Revisiting William Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell : a reading against Kathleen Raine's Blake and Antiquity

Abstract

William Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell is a text that can easily be misinterpreted and this is primarily due to its register and tone; Blake has written a text in which what appears to be mystical insight may blind the reader to a misunderstanding of its major themes. The arts, and specifically the art of poetry and the relationship between the artist and society are what are central in this text, as well as a meditation on the nature of human experience. Beginning with a polemic against Kathleen Raine’s statements in Blake and Antiquity, what will be explored here will be the contextual framework of Blake’s poetics in this text and their further implications.