Blake's first illustrated book of poetry. Lovely book. Blake's poetry is a little too on the sentimental side for me but the verse is good. Almost seems like a book to be read to a child. I guess "Innocence" should have given that away. I didn't realize how religious Blake's poetry was (my ignorance!). He never mentions Christ by name but his metaphors are straight from the New Testament.

These Dover editions have always been the best value. They are glued but never seem to split or drop sections. ( )

It was interesting to see the earlier work of a famous poet, especially reproduced with all the original art and settings. Unfortunately, there's a good reason that I encountered Blake's later in school and not his early stuff. Some of the entries were stronger than others, but none of them made me want to memorize them. ( )

Facsimile reprint, followed by transcription. ( )

This was my 'purse book' for over a year. Whenever I was caught waiting in line or at the doctor's office I'd read a poem or two. I wound up reading most 2-3 times, more if I needed to puzzle them out. Mostly the puzzling bits were due to Christian imagery & allegory and I was raised with v. little exposure to church or Bible.

I'm sure I would have preferred the illustrated edition, and probably given it five stars. I might look it up some day. I'm also considering getting a critical or annotated edition. In any case, see my review of [b:The Little Prince|157993|The Little Prince|Antoine de Saint-Exupéry|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1367545443s/157993.jpg|2180358] for a transcription of one poem that I did appreciate.

Meanwhile, consider also these: You probably know that Blake wrote Tyger, tyger burning bright..." and "Little Lamb, who made thee..." But did you know he's the creator of "I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end..."? And "...mercy has a human heart, pity a human face..." is also in here, as is "Pretty joy! Sweet joy, but two days old...."

Well, I could go on. But I won't. Read it for yourself, and make your own discoveries." ( )

The Echoing Green is an excellent poem by William Blake. It is a great meditation on the playful nature of youth and the inevitability that, eventually, we all do grow older and age. It has good metaphorical imagery and demonstrates different elements of poetry extraordinarily well, such as rhyme scheme and slant rhyme. However, I am unsure if children in the 4th-5th grades will be able to really attach themselves to it. The language is very archaic and slightly verbose. If children had the opportunity, as an activity of some sort, to put this poem into their own words, I think it would prove to be very beneficial in the classroom. ( )