Roof Beam Reader has released this outline for our reading of William Blake’s poetry:
Week One: Selections from Songs of Innocence
October 1st-3rd: “The Shepherd” and “The Echoing Green”
Monday 4th: “The Little Boy Lost”
Tuesday 5th: “The Little Boy Found”
Wednesday 6th: “Night”
Thursday 7th:”Spring”
Fri 8th-Sun 10th: Read: “A Dream” and “On Another’s” Sorrow”
Week Two: Selections from Songs of Experience
Monday 11th: “Earth’s Answer”
Tuesday 12th: “The Chimney Sweeper”
Wednesday 13th: “The Human Abstract”
Thursday 14th: “The Voice of the Ancient Bard”
Fri 15th-17th: “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”
All of his poems can be found online for free either at Project Gutenberg or Bartleby.com. I like to use Poemhunter. There is also a wonderful hpermedia archive of his works at The William Blake Archive . We will discuss each week’s reading at the end of the week. I will choose my favorite poem(s) to feature on Wednesday.
I’ve been reading up on Blake’s life. He was well-educated and enjoyed a lasting and loving marriage. He was considered a bit mad and idiosyncratic by his peers. And he was rebel to his dying days. One fact about him that I did not know – Blake was also a painter, a printmaker and was considered on of the greatest engravers. Below is his painting: Prometheus Bound.
Kinna Reads 
I had no idea that Blake was a painter or anything besides a poet. Maybe I’ll try a few of his poems this week… definitely wouldn’t be able to join the challenge though – I’m terrible at following reading schedules!
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The more I read about this, the more it makes me want to join in. Is it too late to do so? I mean, what is one poem a day? I could do that, right? And I would so love to know more about this kind of poetry.
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Iris, it is not too late to join. And I think you can reading as many or as little of the list as you want. Strongly urge you to join in.
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I really like a lot of Blake’s work. I have a beautiful edition (Norton Critical) of Blake’s poetry and designs, so I’m going to go read some of it now! So fun that you’re reading Blake this week, I really enjoy him and his stories. Quite the eccentric.
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