Witness against the Beast

E.P. Thompson's book on William Blake explores the religious and political traditions which helped form this most original of poets and artists. The book begins by liberating Blake from the academic straitjacket in which recent criticism has placed him, emphasizing his rootedness in a culture that did not share our values or perceptions. Thompson then offers a historical account of radical thought from the 1640s to the late 18th-century, identifying Blake in this context and probing his unique distillation of heretical religion and radical politics. Thompson offers an close reading of the poetry, detecting in its rhythms, symbolism and vocabulary a repeated call to resist compromises with the materialism of the Antichrist embodied by the contemporary church and state.