Quotes by William Blake

William Blake trained as an engraver and printed his own illuminated books, combining poem and image on the same plate. He was largely unread in his lifetime and thought mad by many who met him. He saw visions from childhood, opposed slavery, empire and the factory system, and built an entire private mythology across his longer poems. The short lyrics — Songs of Innocence and of Experience — are the accessible door, and the source of most of what is quoted.