How Did William Blake Influence His Life

A multifaceted man, William Blake lived through his life with little recognition; in the modern age he stands as a pinnacle of his time period. As a poet, Blake wrote many individual pieces, as well as compilations and journals, however very few were published in his lifetime. William Blake had many influences that impacted the subjects of his works including, his barren wife, alleged associations with the Moravian church, and Emanuel Swedenborg. With his formal training in the arts, he created prints and paintings, both of which were met with medium success. Infused within all of his creations were stark and assertive thoughts that clashed with the standard, acceptable views of his time. Among his more prevalent assertions were those concerning …show more content…
Born in London on November twenty-eighth, Blake was the third of seven children. His parents, Catherine Harmitage and James Blake, both of humble heritage, supported Blake in his creative endeavors and sent him to art school at the age of ten. Blake attended a drawing school on the Strand until he apprenticed himself to James Basire, his apprenticeship lasting from 1772 to 1779. In 1782, Blake was married to Catherine Boucher, the daughter of a local market gardener. Blake taught her to read, write, and engrave and the two opened a print shop together. In April, of 1789 Blake is recorded to have attended a meeting of the London Swedenborgians. Blake held no real desire to publish in works, in fact his first published piece, Poetical Sketches, was done so at the hands of his friends. Owing to his lack of ambition to printing his works and the unorthodox nature of his works, Blake lived most of his life in dire poverty. He did some commercial work for his printing and engraving, however this was never enough to raise him from poverty. With little recognition, Blake died on august 12, 1827 and was buried in an unmarked grave. Despite his ambiguity during his time, william blake left behind a collection of works that uniquely purvey controversial …show more content…
As a contributor to the romantic movement of the years 1780 to 1850, the subject matters that Blake discussed were considered controversial. During a time of enlightenment and revolution, where the emphasis was on the physical and an intellectual mastery of the world, romanticism begged the concept of ‘Self’ along with the abstract and infinite. Not only did Blake apply these contentious concepts to his work, but he did so with such imagination and clarity that it provoked a negative reaction amongst his contemporaries. “Such unabashed exercise of vision was looked on by many at the time as unwholesome, overwrought, and near hallucinatory so began the persistent attributions of mental instability which put a seal on Blake’s worldly unsuccess”. Despite the confinement of propriety, Blake continued to write and delved into topics that upset society and the establishment of