First appearing in 1981, this book was the first full-length study of the Songs of Innocence and Experience to be published in almost fifteen years. The book provides detailed readings of each poem and its accompanying design, to redirect attention to the nature and achievement of the book as a whole, to Songs as a single, carefully unified work of verbal and visual art. Particularly close attention is paid, not only to the designs Blake etched to accompany his poems, but also to the many books and treatises for and about children to which, it is argued, Songs alludes...

First published in 1998, this book formed part of an ongoing effort to restore politics and history to the centre of Blake studies. It adopts a three pronged approach when presenting its essays, seeking to promote a return to the political Blake; to deepen the understanding of some of the conversations articulated in Blake's art by introducing new, historical material or new interpretations of texts; and to highlight differing perspectives on Blake's politics among historically focused critics. The collection contains essays with varying methodological assumptions and differing positions...

First published in 1988, this book is a study of all Blake's work in illuminated printing. It traces in particular, the development of his ideas on politics, religion, sexuality, and the imagination. There are substantial sections on some of Blake's best-known works, including the Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and the Songs of Innocence and Experience, and full critical essays on the Four Zoas and Jerusalem.

The book describes the historical contexts of Blake's work, and sets it in relation to the political controversies of his age as these are reflected...

First published in 1953, this book examines Blake's vision and its impact on the work of Yeats who imitated Blake in the hope that he might find that same vision. Margaret Rudd's approach is literary as well as philosophical, and psychological and she discusses the work of both poets in this way.

First published in 1927 (this edition in 1967), this book is about Blake, his symbols, and their meanings. As Ward says in his forward, the volume goes beyond Blake, becoming universal and timeless, and is about Religion. Plowman's book presents itself, not as a critical text, but an interpretative one, and the study therefore illuminates the work of the author, as well as that of William Blake.

First published in 1956, this book has been described by the author as something of a biographical novel, somewhere between formal scholarly criticism and a more creative form of writing. It looks at the meaning of Blake's visions and how the troubles of his life affected his poems known as the prophetic books. It focuses on the story of the universal human spirit that these books present.

First published in 1982 this book provides a bibliography of commentary, criticism, and scholarship on the works of William Blake. It covers the period from Northrop Frye's Fearful Symmetry in 1947 to 1980. The criticism is organised according to eleven classifications in order to help direct the research of students and scholars and each chapter is preceded by an introductory essay in order to guide the reader.

First published in 1986, this book starts from the premise that Blake's poem Jerusalem is in effect his defence of human imagination. The formal categories are literary but the aim is the philosophical one of Creating a System. The philosophic meaning emerges from the structure since its form is that of an epic poem.

The argument proceeds plate by plate and topologically within each plate of the illuminated text, but does not aim to answer every last question about Jerusalem- only to show how the system is created. The author demonstrates how Blake interprets,...