William Blake, ostensibly a mystic, was actually not

Aesthetics Literature
1

Thus one portion of being is the Prolific, the other the Devouring: to the devourer it seems as if the producer was in his chains, but it is not so, he only takes portions of existence and fancies that the whole.

But the Prolific would cease to be Prolific unless the Devourer, as a sea, recieved the excess of his delights.

Some will say: ‘Is not God alone the Prolific?’ I answer: ’ God only Acts & Is, in existing beings or Men.’

  • William Blake, from the Marriage of Heaven & Hell, 1793.

The Prolific = the producers

The Devouring = consumers

Bold mine, to emphasize that Blake was essentially an atheist.

2

What about … …

"Did he smile, his work to see

Dis he who made the Lamb, make thee?"

Was this just an atheist poet playing with a religious theme in poetry?

3

could be.

4

Well, one should make allowance for him as poet, and for the general climate he lived in.

I’m not an expert on Blake’s life, but perhaps my favorite lines of poetry are these :

"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."

There are objective truths in that. Not dissimilar to Rand’s “Your ideal as a thinker is to keep the universe with you at all times.”

5

Blake sounds like he is something of a Deist or an enlightened Christian. He’s probably be comfortable with Franklin or Jefferson.