William Blake: "Art is the tree of life"
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 8:13AM 
Engravings and watercolors by William Blake (1757 – 1827) were on exhibit at the Petit Palais in Paris this past spring through June. I think it’s back in the UK now, and perhaps headed elsewhere. Catch it if you can. As a chance to get to know better this extraordinary, visionary poet, it was a treat.
The following was printed in English on one of the walls of the exhibit when I walked in:
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the Palm of your Hand
And Eternity in an Hour.
From Auguries of Innocence (Songs of Innocence)
This is what they mean by “visionary” -- to see a world in a grain of sand. He renders into simple, beautiful imagery the otherwise inexpressible, mystical, we-are-all-one, everything-is-connected, time-is-illusory, universe of the mystic.
Blake concerned himself with BIG questions: Eternity, God, the Word of God, Creation, Heaven, Hell and Morality (although he apparently had some unconventional, free-love ideas about what was moral and what wasn’t). He was a Philosopher, but an Artist first. Blake was intuitive—I daresay, right-brained, seeing everything in abstract, interconnected ways. He took on Newton and the scientists of the age, those linear-thinking, left-brained folks obsessed with reason at the expense of all else, proclaiming, “Art is the tree of life, science is the tree of death.” Goodness.
[From that same poem comes the sensible observation:
“A truth that’s told with bad intent, Beats all the lies you can invent.”]
Most of us know, “Tyger, tyger, burning bright/in the forests of the night/what immortal hand or eye/could frame thy fearful symmetry.” [From Songs of Experience] I read it in 9th grade English. While there was something about it that made my pulse beat faster, I didn’t really get it.
I wasn't the only one. In late 18th-century/early 19th century England of his time, Blake was misunderstood at best, mostly considered mad as a hatter and ignored. I’m not sure we’ve caught up with his ideas even yet. Only a few recognized his poetry at the end of his life. As an engraver he enjoyed some admiration; it was said during his time that he “might do tolerably well if he were not mad.” The relationship between madness and genius is fascinating. Everyone thought he was bonkers. He was simply brilliant.
Another one of his most famous quotes: “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.” From The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
This is allegedly from whence Jim Morrison took the name of his band, The Doors. [By the way, "Light My Fire," is one of NPR's 100 greatest songs of the 20th century http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18955124 ] Jim cottoned to Blake’s line, “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.” As we all know, Morrison died in Paris of an overdose of excess.
One of the first engravings Blake did with his painstaking, carved copper, backward relief-etching is:
“All Religions Are One.”
This was also printed on one of the exhibit walls. Blake had issues with organized religion, although he was a deeply spiritual man. This was very radical thinking at the time. I suppose it is still.
Blake finally put on an exhibit of his art work above his brother’s hosiery shop, in the early 1820’s, accompanied by a 66-page catalogue that laid out his unconventional philosophy. Only six people showed up for the opening, including one critic whose review ridiculed Blake as “an unfortunate lunatic.” Tragically, he never tried to exhibit again and secluded himself, embittered.
As if that weren’t bad enough, he had visions throughout his life, some beautiful, many strange and terrible. He tried to reproduce a few of them, including the Ghost of a Flea, definitely something out of a bad dream. Another of these in the exhibit was the portrait of the man who gives him his poems in his dreams. Fortunately, he had a devoted wife Catherine (whom he taught to read and write) who believed in his genius and worked with him throughout his life. And a few benefactors along the way who kept him employed.
One last favorite quote from the long and (to me, otherwise) incomprehensible Jerusalem:
“Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.”
Reader Comments (9)
Thanks for this post. A very worthwhile read. I'm sure the last quote and paragraph will stay with me...but in fact what is the reference to vegetables all about??
“Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.”
I figured Blake just used an interesting word for "physical" as in the physical, 3-d park bench, coffee cup and metal laptop reality in which we exist. He's juxtaposing the organic, "vegetable" world versus the realms of dream and imagination (and spirit), the collective unconscious, that which lies beyond the veil, etc. But maybe I'm reading too much into it : )
Maybe the Blake quote came to Morrison through Aldous Huxley? Or maybe he meant both?
Good question, and you're probably right. I wouldn't put it past Morrison, though, to at least check out Blake after reading Huxley.
ad removed by web master.
“A truth that’s told with bad intent, Beats all the lies you can invent.” This quote just makes a lot of sense to me. A very good post, worth my time spent in reading it. :-)
Cape Town
Thanks, Cape Town, for stopping by. There's a reason we're still reading and contemplating this man's work.
How does the Blake quote Art is The Tree of Life fit Terrence Malick's move Tree of Life?
I haven't seen Malick's TREE OF LIFE yet. Even if I had, I still probably couldn't answer that question.