Blake: Prophet Against Empire

Author| David V. Erdman
Cover artist| William Blake
Language| English
Genre| Literary criticism
Publisher| Dover Publications

Publication date

| 1954
Publication place| United States
Media type| Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages| 582
ISBN| 0-486-26719-9
OCLC| 22908171

Dewey Decimal

| 821/.7 20
LC Class| PR4148.P6 E7 1991

Blake: Prophet Against Empire: A Poet's Interpretation of the History of His Own Times is a 1954 biography by David V. Erdman whose subject is the life and work of English poet and painter William Blake.[1]

## Reception

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Critic Northrop Frye has described the book as a work full of knowledge of the meaning of Blake's Prophecies and the first to make a consistent use of the primary sources of historical scholarship.[2]

The book recounts the social history of England as seen through Blake's eyes, starting with the peaceful years of the 1760s, which Blake regarded, in his childhood, as time of innocence. Erdman covers the major events such as the American Revolution, the Gordon riots, the French Revolution, the policies of the Pitt government and the famine in England. He states that Blake was far from being an abstract or vague poet, but was a concrete one, whose social environment helped shape both his most famous and obscure works.[2]

Jacob Bronowski stated: "Blake: Prophet Against Empire is the most important book that has been written about Blake... it expounded the view of Blake as a poet of social vision and human protest."

## See also

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* Harold Bloom
* Fearful Symmetry

## References

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1. ^ David V. Erdman, Blake: Prophet Against Empire (Princeton University Press, 1954), ISBN 0-486-26719-9
2. ^ a b Northrop Frye, Angela Esterhammer, Northrop Frye on Milton and Blake, (University of Toronto Press, 2005) ISBN 0-8020-3919-7 Page 237

## External links

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* David V. Erdman, Blake: Prophet Against Empire: A Poet's Interpretation of the History of His Own Times, (1954), limited view book on Google Books

* v
* t
* e

William Blake

Literary works

| Early writings|

* Poetical Sketches
* An Island in the Moon
* All Religions are One
* There is No Natural Religion

|

Songs of Innocence
and of Experience|

| Songs of Innocence|

* The Shepherd
* The Ecchoing Green
* The Lamb
* The Little Black Boy
* The Blossom
* The Chimney Sweeper
* The Little Boy Lost
* The Little Boy Found
* Laughing Song
* A Cradle Song
* The Divine Image
* Holy Thursday
* Night
* Spring
* Nurse's Song
* Infant Joy
* A Dream
* On Another's Sorrow

|

Songs of Experience|

* Introduction
* Earth's Answer
* The Clod and the Pebble
* Holy Thursday
* The Little Girl Lost
* The Little Girl Found
* The Chimney Sweeper
* Nurse's Song
* The Sick Rose
* The Fly
* The Angel
* The Tyger
* My Pretty Rose Tree
* Ah! Sun-flower
* The Lilly
* The Garden of Love
* The Little Vagabond
* London
* The Human Abstract
* Infant Sorrow
* A Poison Tree
* A Little Boy Lost
* A Little Girl Lost
* To Tirzah
* The School Boy
* The Voice of the Ancient Bard
* A Divine Image (found only in Copy BB)

Prophetic
books|

| The continental
prophecies|

* America a Prophecy
* Europe a Prophecy
* The Song of Los

|

Other|

* Tiriel
* The Book of Thel
* The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
* The French Revolution
* Visions of the Daughters of Albion
* The Book of Urizen
* The Book of Ahania
* The Book of Los
* The Four Zoas
* Milton
* Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion

The Pickering Manuscript|

* "Auguries of Innocence"
* "The Mental Traveller"

The Rossetti Manuscript|

"Never pain to tell thy love"

Mythology

* Ahania
* Albion
* Beulah
* Bromion
* Enion
* Enitharmon
* Fuzon
* Golgonooza
* Grodna
* Har
* Leutha
* Los
* Luvah
* Orc
* Palamabron
* Spectre
* Tharmas
* Thiriel
* Tiriel
* Urizen
* Urthona
* Utha
* Vala

Art

| Paintings
and prints|

* Relief etching
* Engravings for Original Stories from Real Life
* The Ancient of Days
* Europe Supported by Africa and America
* The Night of Enitharmon's Joy
* Newton
* Nebuchadnezzar
* Illustrations for Night-Thoughts
* Illustrations of The Grave
* The Four and Twenty Elders Casting their Crowns before the Divine Throne
* Illustrations of Paradise Lost
* A Vision of the Last Judgement
* Descriptive Catalogue
* The Great Red Dragon paintings
* Pity
* The Ghost of a Flea
* Agony in the Garden
* Illustrations of On the Morning of Christ's Nativity
* The Wood of the Self-Murderers: The Harpies and the Suicides
* Illustrations of the Book of Job

|

Sketches|

* Visionary Heads

Scholarship, in popular culture, and more

| Scholarly works|

* Life of William Blake
* The Works of William Blake: Poetic, Symbolic and Critical
* Fearful Symmetry
* Blake: Prophet Against Empire
* Witness Against the Beast

|

Musical|

* Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (1943)
* Ten Blake Songs (1958)
* Songs and Proverbs of William Blake (1965)
* The Lamb (1982)
* Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1998)

Related|

* William Blake in popular culture
* William Blake Archive
* Blake (1983 monologue)
* In Lambeth (1989 play)
* Catherine Blake (wife)
* Ancients

*[OCLC]: Online Computer Library Center number
*[LC Class]: Library of Congress Classification
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