William Blake: A Multifaceted Genius

William Blake: A Multifaceted Genius
by Luigi De Angelis Soriano
Profesor de British Literature
Escuela de Lengua Inglesa 
Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil
In exquisitely designedplates assorted under  the title The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1794), author Wiliam Blake (1757-1827) displayed humorous and satirical opinions concerning religious morality; for instance, one ofhis most notable proverbs says: "As the caterpillar chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys." Cunningness, audacity and authentic free-thinkingare some of the unquestionable attributes that one can appreciate just by reading a proverb (One single proverb!) written by this visionary author. At this moment, 184 years after his death, WilliamBlake should be enjoying himself in a garden populated by a hundred peacocks, next to a God of blue fire and kindness, devouring sweet fruit with a crown of feathers on his head, surrounded by anentourage of swallows, and feeling the pleasures of the flesh; however, we are still here and the best we can do in order to redeem the shame of those who overlooked his work, is to remember the three facetsof Blake: the writer, the artist, and the eccentric iconoclast.
As a writer, William Blake left us a legacy of "mad" poetry and "hellish" proverbs. The British author William Wordsworth -whenspeaking about Blake- said, “There is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scott.” Indeed, among the most outstanding poetic production ofBlake, there is a variety of delightful pieces that easily confirm Wordsworth's statement. For example, "A Poison Tree" -rather unknown poem, part of Blake's 1794's collection "Songs of Experience"- issimple in its structure, yet engrossing and rich in the way it depicts the destructive power of anger within the inner moral scope of an individual. Likewise, Blake’s proverbs of hell are -even for...