12 August
In every cry of every man,
In every infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.
English poet, painter, printmaker and nonconformist William Blake died today in 1827. Describing himself as a ‘Liberty Boy’, he was involved radical causes throughout his life; campaigning for equal rights for women and against slavery. For Blake slavery was also a mental state and he expressed his social criticism through his mystical poetry.
‘If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.’
William Blake
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365 days is co-authored by Steve Platt and Fiona Osler
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