{"id":94254,"date":"2017-06-26T12:00:22","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T11:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=94254"},"modified":"2018-10-13T11:26:20","modified_gmt":"2018-10-13T10:26:20","slug":"we-need-their-voices-today-2-william-blake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/06\/we-need-their-voices-today-2-william-blake\/","title":{"rendered":"We Need Their Voices Today! (2) William Blake"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/p>\n

This is a collection of biographical sketches showing people whose wise voices from the past can help to guide us today. All of the women and men, brief glimpses of whose lives and ideas are portrayed here, gave a high place to compassion. None of them was a slave to greed. We need their voices today!<\/p>\n

[Note from TMS editor: It will be posted one biographical sketch per week]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

***********************************************<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Education as an Engraver and Printmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

William Blake was born in 1757 in the Soho district of London. He was the third of seven children, two of whom died in infancy. His parents, who were English Dissenters, seem to have been reasonable wealthy during his childhood, since his father was able to purchase many books for him. Among these were books of engravings and drawings through which Blake became familiar with works of Michelangelo, Raphael and Albrecht Durer.<\/p>\n

Recognizing their son\u2019s extremely independent temperament and his gifts as an artist, his parents sent him to an ordinary school only long enough to learn reading and writing, after which he was tutored at home by his mother, and later apprenticed to an engraver and printmaker. After he had finished his apprenticeship, the young Blake became a student at the Royal Academy. Finally, he opened his own engraving and printmaking shop. Blake continued to read avidly on topics of all kinds, but was most influenced by his studies of the Bible.<\/p>\n

Marriage<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1782, while recovering from the pain of a rejected marriage proposal, Blake met Catherine Boucher, who was five years his junior. He told Catherine about the pain he had experienced and asked \u201cDo you pity me?\u201d When she answered that she did, Blake replied \u201cThen I love you\u201d.<\/p>\n

Blake\u2019s marriage to Catherine was an extremely happy one. She was illiterate, but he taught her to read and write. Later he also trained her as an engraver. She was an invaluable help to him, and she lifted his spirits whenever he was burdened by misfortunes. She said of her husband, \u201cHe is always in Heaven\u201d.<\/p>\n

Political Activity<\/strong><\/p>\n

William Blake\u2019s first collection of poems, \u201cPoetical Sketches\u201d, was printed around 1783. After his father\u2019s death, Blake and former fellow apprentice James Parker opened a print shop in 1784, and began working with radical publisher Joseph Johnson. Johnson\u2019s house was a meeting-place for some leading English intellectual dissidents of the time: theologian and scientist Joseph Priestley, philosopher Richard Price, artist John Henry Fuseli, early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and English-American revoutionary Thomas Paine, along with William Wordsworth and William Godwin. Blake had great hopes for the French and American revolutions, but despaired with the rise of Robespierre and the Reign of Terror in France.<\/p>\n

Blake illustrated \u201cOriginal Stories from Real Life\u201d (2nd edition, 1791) by Mary Wollstonecraft. They seem to have shared some views on sexual equality and the institution of marriage, but there is no evidence proving without doubt that they actually met. In 1793 Blake published \u201cVisions of the Daughters of Albion\u201d, in which he condemned the cruel absurdity of enforced marriage without love and defended the right of women to complete self-fulfilment.<\/p>\n

