Concetti Chiave
- William Blake was a visionary artist and mystic, known for his belief in the power of imagination as a divine vision and a guide to truth.
- Although he lived in the 18th century, Blake's work aligns with Romantic ideals, opposing societal conventions and advocating for individual freedom.
- His famous works, "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience," exhibit a lyrical style that foreshadows the Romantic movement.
- Blake's philosophy was influenced by mystics like Emmanuel Swedenborg and Jakob Boehme and involved a struggle between intellect and imagination.
- His Christian-inspired writings suggest that the resolution of the conflict between intellect and imagination lies in the divine figure, Christ.
Blake's early visions
An artist, a mystic, and an extraordinary, independent spirit, Blake had visions which helped him escape from the squalid reality around him. It was reported that he had the vision of a tree full of angels when he was only eight years old.
Even if he belongs, chronologically, to the 18th century rather than to the 19 th, he is entirely romantic in his hatred of the conventions imposed by civilisation and of the restrictions on individual freedom, and above all in his concept of the imagination. Blake was convinced that the intellect destroys the imagination, man’s highest faculty and the sole guide to truth. The imagination is the “Divine Vision” of the poet, and to Blake the poet is a seer, a prophet inspired by divine messages, whose task is to restore ideal conditions where man and imagination can be one again.
Influences and visionary works
His Blake was deeply influenced by the mystical throught of the Swedish thinker Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) and the German mystic Jakob Boehme (1575-1624), and by the occult and esoteric traditions in European throught. His “visionary” works describe the struggle of the spirit of intellect, Urizen, against the spirit of imagination, Los. In the energetic and passionate poetry of these books, Blake expounded his lifelong concern with the struggle of the soul to express its natural energies when restricted by reason, law and organised religion. His philosophy took a Christian direction, trough it was distant from the conventional Christianity of tradition, and the struggle between intellect and imagination appeared to find a solution in the coming of Christ, the divine figure in The Lamb.
Domande da interrogazione
- Qual è il ruolo dell'immaginazione secondo William Blake?
- Quali influenze hanno plasmato il pensiero mistico di Blake?
- Come si manifesta l'impulso lirico di Blake nelle sue opere?
Blake credeva che l'immaginazione fosse la "Visione Divina" del poeta e la facoltà più alta dell'uomo, essenziale per raggiungere la verità, opponendosi all'intelletto che, secondo lui, la distrugge.
Blake fu profondamente influenzato dal pensiero mistico di Emmanuel Swedenborg e Jakob Boehme, oltre che dalle tradizioni occulte ed esoteriche del pensiero europeo.
L'impulso lirico di Blake si manifesta al meglio nei "Songs of Innocence" e "Songs of Experience", dove raggiunge una semplicità di stile e una freschezza che anticipano i successi dei Romantici come Wordsworth.
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