William Blake Quotes
Then the Parson might preach, & drink, & sing, And we'd be as happy as birds in the spring; And modest dame Lurch, who is always at Church, Would not have bandy children, nor fasting, nor birch.
Blake, William. The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake. Edited by David V. Erdman, Newly rev. ed., Anchor Books, 1988, p. 26.
This seems to be the first instance of the famous dictum.
Effective, terse quotation illustrating the research findings that adults who were abused as children tend to become child abusers themselves. Although he was referring to Black parents, the findings have been borne out for all ethnic groups.
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. What he called his prophetic works were said by 20th-century critic Northrop Frye to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry led 21st-century critic Jonathan Jones to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced". In 2002, Blake was placed at number 38 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. While he lived in London his entire life, except for three years spent in Felpham, he produced a diverse and symbolically rich œuvre, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God" or "human existence itself".
