The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1793)
Author: William Blake | Page Count: approx 48
"As the air to a bird or the sea to a fish, so is contempt to the contemptible."
Marriage… is William Blake’s romantic (in the poetic sense) and satiric attack on orthodox religious beliefs presented as a kind of biblical passage, with a socio-political and historical binding holding it together. It describes the poet’s visit to Hell and the knowledge and assumptions he receives whilst there.
It's a short book but one of the most complex pieces of literature I've ever read. I've read it three or four times a year for about five years now and I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface of its esoteric, complex and iconoclastic mysteries. That's why I love it.
Blake reverses the traditional standings of good and evil and the beauty and hideousness of Heaven and Hell, blurring the line between what is perceived good and proper and what is believed to be controlling and bad for the individual. It’s the poet-prophet ideal in its most scathing and reverential form, told from a number of perspectives and in more than one voice. He references Dante and even playfully(?) mocks Milton.
