On this date, 28 November 1757, the English poet, mystic, painter and printmaker William Blake is born in London, England.

His father was a successful hosier and he was educated by his mother at home. He saw and conversed with the angel Gabriel, the Virgin Mary, and various historical figures in his early childhood. This no doubt stems from the encouragement he received to collect prints of the Italian Masters and his attendance at Henry Pars' drawing school in 1767. He began to write poems in 1769 at the early age of 12.

When Blake was 14 years old in 1762, he was apprenticed to the engraver James Basire, for seven years. This experience would lead Blake to compete without financial success in a highly competitive field.

In 1779 he enrolled at the Royal Academy and there rebelled against what he regarded as the unfinished style of fashionable painters such as Rubens. He preferred the Classical exactness of Michelangelo and Raphael.

In 1783 he married Catherine Boucher, the daughter of a market gardener. This was also the year in which his first book of poems, POETICAL SKETCHES appeared. This was followed by SONGS OF INNOCENC in 1789, and SONGS OF EXPERIENCE in 1794. His most famous poem, 'The Tyger', was part of his Songs of Experience.

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright in the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire? And what shoulder, and what art, Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand? and what dread feet? What the hammer? what the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dead grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp? When the stars threw down their spears, And water'd heaved with their tears, Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee? Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Blake had an idiosyncratic view of his Christian religion. He believed that the truth was learned by personal revelation, not by teaching. What he called his 'visions' were perhaps hallucinations, experiences that he allowed to guide his life. It was these that gave him such a strong and uncompromising belief in his own artistic direction, but also led others to call him eccentric or even mad.

Blake returned to London in 1802 and began to write and illustrate Jerusalem (1804-1820). He was introduced by George Cumberland to a young artist named John Linnell. Through Linnell he met Samuel Palmer, who belonged to a group of artists who called themselves the 'Shoreham Ancients'. This group shared Blake's rejection of modern trends and his belief in a spiritual and artistic New Age. Blake benefited from this group technically, by sharing in their advances in watercolour painting, and personally, by finding a receptive audience for his ideas.

Although he was never able to rise above his poverty, Blake left no debts at his death on August 12, 1827. He was buried at the public cemetery of Bunhill Fields, "There was no doubt that this poor man was mad, but there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scott." Wordsworth's verdict after Blake's death reflected many opinions of the time: "There was no doubt that this poor man was mad, but there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scott."