by Joseph Andrew Thompson My introduction to William Blake came through a copy of Songs of Innocence and Experience, lent to me by a high-school friend. Over the course of a few weeks, I read it through and through, enchanted by its elegant simplicity. Visually, it had the magic of a book of fairy tales, […]

by Andrew McConnell Stott Cartoon by Mike Barfield The most notable meal in the history of English Romantic poetry took place on a Sunday afternoon in late December, 1817, as a garrulous group of men assembled at the London home of the artist, Benjamin Robert Haydon. The guests included William Wordsworth, the essayist Charles Lamb, […]

by Pamela Davenport William Blake was a favourite poet both for me and my father, Jack. Blake was a poet, painter and engraver, who used his artistic skills to condemn the institutions of government, army and the church, and the way the poor and vulnerable people were disenfranchised and marginalised. Some people view Blake as […]

An exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum Oxford, until March 1st 2015 By Polly Marshall Taplin This peerless exhibition, at the Ashmolean until 1st March 2015, is laid out in three rooms representing key phases in Blake’s career. There are prints, books, paintings, copper plates, sculptures and thoughtful, unpatronizing gallery texts, which explain parallel evolutions in […]