ABSTRACT
William Blake is the chief example in English literature of implicit obedience to a good conscience. He never trimmed, never pot-boiled, never dallied; he never doubted his own inspiration. Blake strove to portray the soul of man. The extraordinary pleasure derived from reading Blake, or seeing into his pictures, has been the mainspring of every book written about him that is worth reading. Each has experienced a delight in Blake which demanded some kind of expression, but each has been faced with the fact that his understanding of Blake was only partial. Most poets appeal primarily to “the corporeal understanding” trusting that through it they may find a way to the “intellectual powers”. And when criticism deals with such poets it can always pass muster on the safe ground of “corporeal understanding” when it fails to soar with the poet on the wings of the “intellectual powers”.
