William Blake

William Blake (1757-1827) was a poet, painter, and printmaker who designed words and images as parts of the same imaginative work. Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience places contrasting states of perception beside each other, moving between childhood vision, social suffering, joy, and constraint. Songs of Innocence and of Experience is another title form of that combined collection, while Songs of Innocence offers the earlier sequence alone. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell blends prose, aphorism, illustration, and satire to challenge fixed moral oppositions. Poems of William Blake provides a broader selection before the illuminated books. The combined Songs is an accessible beginning because its paired structure makes Blake's use of contrast visible. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell can follow, revealing how the same tension expands into a disruptive mythology where argument, image, and page design work together.