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I was thrilled to work on this great romantic poet and doing my investigation on this topic especially. I found out that that his verses are used by a lot of great rock bandsand pop singers, such as U2, Bob Dylan, The Fugs, The Doors, Atomic Rooster, Van Morrison, The Fall, Mastermind, etc. It’s a amazing how a romantic poet’s works of the XVIIIth century never get boring. I also observed how many outstanding authors of our time have inspired themselves when making the illustrations of their books. They inspired themselves, as well, from the polemical ideas of Blake.

The other fact I found very interesting is that he also was a muse to the comic writers. They used to take ideas out of his paintings. Blake was particularly influential on the young generation of early twentieth-century English landscape painters, such as Paul Nash and Dora Carrington. Abstract painter Ronnie Landfield dedicated a painting to Blake in the late 1960s. Blake has been quoted in comic strips as well. In a weekday strip of Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin recites a line from Blake’s “The Tyger”, while viewing a sleeping Hobbes (a tiger), lightheartedly alluding to the lines “Tyger, Tyger, burning bright…” Calvin’s reaction to the poem is a confused one, however, as he assumes Blake was literally writing about an immolated tiger.

It surprised me as well the fact that video-game makers used some of his poems, quotes annd illustrations. I think it’s admirable how a poet’s creation of that time didn’t lose his equity by passing through the centuries.