Great books explained: the radical world of William Blake

19 MINUTES

Embrace conflict, reject authority – William Blake’s radical vision of a meaningful life

In every voice: in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear
– From ‘London’ in Songs of Experience

The English writer and artist William Blake (1757-1827) held radical, often enigmatic, views of what it meant to live a meaningful life. His ideas, expressed in self-printed and wondrously illustrated books of poetry, reject most forms of authority and embrace the full spectrum of human emotion in all its contradictions. In this instalment of the YouTube series Great Books Explained, the UK curator, gallerist and video essayist James Payne focuses on two of Blake’s most famous works: the companion volumes Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794). Through this lens, Payne details how Blake’s worldview was shaped by intense mystical visions and the principles of the French Revolution, particularly the concept of liberty.

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