Visions and Prophecies
A Morning with William Blake
Relatore:
prof. Herman van der Heide
Sabato 28 Maggio 2022
Babylon Lingue Straniere - via Parenzo 9, Rovigo
- Incontro Gratuito - 

The Eye sees more than the Heart knows

 

William Blake (1757- 1827) was a giant of poetry in his own right: he stands out as a single phenomenon in turbulent times and he created a mythology that embraced vision, sound and prophecy. He was visual artist, working as an engraver and painter, and poet, writing his own poetry directly on copper plates to accompany his images. In all the phases of his work he was present in body and mind, as an artisan and tradesman, editor and philosopher, prophet and mystic.

 

To the poet the word is a centre of meanings, sounds and associations, radiating out indefinitely like the ripples of a pool. Blake’s words are concerned with his vision of the world and he organized them in what he called ‘prophecies’, long poems that speak to the people of his time.

 

Giuseppe Ungaretti, who translated Blake’s poetry in the thirties of the twentieth century, between the two wars, has said: “It is in the miracle of the word that Blake has few rivals” (“È nel miracolo della parola che non è facile trovare il rivale di Blake”). As he spoke to the readers of his time, and was

often misunderstood, he can still speak to the modern reader.

 

In his own time he was a mediator between the ancient and the new, but in his visionary imagination he denied the existence of history. His was ‘the perpetual pilgrimage within time towards eternity’.

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Herman van der Heide è uno scrittore, saggista, esperto di letteratura e poesia. Per anni docente di Inglese e di lingua e letteratura Olandese all'Università di Bologna.

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