INSPIREDBYBLAKE
"...there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scott."
William Wordsworth
INSPIRED BY BLAKE
Welcome to the website for the Inspired by Blake festival!
The 18th to 31st of January 2015 sees Blackwell's Bookshop and the Ashmolean Museum collaborating to bring you Inspired by Blake, a two-week William Blake Festival celebrating the magnificent and visionary painter, poet, thinker and icon.
This ties in with the Ashmolean’s exhibition, "William Blake: Apprentice and Master", which runs from 4th December 2014 to 1st March 2015.
The Festival will be as multi-dimensional and intellectually nutritious as the work and art of William Blake himself, aiming in particular to investigate the effect that physical places and spiritual events had on William Blake to engage with specific work by William Blake through discussion, shared reading, memorisation and recitation; and to open up the joy and inspiration of William Blake’s work to the world at large.
Join us for events ranging from poetry readings to printmaking workshops, from rapping to religion. Ring in the new year by exploring and absorbing Blake's extraordinary genius. You never know, you might end up inspired...
POEM OF THE WEEK:
The Echoing Green
The sun does arise,
And make happy the skies.
The merry bells ring
To welcome the spring.
The skylark and thrush,
The birds of the bush,
Sing louder around,
To the bells’ cheerful sound,
While our sports shall be seen
On the echoing green.
Old John with white hair
Does laugh away care,
Sitting under the oak,
Among the old folk.
They laugh at our play,
And soon they all say:
‘Such, such were the joys
When we all, girls and boys,
In our youth-time were seen
On the echoing green.’
Till the little ones weary
No more can be merry;
The sun does descend,
And our sports have an end.
Round the laps of their mother
Many sisters and brothers,
Like birds in their nest,
Are ready for rest;
And sport no more seen
On the darkening green.
