
William Blake One who is very much delighted with
being in good CompanyBorn 28 Nov 1757 in London
& has died Several times SinceJanuary 16
1826
For all my bitching, William Blake is still my friend. He’s been keeping me company for a long time, and I suppose I just wanted to put this up to remind myself. All my expectations, all my theories, seem to die and fade away. I just look at the stuff, and marvel at his innovation and ingenuity. It’s not about what it means; it’s about how it means.
He didn’t conform to poetic tradition; he reinvented it.
However, this does not mean that he set out to discard the best of what came before; he took it to a new level, copying and copying to isolate the best of what was true from an incredible number of sources. Blake copied to create.