Editing William Blake (section)

==Opinions ==
=== Politics ===
Blake was not active in any well-established political party. His poetry consistently embodies an attitude of rebellion against the abuse of class power as documented in David Erdman's major study ''[[Blake: Prophet Against Empire|Blake: Prophet Against Empire: A Poet's Interpretation of the History of His Own Times]]'' (1954). Blake was concerned about senseless wars and the blighting effects of the [[Industrial Revolution]]. Much of his poetry recounts in symbolic allegory the effects of the French and American revolutions. Erdman claims Blake was disillusioned with the political outcomes of the conflicts, believing they had simply replaced monarchy with irresponsible mercantilism. Erdman also notes Blake was deeply opposed to slavery and believes some of his poems, read primarily as championing "[[free love]]", had their anti-slavery implications short-changed.<ref>Erdman ''William Blake: Prophet Against Empire'' p. 228</ref> A more recent study, ''William Blake: Visionary Anarchist'' by Peter Marshall (1988), classified Blake and his contemporary [[William Godwin]] as [[Precursors to anarchism|forerunners of modern anarchism]].<ref name="marshall">{{cite book|last=Marshall|first=Peter|title=William Blake: Visionary Anarchist|publisher=Freedom Press|date=1 January 1994|edition=Revised|isbn=0-900384-77-8}}</ref> British [[Marxism|Marxist]] historian [[E. P. Thompson]]'s last finished work, ''[[Witness Against the Beast|Witness Against the Beast: William Blake and the Moral Law]]'' (1993), claims to show how far he was inspired by [[English Dissenters|dissident religious ideas]] rooted in the thinking of the most radical opponents of the monarchy during the [[English Civil War]].

=== Development of views ===
[[File:Blake God Blessing.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|''God blessing the seventh day'', 1805 [[Watercolor painting|watercolour]]]]
Because Blake's later poetry contains a private mythology with complex symbolism, his late work has been less published than his earlier more accessible work. The [[Vintage Press|Vintage]] anthology of Blake edited by [[Patti Smith]] focuses heavily on the earlier work, as do many critical studies such as ''William Blake'' by D. G. Gillham.

The earlier work is primarily rebellious in character and can be seen as a protest against dogmatic religion especially notable in ''The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'', in which the figure represented by the "Devil" is virtually a hero rebelling against an imposter authoritarian deity. In later works, such as ''Milton'' and ''Jerusalem'', Blake carves a distinctive vision of a humanity redeemed by self-sacrifice and forgiveness, while retaining his earlier negative attitude towards what he felt was the rigid and morbid authoritarianism of traditional religion. Not all readers of Blake agree upon how much continuity exists between Blake's earlier and later works.

Psychoanalyst June Singer has written that Blake's late work displayed a development of the ideas first introduced in his earlier works, namely, the humanitarian goal of achieving personal wholeness of body and spirit. The final section of the expanded edition of her Blake study ''The Unholy Bible'' suggests the later works are the "Bible of Hell" promised in ''The Marriage of Heaven and Hell''. Regarding Blake's final poem, ''Jerusalem'', she writes: "The promise of the divine in man, made in ''The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'', is at last fulfilled."<ref>''The Unholy Bible'', June Singer, p. 229.</ref>

[[John Middleton Murry]] notes discontinuity between ''Marriage'' and the late works, in that while the early Blake focused on a "sheer negative opposition between Energy and Reason", the later Blake emphasised the notions of self-sacrifice and forgiveness as the road to interior wholeness. This renunciation of the sharper dualism of ''Marriage of Heaven and Hell'' is evidenced in particular by the humanisation of the character of [[Urizen]] in the later works. Murry characterises the later Blake as having found "mutual understanding" and "mutual forgiveness".<ref>''William Blake'', Murry, p. 168.</ref>

=== Religious views ===

[[File:Europe a Prophecy, copy D, object 1 (Bentley 1, Erdman i, Keynes i) British Museum.jpg|thumb|right|[[Urizen]] − from Blake's ''[[The Ancient of Days|Ancient of Days]]'', 1794. The "[[Ancient of Days]]" is described in Chapter 7 of the [[Book of Daniel]]. This image depicts Copy D of the illustration currently held at the British Museum.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/object.xq?objectid=europe.d.illbk.01&java=no| title = Europe a Prophecy, copy D, object 1 (Bentley 1, Erdman i, Keynes i) "Europe a Prophecy"|editor1= Morris Eaves |editor2=Robert N. Essick |editor3=Joseph Viscomi| publisher = [[William Blake Archive]]| access-date = 25 September 2013}}</ref> ]]

