BLAKE, WILLIAM

Blake, William: translation

(1757-1827)

   A British poet, painter, and printmaker who from childhood onwards experienced * dreams and *visions depicting *apparitions and metaphysical scenes. At the age of4, he claimed to have seen the face of God "put his head to the window", and at the age of around 10 he saw "a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars". The visions recurred throughout his life, along with *verbal auditory hallucinations which he attributed to his deceased brother (with whom he continued to converse daily), and to angels, Archangels, etc. who dictated poems to him, and infused the themes of his visual art. Retrospective diagnosis is a delicate issue, but it has been suggested that Blake may have suffered from bipolar disorder or from * ecstatic aurae occurring in the context oftempo-ral lobe epilepsy.

   References

   Bentley, Jr., G.E., (2001). The stranger from Paradise. A biography of William Blake. London: Yale University Press.

   Buckley, P.J. (2005). William Blake (17571827). American Journal of Psychiatry, 162, 866.