William Blake completed

between his publication of the

(1789) and the

(1793). Dated 1789 on the title page, but etched on eight copper plates between 1789 and 1790,

dramatizes the journey of the virgin Thel from a state of innocence to a state of experience. It is the first of Blake’s illuminated books to be written in fourteeners, the meter he used for most of his narrative poetry, and it is one of the earliest works to evidence the complex mythological system he constructed for his prophetic writings. Scholars have traced eighteen individually colored printings of

(1789-90; 1795?, 1818?); in all but the final two printings the poem opens with “Thel’s Motto” (repositioned as…

1371 words

Citation: Linkin, Harriet. "The Book of Thel". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 January 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1409, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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