Blake: The Complete Poems

William Blake (1757 - 1827) is one of the great figures in literature, by turns poet, artist and visonary. Profoundly libertarian in outlook, Blake's engagement with the issues of his day is well known and this - along with his own idiosynratic concerns - flows through his poetry and art. Like Milton before him, the prodigality of his allusions and references is little short of astonishing. Consquently, his longer viosnary poems can challege 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.

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