William Blake - A Slight Reassessment

William Blake is often taken as a kind of godfather of the Albion idea as it manifests itself in modern times, and his work is certainly very inspiring in that regard. When I was a teenager I used to go to the Tate Gallery in London (as it was, Tate Britain now) to look at his pictures that were on display there, since my school was not far away. I was also given a book of his poems for Christmas one year and read many of these enthusiastically, even if uncomprehendingly in the case of some of the longer, more obscure ones which were frankly over my head at the time, and which I gave up on.

I loved Blake but something in me always held back from complete admiration. I really liked his pictures for their imaginative vision, bold colour, vigour and originality but at the same time I found them a bit crude and the human figures almost ugly. Despite the spiritual subject matter there was always something too earthy about the paintings for me to give them my unreserved appreciation. His shorter poems, the Songs of Innocence and Experience for example, were full of charm, insight and beauty but the longer ones were too dense even if some lines and passages were inspiring. But as works of art they didn't really move me. I felt that Blake was a visionary artist but not a particularly great craftsman and that sometimes his reach exceeded his grasp. Many people obviously don't feel that but it was my impression, and it reduced my capacity to appreciate his work as much as perhaps I should have done.

Looking back, I think what I found missing in Blake was a sense of the essentially spiritual nature of the spiritual.  Let me explain what I mean by that. Both in his art and his poetry he seems to perceive the higher worlds too much in terms of this one. It's as though visions are raining down on him but are being interpreted in quite an earthbound way.  I believe this is because, despite his extraordinary imagination and probable clairvoyance, he was still in many ways a product of 18th century materialism and the world of English nonconformist Christianity.  That's not his fault but if we compare his spiritual outlook with that of a saint or devotional mystic of the Catholic church (disclaimer - I'm not a Catholic myself) there is something quite materialistic about him. He received a vision but, like anyone, he interpreted this within the limitations of his own personality and that of the times in which he lived. I think his reception of the vision was partially deficient and that is why his work can be misinterpreted as political as discussed in Bruce Charlton's recent post here -http://albionawakening.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/the-insanity-of-blake-as-co-opted-by.htmle. 

It might be said that  Blake cannot be blamed if his work is taken to be something other than it really was but I would say that the deficiency of his receptivity is at least partly responsible. Maybe a purer soul would not have left himself open to such misunderstanding but then God uses the vehicles that are available and none are perfect. By any criteria William Blake accomplished a mighty work, and I write this post not to criticise him in any way but simply to point out that he was not perfect and his vision had its faults, most notably in that it tends to materialize spirituality. At least in my opinion it does. My two colleagues on this blog may completely disagree with me.

Perhaps if we regard Blake as a prophet but not a saint, we will have a clearer idea of him. I see him being welcomed into heaven and congratulated on his magnificent achievements, all the greater because of the time in which he worked, but then being sent off for a little purgatorial purification. May we all be so fortunate!