Selections From The Symbolical Poems Of William Blake PDF Download

Excerpt from Selections From the Symbolical Poems of William Blake Those who believe that Blake's "Prophetic Books," as wholes, are great poems may consider the present volume as a simplified reader for beginners in Blakes symbolism, leading by graduated steps from the more obvious to the more complex aspects of these writings. Those who find the poetry of the "Prophetic Books" confined to isolated passages may regard this edition as an attempt to cull out such passages and arrange them in something roughly approximating an organic whole, as far as the refractory material renders this last step possible. The text is based mainly on Mr. Ellis's 1906 edition, the only complete one now in print; but where the same passages occur in the selections of Mr. Sampson's excellent edition his readings have been adopted, although he has not always been followed in typographical details. Mr. Ellis's numerous editorial emendations in Vala have been discarded; and Blake's own words, as given in Ellis's appendix of the Quaritch edition, have been substituted. We believe with Mr. Ellis that some of his emendations are improvements; but we felt reluctant to place a version so full of editorial alterations before a public that had no chance of comparing these with the original wording. Our text is not offered as a definitive one, but simply as adequate for an introductory work. Mr. Sampson's text, where followed, has been used by the kind permission of Mr. Sampson himself, and of his publishers, the Oxford University Press. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.