woolly bright.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"The Lamb", Songs of Innocence
When the voices of children are heard on the green
And laughing is heard on the hill,
My heart is at rest within my breast
And everything else is still.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"Nurse's Song", Songs of Innocence
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell
For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity, a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"The Divine Image", Songs of Innocence
Are those who love like those who died, risen again from death,
Immortal in immortal torment never to be delivered?
WILLIAM BLAKE
Vala
The sword sung on the barren heath,
The sickle in the fruitful field;
The sword he sung a song of death,
But could not make the sickle yield.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"Love to Faults", Poems from Blake's Notebook
Every Harlot was a Virgin once.
WILLIAM BLAKE
For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise
Everything possible to be believ'd is an image of truth.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"Proverbs of Hell", The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell
The Goddess Fortune is the devil's servant, ready to kiss anyone's arse.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"The Goddess Fortune", Notes on Illustrations to Dante
Reason, or the ratio of all we have already known, is not the same that it shall be when we know more.
WILLIAM BLAKE
There is No Natural Religion
The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels and God, and at liberty when of Devils and Hell, is because he was a true poet and of the Devils' party without knowing it.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"The Voice of the Devil", The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
The weak in courage is strong in cunning.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell
He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars;
General Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Jerusalem