Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-236) and index.
CONTENTS NOTE
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Rescuing the human spirit -- Traces of tradition? -- Through satire to innocence -- Love, marriage and sexual lore -- Finding a voice for experience -- The challenge of energy -- Thinking allegorically, imaging symbolically -- 'Vala' and the fate of narrative epic -- 'A slumber on the banks of the ocean' -- Fragmentary modes of epic -- Years of resentment, hints of paradox -- A persisting visionary -- Prophetic afterlife.
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
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"Was Blake mad or one of the sanest people of his time? Or is it better to think of him rather as a well-read, astute cockney visionary? In this new biographical study John Beer weighs the evidence, including new discoveries about his religious upbringing, and elucidates his best writings in an attempt to show why they still appeal to us two centuries after the urgency of his prophetic message was first delivered to a bemused readership. Covering Blake's early career, his major works (such as Songs of Innocence and of Experience) and his work as a visual artist, this new study will be a must for all students, scholars and general enthusiasts of Blake."--Jacket.