William Blake was an unconventional radical in his day, an early member of the Romantics and heavily influenced by Emanuel Swedenborg's esoteric philosophy. His wild imagination, with its undercurrents of mysticism, spiritualism, and philosophy, is apparent in two of Blake's epics included here, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and America, a Prophecy.
Though he lived in poverty and died without much recognition, Blake's vivid and intense work is still relevant in the modern day, inspiring artists as diverse as the Beat poets, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Jim Morrison. His visionary poetry and art made a significant contribution to Western thought, and he was canonized as Gnostic Saint by the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica in 1997.
Download and start listening now!