Blake The Complete Poems 2nd Edition

William Blake (1757-1827) is one of the great figures in literature, by turns poet, artist and visionary. Profoundly libertarian in outlook, Blake's engagement with the issues of his day is well known and this - along with his own idiosyncratic concerns - flows through his poetry and his art. Like Milton before him, the prodigality of his allusions and references is little short of astonishing. Consequently, his longer visionary  poems can challenge the modern reader, who will find in this avowedly open edition all they might need to interpret the poetry.

W. H. Stevenson's Blake is a masterpiece of scrupulous scholarship. It is, as the editor makes clear in his introduction, 'designed to be widely, and fluently, read' and this Third Edition incorporates many changes to further that aim. Many of the headnotes have been rewritten and the footnotes updated. The full texts of the early prose tracts, All Religions are One and There is No Natural Religion, are included for the first time. In many instances, Blake's capitalisation has been restored, better to convey the expressive individuality of his writing. In addition, a full colour plate section contains a representation of Blake's most significant paintings and designs. As the 250th anniversary of his birth approaches, Blake has perhaps more readers than ever before; Blake: The Complete Poems will stand those readers, new and old, in good stead for many years to come.

W. H. Stevenson worked on the first edition while Professor of English at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, where he also conducted the only known performance in Nigeria of Donizetti's opera, 'l'elisir d'amore'. Later he was Full Professor at Boston University, USA, and head of the Department of English at Calabar, Nigeria. He has also taught at Leeds and Edinburgh Universities.

 

W. H. Stevenson's Blake is a masterpiece of scrupulous and democratic scholarship.

·       Best available scholarly edition of Blake's poetry

·       Striking new cover design will make the paperback edition stand out on the shelf

W. H. Stevenson is retired Professor of English at Calabar University, Nigeria.

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations          vii

Acknowledgements        viii

Note by the General Editor             ix

Preface               xi

Chronological Table of the Life and Work of William Blake    xv

Abbreviations  xxiii

POEMS

1          Poetical Sketches3

2          Poems written in a copy of Poetical Sketches                40

3          Songs from An Islandin the Moon  41

4          All Religions are One and There is No Natural Religion

5          Songs of Innocence            53

6          Tiriel       74

7          Thel        93

8          The Marriage of Heaven and Hell     101

9          The French Revolution       124

10        A Divine Image    143

11        Poems from the Notebook, c. 1791–2                143

12        Visions of the Daughters of Albion  172

13        America187

14        Songs of Experience            208

15        Europe   223

16        The Song of Los  241

17        The First Book of Urizen     248

18        The Book of Ahania            269

19        The Book of Los  278

20        Versus written with illustrations to Gray’s Poems          285

21        Verses written c. 1798–1802               286

22        Vala, or The Four Zoas       287

23        ‘When Klopstock Englanddefied’   469

24        Poems in letters (1800)        470

25        On the Virginity of the Virgin Mary and Joanna Southcott          474

26        Poems to Mr. & Mrs. Butts                475

27        Notebook drafts, c. 1804     478

28        Milton    487

29        The ‘PickeringManuscript’               580

30        To Tirzah               594

31        ‘A fairy skip’d’     595

32        ‘Grown old in love’              596

33        To the Queen        596

34        Miscellaneous Notebook Verses, c. 1807–9    597

35        Miscellaneous Verses, 1809–12         608

36        Jerusalem, the Emanation of the Giant Albion                623

37        For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise                849

38        The Everlasting Gospel       853

39        The Ghost of Abel               869

Appendix: Doubtful and Spurious Attributions         873

Index of Titles and First Lines       876

Index to Notes  886

Index to Prose Quotations