A Memorable Fancy...Meeting You

Blake imagination, characters from the Bible, and mocks themes from the Bible in his work. His poems can be very hard to understand at first glace. It takes time and effort to figure out a meaning. I had troubles with his poems and then trying to relating them to the Bible because I am not that familiar with the Bible. Art work he created can help the reader understand the meanings to his poems and get an idea of how to imagine his poetry. Something I found interesting in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell was he used characters from the Bible and told stories of his journey and time spent with them.

Such as in A Memorable Fancy, Blake described his night when he dined with Isaiah and Ezekiel, prophets from the Bible. He had asked them questions and they would answer back. Blake goes in detail about the visions or dreams he has. Where he not only dined with prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel but an angel came to him. He spent much time with this angle discussing their view points upon things. Later he meets the Devil. He also has a conversation with the Devil about Jesus and God. The Devil questions Jesus and what he was quoting “Jesus as all virtue, and acted from impulse, not from rules.” Blake refers to the Devil as his “particular friend” and they would often read the Bible together. There view upon it though is quite different then how most Christians would read it. Blake and his Devil friend would take the words from the Bible and understand them as a reference to hell or evil meanings. They had a Bible of Hell that they would not share with the world.

Blake made a very big statement suggested in his poems during the late eighteen and early nineteenth century, he an issue with the Bible and what it said. That become obvious in The Voices of the Devil when he articulates the three errors that are stored in the Bible. He does give controversies that are true. In The Marriage of Hell Blake gives his interpretations of the Bible. How he thinks it should be taken form the words written within it. This is similar to all his poems and art work. It can be very interesting to read if someone is willing to view his poetry in the way he intended, but yet still use ones own imaginations.