Susan’s Almanac Project for November 28, 2018

It’s the birthday of poet, artist, and engraver William Blake (1757-1827), one of the most original of the Romantic Poets and someone who saw 100% more angels than most people do.

Blake was born (and later died) in London to James and Catherine Blake. He was one of seven children, five of whom survived at least to young adulthood. His family was not well off, but his childhood was happy. While his parents were not thrilled with his reports of seeing angels, they did kindly support his interest in the arts, even sending him to a drawing school until it got too expensive. They then decided to apprentice him to an engraver, but the first engraver they interviewed, the highly respected William Ryland, was not to Blake’s liking; he said, “Father, I do not like the man’s face; it looks as if he will live to be hanged.” (Doodely doodely doodely…cue eerie harp music…) And 11 or 12 years later, Ryland was indeed hanged for forgery. (They didn’t mess around in those days.) Blake apprenticed instead with James Basire, living with Basire’s family for seven years and progressing very well in the craft.

Blake then worked as an independent engraver. He became well known in this regard, received a number of important commissions, and along the way had an interesting conversation with the Archangel Gabriel. Blake even invented a new method of printing, which he credited to the then-departed spirit of his favorite brother Robert (d. 1787). Blake married in 1782, a woman named Catherine Boucher who ended up being a fabulous wife and support to his career. He in turn taught Catherine to read and write and help with his engravings, and after his death sometimes returned to visit her, like you do.

But the poetry: Blake published his poetry through that laborious printing method of Robert’s, which involved drawing and then etching the poems and illustrations on copper, then printing, coloring, and stitching maybe a dozen copies at a time. He used this method for Songs of Innocence, his famous collection of poems for children, including “The Lamb,” “The Tyger,” “The Chimney Sweep,” and “Infant Joy.” (Read the lovely poem “Infant Joy” here.) Blake went on to write Songs of Experience (combining it with his first volume) and other books of poetry and prophecies, including Marriage of Heaven and Hell (satirizing authority in church and state) and the epic poem Milton, inspired by an event in which John Milton’s spirit inhabited Blake. (And I bet Milton would have something to say about that.) One of his major works was another epic poem, Jerusalem, in which Blake explores the fall and redemption of man and also works in some revenge against a real-life soldier who had falsely accused him of sedition.

In Blake’s final years, he was very poor but surrounded by great friends and, according to britannica.com, suffused with contentment. Blake was not recognized for his brilliance in his own lifetime, but by the 1860s people were writing about his life and works and he ultimately became a major influence on many writers and poets, including Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Thomas Merton, and even the Japanese Nobel Laureate Kenzaburō Ōe.

Have another fine day looking out at a snow globe sort of world and stay scrupulously honest to the data.