The Complete Poems (Penguin English Poets) [Paperback]

William Blake (Author), Alicia Ostriker (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0140422153 | ISBN-13: 978-0140422153 | Publication Date: March 30, 1978

One of the great English Romantic poets, William Blake (1757-1827) was an artist, poet, mystic and visionary. His work ranges from the deceptively simple and lyrical "Songs of Innocence" and their counterpoint "Experience" - which juxtapose poems such as "The Lamb and The Tyger", and "The Blossom and The Sick Rose" - to highly elaborate, apocalyptic works, such as "The Four Zoas", "Milton" and "Jerusalem". Throughout his life Blake drew on a rich heritage of philosophy, religion and myth, to create a poetic worlds illuminated by his spiritual and revolutionary beliefs that have fascinated, intrigued and enchanted readers for generations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Blake is for strong minds...but not to have read him is to have missed one of the most rewarding experiences in English literature; and this is by far the best book to read him in."                                                                                                                         Victor Price, BBC

"All in all, the Stevenson text surpasses its predecessors in its lucid comprehensibility and should win a wide number of readers."                                                                      Times Literary Supplement

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

William Blake (1757-1827) is one of the great figures in literature, by turns poet, artist and visionary. Profoundly libertarian in outlook, Blake's engagement with the issues of his day is well known and this - along with his own idiosyncratic concerns - flows through his poetry and his art. Like Milton before him, the prodigality of his allusions and references is little short of astonishing. Consequently, his longer visionary  poems can challenge the modern reader, who will find in this avowedly open edition all they might need to interpret the poetry.

W. H. Stevenson's Blake is a masterpiece of scrupulous scholarship. It is, as the editor makes clear in his introduction, 'designed to be widely, and fluently, read' and this Third Edition incorporates many changes to further that aim. Many of the headnotes have been rewritten and the footnotes updated. The full texts of the early prose tracts, All Religions are One and There is No Natural Religion, are included for the first time. In many instances, Blake's capitalisation has been restored, better to convey the expressive individuality of his writing. In addition, a full colour plate section contains a representation of Blake's most significant paintings and designs. As the 250th anniversary of his birth approaches, Blake has perhaps more readers than ever before; Blake: The Complete Poems will stand those readers, new and old, in good stead for many years to come.

W. H. Stevenson worked on the first edition while Professor of English at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, where he also conducted the only known performance in Nigeria of Donizetti's opera, 'l'elisir d'amore'. Later he was Full Professor at Boston University, USA, and head of the Department of English at Calabar, Nigeria. He has also taught at Leeds and Edinburgh Universities.

 

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1072 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (March 30, 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140422153
• ISBN-13: 978-0140422153
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #786,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unparalleled visionary power, February 29, 2008

By 

Mickey Callaghan (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Poems (Penguin English Poets) (Paperback)

Though I firmly support the general consensus that Shakespeare is our greatest poet--the more one reads, the more this becomes apparent--I am equally firm in stating that there has been no greater visionary poet than Blake, not even Milton.

William Blake lived and wrote almost entirely ignored during his time, regarded, if at all, as an eccentric painter. This speaks not to the quality of his works; it speaks to how ahead of his time he was. Nobody knew what to make of him, and I must confess that even now it is difficult to cement his place.

One can say for certain, however, that he is one of the greatest poets; aside from the Bard, Keats (whom I adore), and Milton, he has no companions in this uppermost echelon. Reading Blake is sometimes overwhelming. The power of his vision and the vivacity of his language sometimes overpower the faculties, and makes one nearly break down into tears. His poetry is beautiful; it is complex; it is at times incomparably deep and more powerful in force of language than perhaps any other, even Shakespeare's.

Many restrict their reading of Blake to his accessible and delightful lyrics SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE (which must be read side-by-side to fully appreciate what he is doing!), but to do so is to bind oneself in a nutshell. Read THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL, as an introduction into his vast vision. Go on to read THE BOOK OF URIZEN, MILTON, JERUSALEM, etc., but take it slowly. Blake is one of the most difficult poets; he is infinitely complex. He creates his own, metamorphosing mythology, which parallels Biblical mythology and that of Milton, and expounds it throughout his poems. To fully appreciate them, one must not only read, but also study his works. I highly recommend doing so--William Blake is infinitely rewarding.

A note: The Penguin edition reviewed here is good, but, if possible, try to acquire an illustrated copy of Blake's work. Blake wrote most of his great poems in the style of illuminated manuscripts (he is actually the precursor of the graphic novel genre), and his illustrations are profound and beautiful. It seems to be increasingly difficult to acquire his illustrations in book form, so if you cannot, at least view them at blakearchive.org. They are magnificent!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Unattractive Edition of Great Literature, June 4, 2010

By 

Horatio - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Complete Poems (Penguin English Poets) (Paperback)

Like the other reviewers here, I love Blake's poetry. From the short poems to the long, I think they're all great and among the best things ever printed in English.

The Penguin edition, however, is full of editorial markings that make many of the poems, especially the long poems, virtually unreadable. Almost every page of beautiful poems like "America" is marred by extra text in italics and brackets, which are supposed to be variants from different versions of the poems. I could see putting these sorts of things in footnotes or endnotes, but they are actually right there in the text itself! You'll be given a stanza of a poem, and then the same stanza in brackets or italics with only minor variations. This often leaves you wondering which lines you should be reading and which you should be skipping, which occasionally detracts from the poetic experience, or at the very least forces your eye to be darting all over the page. I've never seen this in another Penguin book; I don't know what went wrong here.

That said, if you're looking for a scholarly edition of Blake, this might be the thing for you. But I'm not a Blake scholar. Like the other reviewers here, and like most readers of Penguin Classics, I'm looking for something I can read for enjoyment. Some of the editor's decisions have made enjoyment difficult.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sui Generis, August 5, 2000

By 

Bruce Kendall "BEK" (Southern Pines, NC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Poems (Penguin English Poets) (Paperback)

I don't know upon what planet this poet was born, but it certainly wasn't earth. Blake is the ultimate Gnostic, the ascendent correspondent, the bringer of truth from regions we have no knowledge of. The core of his philosophy can be summed up in his assertion in "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell:" Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast...Isaiah answer'd. I saw no God, nor heard any, in a finite organical perception; but my senses discover'd the infinite in every thing, and as I was then perswaded, & remain confirm'd; that the voice of honest indignation is the voice of God."

Blake is the poet of true revolution, true Romanticism and true spirit. This is the definitive volume of his life-work, without, it is true, the illustrations that augmented his genius. Yet there is no real necessity for etchings here, as the genius of his poetry will etch its own image in your mind if you are receptive to his universal symbolism. Blake was the first truly modern poet, prefiguring Mallarme, D.H. Lawrence, Baudelaire, in particular. He was also a great mythologyzer, the precursor of Campbell, Frazier, and even Alan Watts in many respects. The Penguin Edition is not illustrated, it's true, but there is so much to be mined here that one can easily lose oneself in the labyrinth of Blake's excavations.

Recommended without reservations. A truly paradigm shifting poet and artist. Seek out his illustrative, divinely inspired watercolors, as well. A true visionary, if there ever was one!!
BEK