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Term paper due tomorrow? Need to cram for a test? Or just looking for the best information about a favorite literary work?

Turn to "Poetry for Students" to get your research done in record time. Brought to you by Thomson Gale--the world's leading source of literary criticism and analysis--this e-doc contains: author biography; poem summary; poem text (if available); discussion of the work's themes, style, and historical context; a compendium of in-depth critical material; study questions; suggestions for further reading; and much more.

Why choose "Poetry for Students"? Because no other source offers so much in such a compact package. Trust the experts: Thomson Gale--and "Poetry for Students." ... Read more

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Term paper due tomorrow? Need to cram for a test? Or just looking for the best information about a favorite literary work?

Turn to "Poetry for Students" to get your research done in record time. Brought to you by Thomson Gale--the world's leading source of literary criticism and analysis--this e-doc contains: author biography; poem summary; poem text (if available); discussion of the work's themes, style, and historical context; a compendium of in-depth critical material; study questions; suggestions for further reading; and much more.

Why choose "Poetry for Students"? Because no other source offers so much in such a compact package. Trust the experts: Thomson Gale--and "Poetry for Students." ... Read more

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One of the great English Romantic poets, William Blake (1757-1827) was an artist, poet, mystic and visionary. His work ranges from the deceptively simple and lyrical "Songs of Innocence" and their counterpoint "Experience" - which juxtapose poems such as "The Lamb and The Tyger", and "The Blossom and The Sick Rose" - to highly elaborate, apocalyptic works, such as "The Four Zoas", "Milton" and "Jerusalem". Throughout his life Blake drew on a rich heritage of philosophy, religion and myth, to create a poetic worlds illuminated by his spiritual and revolutionary beliefs that have fascinated, intrigued and enchanted readers for generations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

An Unattractive Edition of Great Literature
Like the other reviewers here, I love Blake's poetry. From the short poems to the long, I think they're all great and among the best things ever printed in English.

The Penguin edition, however, is full of editorial markings that make many of the poems, especially the long poems, virtually unreadable. Almost every page of beautiful poems like "America" is marred by extra text in italics and brackets, which are supposed to be variants from different versions of the poems. I could see putting these sorts of things in footnotes or endnotes, but they are actually right there in the text itself! You'll be given a stanza of a poem, and then the same stanza in brackets or italics with only minor variations. This often leaves you wondering which lines you should be reading and which you should be skipping, which occasionally detracts from the poetic experience, or at the very least forces your eye to be darting all over the page. I've never seen this in another Penguin book; I don't know what went wrong here.

That said, if you're looking for a scholarly edition of Blake, this might be the thing for you. But I'm not a Blake scholar. Like the other reviewers here, and like most readers of Penguin Classics, I'm looking for something I can read for enjoyment. Some of the editor's decisions have made enjoyment difficult.

the heights and depths of human experience
Immerse yourself in the long poems, such as Vala, Milton, and Jerusalem, for the closest thing in literary form to a psychedelic trip, the heights and depths of being a living human being. Blake integrates Heaven and Hell, Good and Evil, the Soul and the Body. Then memorize some of the shorter poems from Songs of Innocence and of Experience for a treasure that you can carry with you anywhere and take for comfort and awe as needed.

Masterful
William Blake is probably my favorite poet.The Songs of Innocence and Experierence are lauded in every school but it is the lesser known writings that are what made him a Master of the Letter.The proverbs of Heaven and Hell for instance won't come up in conversation or at the University, but they will reside within your heart when the brisk winds of fortune and misfortune hit hard in each day, anew.

"The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to lean of the crow."

His beauty spreads out like spilt ink and while he is known as a poet he also wrote about politics and metaphyics.The book "The Complete Works of William Blake" is great to have around but weighs about as much as a eight normal length books, so along with any of his other collections, a portable book is good to keep, unless you can memorize "The Augeries of Innocence" completely.

Unparalleled visionary power
Though I firmly support the general consensus that Shakespeare is our greatest poet--the more one reads, the more this becomes apparent--I am equally firm in stating that there has been no greater visionary poet than Blake, not even Milton.

