William Blake is a poet and engraver born in London in 1757, to a middle class family. His education, initially private, becomes artistic at the age of fifteen, when he begins to show artistic talent. His genius, considered eccentric and lunatic, won’t be recognized during his own lifetime, but there will be however many people loving him, like the group of painter called “The Ancients”, which will see him as a prophet and will support him until his death, in 1827.

Blake’s poetry rejects neoclassical ideas, like rationalism and materialism, which repress man’s imagination and instincts. In fact he believes in faith and intuition as the only source of true sensorial experience. Blake sees the world as a place of conflict between opposite and authority and also like a place tainted by cruelty and social injustice.

Blake’s poetry can be divided into three main categories:

* The lyrics

* The shorter prophecies

* The longer prophecies

While his first works talk about the contrast between the child’s uncorrupted soul and the bondage of lapsed soul, the prophetic books are more mystical and visionary..

The lyrics include the collections called “Songs of innocence” and “S. of experience” which are opposite and complementary. They present innocence as a state of freedom and happiness, represented by the children (and also by flowers, angels and animals) and experience as the corruption of innocence. Its symbols are white cities, priests, houses, night and silence.

“The Lamb” and “The Tiger” are two of the most Blake’s famous poems :

The lamb, symbol of innocence and purity, is deeply connected with the child for its tenderness. Both them are united in God’s name.

The tiger, frightful but fascinating creature, is the symbol of the sufferings and the violence present in human life. Like god and evil, the lamb and the tiger are two opposite states of human soul.