Blake’s Night Thoughts

Blake's Night Thoughts discusses Blake as a poet and artist of night, considering night through graveyard poetry and Young in the eighteenth century, urbanism in the nineteenth and Levinas and Blanchot's writings in the twentieth. Taking "night" as the breakdown of rational progressive thought and of thought based on concepts of identity, the book reads the lyric poetry, some Prophetic works, including a chapter on The Four Zoas, the illustrations to Young, and Dante, and looks at Blake's writing of madness. Blake's Night Thoughts Gives A Close Reading Of Blake's Texts - Both Lyric And Prophetic - In Relation To Maurice Blanchot And Emmanuel Levinas On The Night As The Outside, As The Void Drawing Thought Out, Fragmenting It. Considering The Representations Of Night In Milton And In Edward Young, Whose Night Thoughts Blake Illustrated, And The Relation Between Poetry Of The Night And Graveyard Poetry, This Original New Study Examines The Meanings Of Night For Blake, As The Alternative To Day, As Aligning Writing To Melancholia And Madness, The Outside. Includes Detailed Analysis Of Major Works Such As The Songs Of Innocence And Experience And The Four Zoas As Well As Less Commonly Studied Texts Including The Night Thoughts Illustrations, For The Sexes And The Dante Illustrations, This Book Provides A Welcome New Perspective From The Usual Preoccupations Of Blake Studies In Its Use Of A Theoretical Framework.--jacket. The Sun Is Gone Down -- In The Silent Of The Night -- Young And Weary Night -- Night Dreams : The Four Zoas -- I See London, Blind -- Forests Of The Night : Blake And Madness -- Dante's Deep And Woody Way. Jeremy Tambling. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 174-199) And Index. Blake's Night Thoughts gives a close reading of Blake's texts - both lyric and prophetic - in relation to Maurice Blanchot and Emmanuel Levinas on the night as outside, as the void drawing thought out, fragmenting it. Considering the representations of night in Milton and in Edward Young, whose Night Thoughts Blake illustrated, and the relation between poetry of the night and graveyard poetry, this original new study examines the meanings of night for Blake, as the alternative to day, as as aligning writing to melancholia and madness. Including detailed analysis of major works such asThe Songs of Innocence and Experience and The Four Zoas as well as less commonly studied texts including the Night Thoughts illustrations, For the Sexesand the Dante illustrations, this book provides a welcome new perspective from the usual preoccupations of Blake studies in its use of a theoretical framework. Tambling also discusses Blake's work on Young and Dante as well as his social and sexual contexts and relationship with London, and presents an original view of Blake as a poet fascinated by what is found at the boundaries of thought Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction: ‘The Sun is Gone Down’....Pages 1-16 ‘In the Silent of the Night’....Pages 17-43 Young and ‘Weary Night’....Pages 44-70 Night Dreams: The Four Zoas....Pages 71-96 ‘I see London, blind ...’....Pages 97-123 ‘Forests of the Night’: Blake and Madness....Pages 124-148 Dante’s ‘Deep and Woody Way’....Pages 149-173 Back Matter....Pages 174-202