The prophetic books of the 18th-century English poet and artist

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

are a series of lengthy, interrelated poetic works drawing upon Blake's own personal mythology. They have been described by 20th-century critic

Northrop Frye Herman Northrop Frye (July 14, 1912 – January 23, 1991) was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century. Frye gained international fame with his first book, ''Fearful Symmetr ...

as forming "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". While Blake worked as a commercial illustrator, these books were ones that he produced, with his own engravings, as an extended and largely private project.

Overview

In these works, concluding with the epic '' Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion'', he elaborated a personal invented mythology (

mythopoeia Mythopoeia (, ), or mythopoesis, is a subgenre of speculative fiction, and a theme in modern literature and film, where an artificial or fictionalized mythology is created by the writer of prose fiction, prose, poetry, or other literary forms. T ...

). The mythopoeia is largely Biblical in inspiration; apart from that, it has been extensively debated for both its political and religious content. While ''The French Revolution'' from 1791 is not illustrated and is usually excluded from the list of prophetic books, David V. Erdman contends that the separation of this work from the corpus removes a key to the symbolism used by Blake. Another work, '' Vala, or The Four Zoas'' (1797), begun while Blake was residing in Felpham, was abandoned in draft form; of this abandoning by Blake, Northrop Frye has commented that " yone who cares about poetry or painting must see in 'Vala''sunfinished state a major cultural disaster".Frye, Northrop, ''Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake'', 1969, p. 269.

Critical reception

The prophetic books have on occasion been dismissed as lacking in good sense. This position is now rarely held by scholars of

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

, Blake having been one of the major beneficiaries of critical fashion during the twentieth century.

and, following him,

Harold Bloom Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world". Af ...

have suggested that the difficulty of reading Blake's prophetic works can be overcome, and that the dismissive "mystical" tag applied to them is largely an obfuscation. "

Mystical Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight ...

" as to the poetic language has indeed been the equivalent of " visionary" applied to the engravings. Blake's prophetic books, having often been dismissed until recent times, have had a tortuous publication history, unlike his

lyric poem Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. The term for both modern lyric poetry and modern song lyrics derives from a form of Ancient Greek literature, th ...

s, which have been regarded as more direct and relatively unproblematic.

The continental prophecies

The cycle of continental prophecies comprises ''America a Prophecy'' (1793), ''Europe a Prophecy'' (1794) and ''The Song of Los'' (1795), which is made up of sections ''Africa'' and ''Asia''. ''America a Prophecy'' is divided into a ''Preludium'' (which is part of the Orc myth) and ''A Prophecy'', which has obvious political content devolving from the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

. The first line of ''A Prophecy'' is repeated as the final line of ''Africa''. On the other hand, ''Europe a Prophecy'' has an unnamed introductory section, a ''Preludium'' with Orc and Enitharmon, and ''A Prophecy'' with connections to the contemporary situation of wartime Europe. The ''Asia'' section of ''The Song of Los'' links onto the end of ''Europe a Prophecy'' (via the word "howl").

The books

#'' Tiriel'' (c. 1789) #'' The Book of Thel'' (c. 1789) #'' America a Prophecy'' (1793) #'' Europe a Prophecy'' (1794) #'' Visions of the Daughters of Albion'' (1793) #'' The Book of Urizen'' (1794) #'' The Book of Ahania'' (1795) #'' The Book of Los'' (1795) #'' The Song of Los'' (1795) #'' Vala, or The Four Zoas'' (begun 1797, unfinished; abandoned ) #'' Milton: A Poem in Two Books'' (1804–1810) #'' Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion'' (1804–1820)

Notes

External links

* {{William Blake, lit *Prophetic books Book series Works by William Blake