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/lit/ - Literature

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16636426 No.16636426 [Reply] [Original]

I own the complete poems of Blake - where should I start and how progress? I want to understand his mythological and philosophical system. Are there any books one should read beforehand? Swedenborg etc.?

>> No.16637420

>>16636426
Not beforehand, but read Fearful Symmetry by Northrop Frye alongside him to get a sense of his beliefs and thought. It’s also very helpful to have Damon’s Blake Dictionary

>> No.16637473
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16637473

tiger tiger

>> No.16637501

start with the greeks

>> No.16637511
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16637511

>>16636426
Start with his earliest poems and read onwards from there faggot

>> No.16637526

>>16636426
Innocence and Experience > Marriage of Heaven and Hell > the prophetic poems

>> No.16637705
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16637705

>>16636426
How come we don't see more of the Romantics on this board? Especially Blake with his experimentation with printing and combining art and poetry. Thread?

>> No.16637743

>>16637705
/lit/ is not yet ready for a great like Blake

>> No.16637907

Do yourself a favour and skip most of the longer poems. Read one of them. Now you have read them all.

>> No.16637964

>>16637907
They're all fun reads though.

>> No.16638023

>>16637964
>and anon and his opinions were sealed for centuries in the brass box of obvious symbolism until freed by the dragon of imagination
>repeat for eight thousand unrhymed and unrhythmic fourteen syllable lines

>> No.16638793

>>16637743
I say it every time he comes up here. Blake is not an author who you can half ass read. He requires your full attention and readers who aren’t thinking critically about his poems will not get anything from them.

>> No.16638810

>>16638793
how should one carefully read a poem to get the most out of it?

>> No.16638813

>>16638023
>Jerusalem
>Obvious symbolism

>> No.16638843

>>16638810
Read it several times. Understand writers who Blake was influenced by like Milton, Isaiah, and Ezekial. Get an understanding for Blake’s work by reading and rereading in order. Most difficulties with Blake come when trying to read his epics(The Four Zoas, Milton, Jerusalem).

Blake actually becomes quite straightforward after you understand his symbolism and mythological scheme, but it takes a bit of reading to get a solid grasp on that.

>> No.16640251

>>16637420
I love blake's writing and found fearful symmetry for dirt cheap in a shop and bought it, would you recommend it, and can you tell me a bit about it?

>> No.16640294

If you want to go deep into his mysticism itself, you’re gonna wanna look into his main theological influences, Swedenborg and boehme. Believe it or not balzac’s seraphita is a pretty Kino primer on swedenborgianism

>> No.16640295

>Error is Created Truth is Eternal Error or Creation will be Burned Up & then & not till then Truth or Eternity will appear It is Burnt up the Moment Men cease to behold it I assert for My self that I do not behold the Outward Creation & that to me it is hindrance & not Action it is as the Dirt upon my feet No part of Me. What it will be Questiond When the Sun rises do you not see a round Disk of fire somewhat like a Guinea O no no I see an Innumerable company of the Heavenly host crying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty I question not my Corporeal or Vegetative Eye any more than I would Question a Window concerning a Sight I look thro it & not with it.

18th century schizoposting?