Title: 07 - William Blake
Course: English 4A SU15 > Section: Unit: It's Greek to Me

(This is unrelated to the topic of Prometheus, Hercules and Frankenstein, but it will help give you a glimpse into the perspective and reflective nature of Romantic writers.)

You might be thinking, Just how many people named William end up being authors that I will have to study? You're full of good questions. Like Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Williams, Yeats, Collins and others, Blake shares this regal name. If you are reading this and you are named William you'd better start honing your skills! If you are not named William then you should start writing too so that you can add to the list of talented writers with your name.

William Blake is one of the writers/artists that personifies the hallmarks of the Romantic period. Feel free to read more about the man who influenced so many with his works of art and literature.
Blake was ambitious enough to develop his own mythology. The image on the right is Urizen (Your Reason?); he represents reason and law.^1

The name William aside, it’s time for a little game.

Step 1: Read the quotations that follow.

Step 2: Explain three of them by providing examples from your own life.^2

Step 3: Claim your prize.

- The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
- If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
- The fox condemns the trap, not himself.
- Joys impregnate. Sorrows bring forth.
- What is now proved was once, only imagin’d.
- If others had not been foolish, we should be so.

^ 1 Europe a Prophecy (Copy D, Object 1; Bentley 1, Erdman I, Keynes I; Europe a Prophecy — British Museum). Public Domain.

^2If you really get stuck, try a little copy/paste into the Google and see what happens.