SOURCE: "The Lyric Poet," in William Blake, Oxford University Press, London, 1951, pp. 49-70.

In the following excerpt Margoliouth presents a stylistic and thematic overview of Blake's lyric poetry.

If William had died in 1787 as well as [his brother] Robert and if, some time in the nineteenth or twentieth century, a copy of Poetical Sketches had turned up and been published as an early document of the Romantic Revival, Blake might now be credited with a couple of not very well-known anthology lyrics and a varied selection of youthful imitations or experiments.

If we may presume that Blake chose the title of his own book, it was probably the painter in him that was responsible for the word 'Sketches': certainly it was the painter who wrote the now famous metaphor in 'To the Evening Star', 'And wash the dusk with silver'. The boldness of this metaphor taken from the...