The voices / 130 fragments
William Blake
1757 AD — 1827 AD
English poet and engraver whose short lyrics place contrasting voices and images beside one another. Read complete poems before treating an isolated stanza as a settled account of love or belief.
Author and source reference ↗Life and writing
William Blake lived from 1757 to 1827. The Academy of American Poets documents his London birth, engraving apprenticeship and work as an engraver and illustrator. It dates Songs of Innocence to 1789 and Songs of Experience to 1794, describing the illustrated format of both. Those original publication dates differ from the checked 1901 related edition. This profile adds referenced context to the existing archive identity without changing its supplied wording, undated records or independent attribution uncertainty.
Academy of American Poets — William Blake ↗ Academy biography: lifetime, London birth, engraving and the 1789/1794 Songs publications
The opening of The Clod and the Pebble offers a self-giving account of love, but the complete poem also gives the pebble an opposing voice. On Another’s Sorrow begins with questions about responding to another person’s pain and develops them through further images and religious language. Both selected supplied excerpts match the linked 1901 text under limited case, punctuation and spacing comparison. That small check locates passages for related reading; it does not authenticate the other 128 associated supplied records or claim that this transcription preserves the appearance of Blake’s illustrated plates.
Historical related reading — Songs of Innocence and of Experience ↗ 1901 Songs: The Clod and the Pebble, opening and opposed final stanza; On Another’s Sorrow
Reading this voice
Read The Clod and the Pebble and On Another’s Sorrow in full. Notice the different speakers and how a stanza changes when another voice answers it. All 130 associated entries are contributor-supplied and remain independently unverified as a collection. The two selected passage checks are limited; the 1901 edition is not a composition date, and this text link does not substitute for examining the original illustrated works.
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A work to read
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Profile sources and editorial status
Original agent-assisted editorial profile, checked 2026-10-05. No human review is recorded. Life dates are recorded to the year; they do not date individual quotations.
- Academy of American Poets — William Blake ↗
Original limited factual paraphrase and documented lifetime. Modern biography text and images are not reproduced. Profile identity does not independently verify every associated quotation. Reference checked 2026-10-05.
- Historical related reading — Songs of Innocence and of Experience ↗
Catalogue US-public-domain declaration and historical English text checked with retained download hashes. Original reading guidance distinguishes fictional voices, anthology provenance and limited passage comparisons. Reference checked 2026-10-05.