Regarding conventional religion, Blake was a satirist and ironist in his viewpoints which are illustrated and summarised in his poem ''[[Vala, or The Four Zoas]]'', one of his uncompleted [[William Blake's prophetic books|prophetic books]] begun in 1797. The demi-mythological and demi-religious main characters of the book are the Four Zoas ([[Urthona]], [[Urizen]], [[Luvah]] and [[Tharmas]]), who were created by the fall of [[Albion (Blake)|Albion]] in [[William Blake's mythology|Blake's mythology]]. It consists of nine books, referred to as "nights". These outline the interactions of the Zoas, their fallen forms and their [[Emanationism|Emanations]]. Blake intended the book to be a summation of his [[William Blake's mythology|mythic universe]]. Blake's Four Zoas, which represent four aspects of the [[God in Christianity|Almighty God]] and ''Vala'' is the first work to mention them.<ref>Bentley 2003 pp. 198–199, 247, 310</ref> In particular, Blake's God/Man union is broken down into the bodily components of Urizen (head), Urthona (loins), Luvah (heart), and Tharmas (unity of the body) with paired [[Emanationism|Emanations]] being [[Ahania]] (wisdom, from the head), [[Enitharmon]] (what can't be attained in nature, from the loins), [[Vala (Blake)|Vala]] (nature, from the heart), and [[Enion]] (earth mother, from the separation of unity).<ref>Bloom 1993 p. 32</ref> As connected to Blake's understanding of the divine, the Zoas are the [[God the Father]] (Tharmas, sense), the [[Son of God]] (Luvah, love), the [[Holy Spirit|Holy Ghost]] (Urthona, imagination), and [[Christian teaching about the Devil|Satan]] who was originally of the divine substance (Urizen, reason) and their Emanations represent Sexual Urges (Enion), Nature (Vala), Inspiration (Enitharmon), and Pleasure (Ahania).<ref>Damon pp. 124, 255, 399, 419, 428</ref>

Blake believed that each person had a twofold identity with one half being good and the other evil. In ''Vala'', both the character [[Orc (Blake)|Orc]] and [[Albion (Blake)|The Eternal Man]] discuss their selves as divided. By the time he was working on his later works, including ''Vala'', Blake felt that he was able to overcome his inner battle but he was concerned about losing his artistic abilities. These thoughts carried over into ''Vala'' as the character Los (imagination) is connected to the image of Christ, and he added a Christian element to his mythic world. In the revised version of ''Vala'', Blake added Christian and Hebrew images and describes how Los experiences a vision of the Lamb of God that regenerates Los's spirit. In opposition to Christ is Urizen and the [[Synagogue of Satan]], who later crucifies Christ. It is from them that Deism is born.<ref>Bentley 2003 pp. 271–272, 301</ref>

[[File:Blake-Abel.jpg|thumb|right|''The Body of [[Cain and Abel|Abel]] Found by Adam and Eve'', c. 1825. Watercolour on wood.]]
Blake did not subscribe to the notion of a body distinct from the soul that must submit to the rule of the soul, but sees the body as an extension of the soul, derived from the "discernment" of the senses. Thus, the emphasis orthodoxy places upon the denial of bodily urges is a dualistic error born of misapprehension of the relationship between body and soul. Elsewhere, he describes Satan as the "state of error", and as beyond salvation.<ref>{{cite book |last=Damon |first=Samuel Foster |title=A Blake Dictionary |year=1988 |publisher=Brown University Press |page=358 |isbn=0-87451-436-3 |edition=Revised }}</ref>

Blake opposed the [[Sophism|sophistry]] of [[theology|theological]] thought that excuses pain, admits evil and apologises for injustice. He abhorred self-denial,<ref>[[Saree Makdisi|Makdisi, Saree]]. ''William Blake and the Impossible History of the 1790s''. 2003, pp. 226–7.</ref> which he associated with religious repression and particularly [[sexual repression]]:<ref>Altizer, Thomas J. J. ''The New Apocalypse: The Radical Christian Vision of William Blake''. 2000, p. 18.</ref>
<blockquote><poem>
[[Prudence]] is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.
He who desires but acts not breeds [[wikt:pestilence|pestilence]]. (7.4–5, E35)</poem></blockquote>
He saw the concept of "sin" as a trap to bind men's desires (the briars of ''Garden of Love''), and believed that restraint in obedience to a moral code imposed from the outside was against the spirit of life:
<blockquote><poem>
Abstinence sows sand all over
The ruddy limbs & flaming hair
But Desire Gratified
Plants fruits & beauty there. (E474)
</poem></blockquote>

He did not hold with the [[God the Father#Christianity|doctrine]] of God as Lord, an entity separate from and superior to mankind;<ref>{{cite book |last=Blake |first=Gerald Eades Bentley |title=William Blake: The Critical Heritage |year=1975 |publisher=Routledge & K. Paul |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/williamblakecrit0000unse/page/30 30] |isbn=0-7100-8234-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/williamblakecrit0000unse/page/30 }}</ref> this is shown clearly in his words about Jesus Christ: "He is the only God ... and so am I, and so are you." A telling phrase in ''The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'' is "men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast".