An accomplished painter and poet, William Blake, is an influential figure of the Romantic age, which was characterized by people’s reactions to the changes occurring in Europe. His two prominently famous publications, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Songs of Innocence and Experience, are among the artistic endeavors espousing imagination, creativity, and freedom. In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Blake imitates biblical prophecies while incorporating revolutionary and personally romantic beliefs.
There is No Natural Religion successfully combines texts and images to illustrate some previously unexplored topics, including the notion of rational or scientific thoughts as enclosing and limiting forces in Series A. The two series of the publication fundamentally contradict one another since the other version accentuates that human perception is unbounded by organs of perception. Although Blake was not a prominently successful romantic artist, his creativity, resistance to mainstream ideas, and the utilization of art as an ideological weapon to positively change the society, significantly shaped the modern counterculture.
The influence of William Blake’s artistic body of work and his legacy is apparent in the modern counterculture. His creative, unconventional, and idealistic illustrations have been adapted, co-opted, and incorporated by numerous artists in visual arts, poetry, film, television, music, and graphic and comic novels. For instance, Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell fundamentally departed from previously espoused cultures and explored the myths that became the most prominent channel for presenting his Romantic ideological thoughts. His vision of seeing angels among haystacks, the impression of God’s face against his window, Prophet Ezekiel’s visit, and his deceased brother’s heavenward ascension emphasized imagination while amplifying his rejection to formalized religion (Blake 180).
Notably, Blake’s idealism and imagination allowed him to illustratively create and contextualize the images of God, a significant variation from the confinements of the previous literary eras (Zhao 16). These impressions are reflected in the activities of the successive artists and figures, such as Allen Ginsberg and Alasdair Gray, depicting Blake’s enormous influence on theater-makers, graphic novelists, and creators of all kinds.
The Songs of Innocence and of Experience juxtapose the guiltless and innocence of childhood with the corrupt and repressive world of adulthood. The two contradictory publications depict the positive aspects of human nature before it is corrupted by worldly encounters. The thematic subject has formed the basis of numerous artistic works due to the prominence of how the experiences and realities of adult life adversely corrode the innocence of childhood. Woodsworth extensively explores social evils and political injustices and likens them to the progressive and continuous revolt of the natural man against the spiritual (Blake 191).
Moreover, this erosion of innocence through life’s experiences is captured in various films, including Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets, which references Blake’s poem The Tyger. The poem has also been adapted in numerous musical versions by artists such as Bob Dylan, Duran Duran, Allen Ginsberg, and David Axelrod. The recordings done in contemporary pop culture were influenced significantly by Blake’s works, imaginative attributes, and departure from the conventional mainstream concepts.
Further, Blake’s works recruited and energized modern counterculture artists to highlight, amplify, and reinvigorate the resistance to ideological, institutional, psychological, and political tyrannies. Blake discards the rationalistic assertions of empirical philosophers and scientists, such as John Locke, and creates new frontiers for artistic creativity by depicting the limitless nature of imagination. In the Songs of Innocence and of Experience, he demonstrates the human’s ability to transcend beyond the limitations and confines of the senses, which was a significant attribute of the Enlightenment era. Consequently, the oppression of worldly institutions such as the State, the Church, and the ruling class, contravene the infinite desires of man.
The archetypal images created in the Songs of Innocence and of Experience continue to be reflected in the tremendous creativity and imagination in the modern culture, which surpasses the imposed restrictions by the society.
Similarly, The Little Black Boy’s poetic depiction of a white soul on a black body from the Songs of Innocence emphatically agitates for racial equality, asserting the temporal nature of earthly identity. Blake was ambitious of a racially tolerant society, and his works have inspired people to embrace egalitarian values and the rejection of ethnic and racial stereotypes. Hunt notes that comic books are increasingly co-opted into film and television series to highlight the plight of people of color (87). Although this growth can be attributed to the enormous influence of counterculture on society, William Blake’s artistic works contributed immensely to utilizing art as a tool for championing social change.
Conclusively, William Blake’s work has significantly influenced the modern counterculture artists by giving prominence to alternative values and the departure from the norms espoused by mainstream society. As a Romanticist, Blake’s belief in individualism, authenticity, and imagination allowed him to develop seminal and groundbreaking literary works in paintings and poetry on various subjects which were previously unexplored. He has been recognized as the first poet to utilize his skills as ideological weapons to challenge various establishments, including the state, the church, and the ruling elites. Consequently, other artists, including Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, and Alasdair Gray, drew immensely from his works, making him a major influence on modern music, filmmaking, novels, and poetry.
Works Cited
Blake, William. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. The Trianon Press, 1975.
Hunt, Whitney. “Negotiating New Racism: ‘It’s not Racist or Sexist. It’s Just the Way it is.” Media, Culture, & Society, vol. 41, no. 1, 2018, pp. 86–103. Web.
Zhao, Yonggang. “William Blake: A Special “Poetic Dweller” in British Painting World.” International Journal of Science Arts and Commerce, vol. 6, no. 1, 2021, pp. 15–22.