“As in much of William Blake’s writing, what I may think I know, he manages to make me wonder if I really do know.”
“”Blake’s poetry has the unpleasantness of great poetry,” says T.S. Eliot (who has a way of parodying himself even while making wise observations).”
“The “unpleasantness of great poetry,” as exemplified by Blake, is rooted in a seductively beautiful process of unbalancing and disrupting.”
“Great poetry gives us elaborately attractive constructions of architecture or music or landscape—while preventing us from settling comfortably into this new and engaging structure, cadence, or terrain.”
“In particular, the two poems both titled “The Chimney Sweeper” offer eloquent examples of Blake’s unsettling art.”
“(One “Chimney Sweeper” poem comes from the Songs of Innocence; the other, from the Songs of Experience.)”