Contradicta






Wit is used more often to silence than to say.




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Ipod therefore I am.




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A Writer's Lament: the Bipolar side of Blake

Came across this surprisingly personal poem by Blake, written in a letter to Thomas Butts, August 16, 1803.


"O why was I born with a different face?
Why was I not born like the rest of my race?
When I look each one starts! When I speak I offend;
Then I'm silent & passive & lose every Friend.

Then my verse I dishonor. My pictures despise,
My person degrade & my temper chastise;
And the pen is my terror, the pencil my shame;
All my Talents I bury, and dead is my Fame.

I am either too low or too highly priz'd;
When Elate I am Envied, when Meek I'm despis'd."


[Penguin Classics Blake
edited by Alicia Ostriker]