Some Verses from Auguries of Innocence<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTo see a World in a Grain of Sand<\/em>
\nAnd a Heaven in a Wild Flower<\/em>
\nHold Infinity in the palm of your hand<\/em>
\nAnd Eternity in an hour.<\/em>
\nA Robin Red breast in a Cage<\/em>
\nPuts all Heaven in a Rage<\/em>
\nA Dove house filled with Doves & Pigeons<\/em>
\nShudders Hell thr\u2019 all its regions<\/em>
\nA dog starvd at his Masters Gate<\/em>
\nPredicts the ruin of the State<\/em>
\nA Horse misusd upon the Road<\/em>
\nCalls to Heaven for Human blood<\/em>
\nEach outcry of the hunted Hare<\/em>
\nA fibre from the Brain does tear<\/em>
\nA Skylark wounded in the wing<\/em>
\nA Cherubim does cease to sing<\/em>
\nThe Game Cock clipd & armd for fight<\/em>
\nDoes the Rising Sun affright<\/em>
\nEvery Wolfs & Lions howl<\/em>
\nRaises from Hell a Human Soul<\/em>
\nThe wild deer, wandring here & there<\/em>
\nKeeps the Human Soul from Care<\/em>
\nThe Lamb misusd breeds Public Strife<\/em>
\nAnd yet forgives the Butchers knife<\/em>
\nThe Bat that flits at close of Eve<\/em>
\nHas left the Brain that wont Believe<\/em>
\nThe Owl that calls upon the Night<\/em>
\nSpeaks the Unbelievers fright<\/em>
\nHe who shall hurt the little Wren<\/em>
\nShall never be belovd by Men<\/em>
\nHe who the Ox to wrath has moved<\/em>
\nShall never be by Woman loved<\/em>
\nThe wanton Boy that kills the Fly<\/em>
\nShall feel the Spiders enmity<\/em>
\nHe who torments the Chafers Sprite<\/em>
\nWeaves a Bower in endless Night<\/em>
\nThe Catterpiller on the Leaf<\/em>
\nRepeats to thee thy Mothers grief<\/em>
\nKill not the Moth nor Butterfly<\/em>
\nFor the Last Judgment draweth nigh<\/em>
\nHe who shall train the Horse to War<\/em>
\nShall never pass the Polar Bar<\/em>
\nThe Beggars Dog & Widows Cat<\/em>
\nFeed them & thou wilt grow fat<\/em>
\nThe Gnat that sings his Summers Song<\/em>
\nPoison gets from Slanders tongue<\/em>
\nThe poison of the Snake & Newt<\/em>
\nIs the sweat of Envys Foot<\/em>
\nThe poison of the Honey Bee<\/em>
\nIs the Artists Jealousy<\/em>
\nThe Princes Robes & Beggars Rags<\/em>
\nAre Toadstools on the Misers Bags<\/em>
\nA Truth thats told with bad intent<\/em>
\nBeats all the Lies you can invent<\/em>
\nThe Whore & Gambler by the State<\/em>
\nLicencd build that Nations Fate<\/em>
\nThe Harlots cry from Street to Street<\/em>
\nShall weave Old Englands winding Sheet<\/em>
\nThe Winners Shout the Losers Curse<\/em>
\nDance before dead Englands Hearse<\/em>
\nEvery Night & every Morn<\/em>
\nSome to Misery are Born<\/em>
\nEvery Morn and every Night<\/em>
\nSome are Born to sweet delight<\/em>
\nSome are Born to sweet delight<\/em>
\nSome are Born to Endless Night.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Jerusalem<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd did those feet in ancient time<\/em>
\nWalk upon England\u2019s mountains green?<\/em>
\nAnd was the holy Lamb of God<\/em>
\nOn England\u2019s pleasant pastures seen?<\/em>
\nAnd did the Countenance Divine<\/em>
\nShine forth upon our clouded hills?<\/em>
\nAnd was Jerusalem builded here<\/em>
\nAmong these dark Satanic Mills?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBring me my bow of burning gold!<\/em>
\nBring me my arrows of desire!<\/em>
\nBring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!<\/em>
\nBring me my chariot of fire!<\/em>
\nI will not cease from mental fight,<\/em>
\nNor shall my sword sleep in my hand,<\/em>
\nTill we have built Jerusalem<\/em>
\nIn England\u2019s green and pleasant land.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

London<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI wandered through each chartered street<\/em>
\nNear which the chartered Thames doth flow.<\/em>
\nA mark in every face I meet,<\/em>
\nmarks of weakness, marks of woe.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIn every cry of every man,<\/em>
\nIn every infant\u2019s cry of fear,<\/em>
\nIn every voice, in every ban,<\/em>
\nThe mind-forged manacles I hear.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHow the chimney-sweeper\u2019s cry<\/em>
\nEvery blackening church appalls,<\/em>
\nAnd how the hapless soldier\u2019s sigh<\/em>
\nRuns in blood down palace-walls.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBut most, through midnight streets I hear<\/em>
\nHow the youthful harlot\u2019s curse<\/em>
\nBlasts the new-born infant\u2019s tear,<\/em>
\nAnd blights with plagues the marriage-hearse.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

William Blake, sublime visionary poet and artist, voice of the poor. Voice of nature, we need your voice today!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Together<\/p><\/div>\n

Contents:<\/h2>\n

1 Saint Francis of Assisi<\/p>\n

2 William Blake<\/p>\n

3 Thomas Paine<\/p>\n

4 Thomas Jefferson<\/p>\n

5 Mary Wollstonecraft<\/p>\n

6 William Godwin<\/p>\n

7 The Marquis de Condorcet<\/p>\n

8 Thomas Robert Malthus<\/p>\n

9 Percy Bysshe Shelley<\/p>\n

10 Robert Owen<\/p>\n

11 John Stuart Mill<\/p>\n

12 Henry David Thoreau<\/p>\n

13 Count Leo Tolstoy<\/p>\n

14 Mahatma Gandhi<\/p>\n

15 Martin Luther King<\/p>\n

16 Wilfred Owen<\/p>\n

17 Albert Einstein<\/p>\n

18 Edna St. Vincent Millay<\/p>\n

19 Bertha von Suttner<\/p>\n

20 George Orwell<\/p>\n

21 Helen Keller<\/p>\n

22 We need their voices, and yours!<\/p>\n

_________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>John Scales Avery, Ph.D., <\/em>who was part of a group that shared the 1995<\/em><\/strong> Nobel Peace Prize<\/strong> for their work in organizing the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, is a member of the TRANSCEND Network<\/a> and Associate Professor Emeritus at the H.C. \u00d8rsted Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is chairman of both the Danish National Pugwash Group and the Danish Peace Academy and<\/em> received his training in theoretical physics and theoretical chemistry at M.I.T., the University of Chicago and the University of London. He is the author of numerous books and articles both on scientific topics and on broader social questions. His most recent books are Information Theory and Evolution and <\/em>Civilization\u2019s Crisis in the 21st Century<\/a> (pdf).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

William Blake, sublime visionary poet and artist, voice of the poor. Voice of nature, we need your voice today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}