Unfortunately I had great expectations and hopes for this book. Instead it was as dry and as tasty as beach sand in a cheese sandwich. After a third of the book I had had enough trying to digest it, with little zing of any taste of poetry in the accompanying prose.

There was some interesting factual history of William Blake, though is more interestedly put in Wikipedia. Not my cup of tea, but maybe for others !

I really appreciated how Babbit’s poems encouraged me to think more deeply about Blake’s poetry. 18th century poetry can be difficult for me to connect with, and Babbit’s analysis of and passion for Blake’s poetry helped me see what I had missed before.

I thought Babbit was at his best when using Blake’s imagery and concepts in relation to his own thoughts and experiences. Some of these poems, mostly thoughts analyzing Blake’s poems or describing events in Blake’s life, would have worked better as essays than poems, in my opinion. They didn’t all have the careful artistry of the more personal poems in the collection.

Overall, I’m glad to have read it, and it will keep me thinking about the topic in the days to come.