“There Is No Pure Evil, Nor Pure Good, Only Purity”

“‘There Is No Pure Evil, Nor Pure Good, Only Purity’: William Blake’s and Patti Smith’s Art as Opposition to Societal Boundaries” compares William Blake’s Moravian upbringing to Patti Smith’s (1946) childhood as a Jehovah’s Witness to establish parallels between their respective dissenting Protestant traditions. Doing so highlights both the influence of this background on their work and its continued influence upon them. After establishing their similarities, Carpenter goes on to consider how their work is inflected by gender with a close comparison between Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Smith’s 1970s’ album Horses. She registers the androgyny of some of Blake’s figures in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell to compare that to Smith’s own non-binary personas on these albums, including the album covers, where she suppresses her femininity to adopt a male rock persona.