William Blake lived and wrote almost entirely ignored during his time, regarded, if at all, as an eccentric painter. This speaks not to the quality of his works; it speaks to how ahead of his time he was. Nobody knew what to make of him, and I must confess that even now it is difficult to cement his place.

One can say for certain, however, that he is one of the greatest poets; aside from the Bard, Keats (whom I adore), and Milton, he has no companions in this uppermost echelon. Reading Blake is sometimes overwhelming. The power of his vision and the vivacity of his language sometimes overpower the faculties, and makes one nearly break down into tears. His poetry is beautiful; it is complex; it is at times incomparably deep and more powerful in force of language than perhaps any other, even Shakespeare's.

Many restrict their reading of Blake to his accessible and delightful lyrics SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE (which must be read side-by-side to fully appreciate what he is doing!), but to do so is to bind oneself in a nutshell. Read THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL, as an introduction into his vast vision. Go on to read THE BOOK OF URIZEN, MILTON, JERUSALEM, etc., but take it slowly. Blake is one of the most difficult poets; he is infinitely complex. He creates his own, metamorphosing mythology, which parallels Biblical mythology and that of Milton, and expounds it throughout his poems. To fully appreciate them, one must not only read, but also study his works. I highly recommend doing so--William Blake is infinitely rewarding.

A note: The Penguin edition reviewed here is good, but, if possible, try to acquire an illustrated copy of Blake's work. Blake wrote most of his great poems in the style of illuminated manuscripts (he is actually the precursor of the graphic novel genre), and his illustrations are profound and beautiful. It seems to be increasingly difficult to acquire his illustrations in book form, so if you cannot, at least view them at blakearchive.org. They are magnificent!

What immortal hand or eye ?
It is the shorter poetry of Blake, that of the 'Songs of Innocence' and 'The Songs of Experience' that lives for me, and I suspect for most others. Though Northrop Frye the master literary critic saw in Blake's longer poems a key to reading the whole universe of Literature, I strongly suspect those long- lined abstraction filled 'visions'are outside the interest and staying power of most readers.
Blake was one of the great aphoristic poets, and along with the mystical visionary lines, there came lines like lightning sudden flashes of the mind which strike us strongly and remain with us.
Here is one of the most well- known Blakean lyrics
:
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!

I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.

Blake was the lunatic lover one of the great madmen of poetry who according to his wife gave her little timeas he most of the time was 'in Paradise'.
Each reader will going through the Collected Poems stop and select what they find congenial for themselves.
In the Collected Poems of Blake there is very much to stop for, including many of the most memorable lyrics and lines Poetry in English has given the world.

" Little Lamb who made thee, Dost thou know who made thee?"

"Tiger, Tiger, burning bright in the forest of the night/ What immortal hand or eye/ Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?/ ... Read more

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For the first time, the work of Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad is being brought to English-speaking readers through the perspective of a translator who is a poet in her own right, fluent in both Persian and English and intimately familiar with each culture. Sin includes the entirety of Farrokhzad's last book, numerous selections from her fourth and most enduring book, Reborn, and selections from her earlier work and creates a collection that is true to the meaning, the intention, and the music of the original poems.

Farrokhzad was the most significant female Iranian poet of the twentieth century, as revolutionary as Russia's Akhmatova and Tsvetaeva and America's Plath and Sexton. She wrote with a sensuality and burgeoning political consciousness that pressed against the boundaries of what could be expressed by a woman in 1950s and 1960s Iran. She paid a high price for her art, shouldering the disapproval of society and her family, having her only child taken away, and spending time in mental institutions. Farrokhzad died in a car accident in 1967 at the age of thirty-two. Sin is a tribute to the work and life of this remarkable poet.

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Authors include Alicia Ostriker, Elizabeth Spires, Susan Blake, Hooper Thorne, Melissa Greene, Laurence Goldstein, Denny Hoberman, Bea Opengart, Lola Haskins, Ann Patchett, Sebastian Barry, Gregor Hartmann, Neal Bowers, Robert Boswell, Ron Tanner, Donald J. Greiner, Judith Berke, Frederick Busch, Nance Van Winckel, Casey Finch, Ray Grant, Ann Struthers, Jeff Probst, Jill Birdsall, Peter Filkins, and Michael Martone. ... Read more