REPUTATION. Ironically, Blake was better known among his contemporaries for his engravings and designs than for his poetry

Ironically, Blake was better known among his contemporaries for his engravings and designs than for his poetry. Blake’s gravures and water-colours are equally original, not connected with any school or tradition in art. The figures sometimes appear deformed, for the artist strives to expressing the inner dynamics of the souls in the first place. In art, as well as in poetry, Blake is seen as a precursor of art nouveau.

Blake achieved little recognition during his lifetime, though Samuel Taylor Coleridge privately recognized Blake as a "man of Genius" and Charles Lamb conceded that he was "one of the most extraordinary persons of the age". The general consensus, however, was that he was gifted but insane.

Modern scholars and critics elevate this most individual of writers to the front ranks of English poetry. In the twentieth century he came to be recognized as a poetic genius. Blake anticipated many of the dominant artistic impulses of the modern era, and enthusiasts stress that he transcends the merely personal in his works.

Blake relied heavily on symbolism. Some of his symbols are readily understandable, some are less easy to interpret and have been the subject of much heated debate.

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