Essay --

William Blake was born in London on November 28, 1757 to James and Catherine Blake. His father, James was a hosier (seller of legwear) in London. Blake had quadruple brothers, James, John, Richard and Robert and a infant named Catherine (Harris 5). Blake got along best with his younger brother, Robert as they shared an interest in art (Clarke 1). As a young boy, Blake claimed to assimilate had visions of God, spirits, prophets and angels. When he was four he is claimed to have seen Gods head in his window. In his most famous vision, he saw the prophet Ezekiel under a tree and a tree of angels when he was nine (Early historic period). Though his parents confided he was lying, they took into consideration that their son was different and did not believe he would succeed in a traditional school lay (Poets). So Blake was home schooled by his mother until he was ten age old. Blake was constantly by himself as a boy to seek a world of the imagination without fear of recrimination by others (Harris 21). As a child, Blake dog-tired his beat engraving drawings of the Greek antiquities his father bought for him (Early Years). James and Catherine support and encouraged Blakes artistic ability and enrolled him in Henry compares drawing school in the Strand when Blake was 10 historic period old, there he first started writing poetry (Harris 5). He enjoyed the whole shebang of Shakespeare, Jonson and Spenser and ancient ballads as opposed to current literature at the time (The Young Artist). Some of Blakes favorite artists ranged from Raphael, Michelangelo, Giulio Romano, Albrecht Drer, and Maerten Heemskerck. (Merriman 2) In 1772, Blake was apprenticed to the engraver James Basire the engraver to the London Society of antiquities, due to the high live of dra... ...nius during the French Revolution, aware of impending economic change and sick to the drum of ruling hypocrisy (Hagstrum 97-98).Implications Charles Swinburne, Percy Shelly, T.S Elliot and James Jo yce all drew their influence from Blake (Profumo 1). William pantryman Yeats especially was inspired by his philosophical and poetic ideas and even emended an edition of Blakes collected works (Blake and Shelley). Bob Dylan Alasdair Gray, Jim Morrison, and Allen Ginsberg also have hints of Blakes poetry (William Blake in Doors). More recently his poems have modified by U2, Jah Wobble, Tangerine Dream, Bruce Dickinson, M. Ward and Ulver (Maher 4) . His poems have been inspiration for characters of a do of writers of the twentieth century. Blake has been the muse for comic book writers Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, R. Crumb, and J. M. DeMatteis (Whitson 1).