Here you will find the Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Experience, plus The Book of Thel written by the visionary artist and poet, William Blake.

William Blake lived and worked in London at the end of the eighteenth century and beginning of the nineteenth century (William Blake - 1757-1827). His poetry celebrates life, and highlights injustice with an astonishing and sensitive insight.

The poetry and art of William Blake expresses wonder and awe of the natural world, and also shares Blakes own, internalised, highly personal and unique world of visions.

I have also published information on William Blakes' life and other artistic and poetry work.

On each page you will find the full text of a poem or a two-dimensional reproduction of the art work of William Blake. William Blakes's words, poetry and art are freely available here for everybody to enjoy - please consider adding a link to Nimbi from your own poetry website - Thanks! Please see the terms of use page for further copyright information.

Here is William Blake's poem, The Tyger.

SONGS OF EXPERIENCE by WILLIAM BLAKE

THE TIGER

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forest of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could Frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And, when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

SONGS OF EXPERIENCE by WILLIAM BLAKE

And another of William Blake's poems, The fly.

SONGS OF EXPERIENCE by WILLIAM BLAKE

THE FLY

Little Fly,
Thy summer's play
My thoughtless hand
Has brushed away.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance
And drink, and sing,
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life
And strength and breath
And the want
Of thought is death;

Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.

SONGS OF EXPERIENCE by WILLIAM BLAKE

Definition of NIMBI

Nimbus \Nim"bus\, n.; pl. L. Nimbi, E. Nimbuses. [L., a rain storm, a rain cloud, the cloudshaped which enveloped the gods when they appeared on earth.]

1. (Fine Arts) A circle, or disk, or any indication of radiant light around the heads of divinities, saints, and sovereigns, upon medals, pictures, etc.; a halo.

Note: ``The nimbus is of pagan origin.'' ``As an atribute of power, the nimbus is often seen attached to the heads of evil spirits.'' --Fairholl.

From: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Home