William Blake (1757-1827) is today regarded as one of the most original English writers and artists, 1___________________________________________.
Born in London, he spent most of his years in the centre of the capital, but 2___________________; the streets of the metropolis became for him windows to infinite time and space.
Blake`s visions began early, and throughout his life he experienced what was, for him, direct contact with spirits of the long-dead, with angels, God and the devil. While modern psychiatry would consider Blake to have been under the spell of hallucinations, 3___________________________.
He was also not shy in describing the sources of his inspiration to his friends and colleagues. The eccentric reputation he thus gained did little to help him to commercial success; for most of his life his work was neglected, 4____________________________________.
But while his work was often out of step with his time, few of the best artists of his day doubted his technical ability. Trained as an engraver, he pushed forward the boundaries of that art by his own innovations, and combined it with his poetry to such an extent 5_____________________________. Among the best known (and easiest to understand) of his hand-illustrated books are Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, 6________________________________________________.
and he often lived near to poverty
yet during his lifetime he was largely ignored and often called mad
that one cannot be properly understood without the other
for him the vision were real and directly inspired and guided his art
his visionary powers transformed everything around him
which contain some of the simplest and most beautiful lyrics in the English language
he never quite left home