''The Works of William Blake: Poetic, Symbolic and Critical'', edited with lithographs of the illustrated

prophetic books The prophetic books are a division of the Christian Bible, grouping 18 books ( Catholic and Orthodox canon) or 17 books (Protestant canon, excluding Baruch) in the Old Testament. In terms of the Tanakh, it includes the Latter Prophets from the N ...

, and a memoir and interpretation by Edwin John Ellis and William Butler Yeats, is a three-volume commentary book about the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

poet, painter and printmaker

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

. Written through a dual collaboration between the poets Edwin John Ellis and

William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

and published by Bernard Quaritch in 1893, this work was the first comprehensive attempt to interpret Blake's ''œuvre'', by placing its importance on his "

", in contrast to the approach of predecessors such as

Algernon Charles Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as ''Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition ...

and

William Michael Rossetti William Michael Rossetti (25 September 1829 – 5 February 1919) was an English writer and critic. Early life Born in London, Rossetti was a son of immigrant Italian scholar Gabriele Rossetti and his wife Frances Rossetti ''née'' Polidor ...

\. Also, the work was the first collected edition of the majority of Blake's poetry with an erudite commentary, despite its erroneous and misleading traits, like the memoir. As one of the significant nineteenth-century developments in the dissemination of Blake's poetry, this book also made an ambitious attempt to interpret the poet's vatic approach to the making of literature. Today, this classic of 1893 is still illuminating for the lifetime influence it had on one of its editors, W. B. Yeats, who became perhaps the twentieth century's greatest poet in English and, like Blake, a visionary one, at that. From 1889 to 1893 Yeats worked with Edwin Ellis, a minor painter and poet, on a three-volume edition of Blake's works, with a memoir and an effort to define every aspect of Blake's symbols. Yeats was pleased that Blake's artistic and poetic ideas harmonized with those of the

theosophists Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...

and the students and members of the

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn ( la, Ordo Hermeticus Aurorae Aureae), more commonly the Golden Dawn (), was a secret society devoted to the study and practice of occult Hermeticism and metaphysics during the late 19th and early 20th ce ...

, for now he could use occult materials and claim the authority of a great poet for such beliefs and inspirations in his own poetry. This set contains the first reproduced illustrations of Blake's Prophetic Books and is the first collection to publish Blake's ''

Vala, or The Four Zoas ''Vala, or The Four Zoas'' is one of the uncompleted prophetic books by the English poet William Blake, begun in 1797. The eponymous main characters of the book are the Four Zoas (Urthona, Urizen, Luvah and Tharmas), who were created by the fall o ...

''. Yeats marked down William Blake as a master early on, and with Edwin Ellis produced a large-scale commentary on Blake's prophetic writings in 1893. While often erratic and idiosyncratic, it helped establish the importance of Blake's esoteric verse.

References

External links

Ellis, Edwin and Yeats, W. B., ''The Works of William Blake'' (2014). ''Bibliographic Studies''. 8.''The Works of William Blake, poetic, symbolic, and critical'' Volume 1''The Works of William Blake, poetic, symbolic, and critical'' Volume 2''The Works of William Blake, poetic, symbolic, and critical'' Volume 3
Works about William Blake 1893 books Works by W. B. Yeats British biographies {{lit-book-stub