Book 5, Book 5 : Chapter 1, Poetical Sketches Summary

These constitute a major change in the writings of William Blake. They are not directly related to the copious writings involving God, Satan, Urizen, Beulah, the Furnaces and the clouds. There is more than one subgroup of the author's writings being brought together into this summary chapter—a set of 6 poems, then some writings designed for the stage.

The poems are entitled: To Spring, To Summer, To Autumn, To Winter, To the Evening Star, To Morning, Fair Elenor, then 5 in a row each of which bears the same title, Song, with one called Mad Song. After the Mad Song, there are two simply called Song. The first does not rhyme at the final word of the line of verse. Each stanza is of identical length, in this case, 4 lines. In the poem Summer each...