William Blake

"WILLIAM BLAKE" by Arthur Symons is a biographical study that explores the life, art, and philosophical ideas of William Blake. The author recounts his long-held admiration for Blake's poems and his desire to seek out the broader implications of his work, which is the driving force to write the biography. The biography analyzes Blake's impact on art and literature, and it shares his unconventional outlook that questions societal standards as well as his creative methods. Symons aims to offer interpretations of Blake's life and work, while including accounts from documents and records from the time period. The early part of the biography emphasizes Blake’s visionary status and that his ideas and thoughts on imagination, morality, and the spiritual world connect to both contemporary and past ideals, referencing connections to Nietzsche’s ideas and Blake’s concept of the imagination being how to get to a higher reality.