This brilliant outline of Blake's thought and commentary on his poetry
comes on the crest of the current interest in Blake, and carries us
further towards an understanding of his work than any previous study.
Here is a dear and complete solution to the riddles of the longer poems,
the so-called "Prophecies," and a demonstration of Blake's insight that
will amaze the modern reader. The first section of the book shows how
Blake arrived at a theory of knowledge that was also, for him, a theory
of religion, of human life and of art, and how this rigorously defined
system of ideas found expression in the complicated but consistent
symbolism of his poetry. The second and third parts, after indicating
the relation of Blake to English literature and the intellectual
atmosphere of his own time, explain the meaning of Blake's poems and the
significance of their characters.