Blake's Selected Poems

William Blake

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780486285177
• eBook ISBN: 9780486114187
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Poetry
• Index: Literature

Regarded by a contemporary as a "brilliant eccentric whose works skirted the outer fringes of English art and literature," William Blake (1757–1827) is today recognized as a major poet and artist. This collection of 104 poems, carefully chosen by noted Blake scholars David and Virginia Erdman, reveals the lyricism, mystical vision, and consummate craftsmanship that have earned the poet his preeminent place with both critics and the general public.

Among the selections included here are "Proverbs of Hell" from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell ― a satire on religion and morality considered Blake's most inspired and original work; "A Song of Liberty," "The Argument," "The Mental Traveller," "Gwin, King of Norway," "The Land of Dreams," "William Bond," "To the Evening Star," and many more.

Alphabetical List of Titles and First Lines

(Titles indicated in italics)

Abstinence sows sand all over

A fairy skipd upon my knee

Africa

A little Flower grew in a lonely Vale

America a Prophecy (excerpt)

Ancient Proverb, An

And did those feet in ancient time

An old maid early eer I knew

Answer to the Parson, An

Argument, The (from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell)

Asia

As I wanderd the forest

Auguries of Innocence

Awake awake my little Boy

Birds, The

Blind-man’s Buff

Book of Thel, The

Come hither my boy tell me what thou seest there

Come hither my sparrows

Come, Kings, and listen to my song

Cradle Song, A

Cruelty has a Human Heart

Crystal Cabinet, The

Day

Divine Image, A

Does the Eagle know what is in the pit?

Everlasting Gospel, The (excerpts)

[Experiment]

Fair Elenor

Fairy, The

Fresh from the dewy hill, the merry year

Golden Apollo, that thro’ heaven wide

Golden Net, The

Great things are done when Men & Mountains meet

Grey Monk, The

Gwin, King of Norway

Hail Matrimony made of Love

He who binds to himself a joy

How sweet I roam’d from field to field

[How to know Love from Deceit]

I asked a thief to steal me a peach

I die I die the Mother said

I feard the fury of my wind

If I eer Grow to Mans Estate

If you play a Game of Chance know before you begin

If you trap the moment before its ripe

I heard an Angel singing

I laid me down upon a bank

I love the jocund dance

Imitation of Spenser, An

In a wife I would desire

In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy

I rose up at the dawn of day

I saw a chapel all of gold

I saw a Monk of Charlemaine

I traveld thro’ a Land of Men

I walked abroad in a snowy day

I will sing you a song of Los. The Eternal Prophet

I wonder whether the Girls are mad

Lacedemonian Instruction

Land of Dreams, The

Let the Brothels of Paris be opened

Love and harmony combine

Love to faults is always blind

Mad Song

Marriage of Heaven and Hell, The, (excerpts)

Mary

Memory, hither come

Mental Traveller, The

Merlins Prophecy

Milton (excerpt)

Mock on Mock on Voltaire Rousseau

Morning

Motto to the Songs of Innocence & of Experience

My silks and fine array

My Spectre around me night & day

Never pain to tell thy Love

O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stained

Oer my Sins Thou sit & moan

O father father where are you going

O holy virgin! clad in purest white

O I say you Joe

O lapwing thou fliest around the heath

O thou who passest thro’ our vallies in

O thou, with dewy locks, who lookest down

O Winter! bar thine adamantine doors

[Postscript]

Preludium (from America a Prophecy)

Proverbs of Hell

Remove away that blackning church

Riches

Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burdend air

Several Questions Answerd

Silent Silent Night

...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Note
• Table of Contents
• To Spring
• To Summer
• To Autumn
• To Winter
• To the Evening Star
• To Morning
• Fair Elenor
• Song
• Song
• Song
• Song
• Song
• Mad Song
• Song
• Song
• To the Muses
• Gwin, King of Norway
• An Imitation of Spenser
• Blind-man’s Buff
• Song 1st by a Shepherd
• Song 3d by an Old Shepherd
• “Never pain to tell thy Love”
• “I feard the fury of my wind”
• “I saw a chapel all of gold”
• “I laid me down upon a bank”
• A Cradle Song
• “I askéd a thief to steal me a peach”
• To My Mirtle
• “O lapwing thou fliest around the heath”
• An Answer to the Parson
• [Experiment]
• Riches
• “If you trap the moment before its ripe”
• “I heard an Angel singing”
• “Silent Silent Night”
• To Nobodaddy
• [How to know Love from Deceit]
• The Wild Flowers Song
• Soft Snow
• Merlins Prophecy
• “Why should I care for the men of thames”
• Day
• “The sword sung on the barren heath”
• “Abstinence sows sand all over”
• “In a wife I would desire”
• Lacedemonian Instruction
• “An old maid early eer I knew”
• Several Questions Answerd
• An Ancient Proverb
• The Fairy
• “My Spectre around me night & day”
• [Postscript]
• “Mock on Mock on Voltaire Rousseau”
• Morning
• The Birds
• “Why was Cupid a Boy”
• To the Queen
• “The Caverns of the Grave Ive seen”
• “I rose up at the dawn of day”
• “A fairy skipd upon my knee”
• To Mrs Ann Flaxman
• The Smile
• The Golden Net
• The Mental Traveller
• The Land of Dreams
• Mary
• The Crystal Cabinet
• The Grey Monk
• Auguries of Innocence
• William Bond
• “When old corruption first begun”
• “Hail Matrimony made of Love”
• “To Be or Not to Be”
• “This city & this country has brought forth many mayors”
• “Upon a holy thursday their innocent faces clean”
• “When the tongues of children are heard on the green”
• “O father father where are you going”
• “O I say you Joe”
• “Theres Doctor Clash”
• The Book of Thel
• A Divine Image
• Motto to the Songs of Innocence & of Experience
• “Let the Brothels of Paris be opened”
• “Who will exchange his own fire side”
• “When Klopstock England defied”
• “Great things are done when men & mountains meet”
• “If you play a Game of Chance know before you begin”
• “If I eer Grow to Mans Estate”
• The Argument
• Proverbs of Hell
• A Song of Liberty
• Preludium
• The Song of Los
• “And did those feet in ancient time”
• “The fields from Islington to Marybone”
• “I saw a Monk of Charlemaine”
• [From The Everlasting Gospel]
• Alphabetical List of Titles and First Lines
• DOVER THRIFT EDITIONS - POETRY