2010 The University of North Carolina Press

114
Blakes Pronunciation
by G. E. Bentley, Jr.
William Blake was sensitive to dialect and made dialect jokes himself.
Flaxman: How do you get on with Fuseli? I cant stand his
foul-mouthed swearing. Does he swear at you?
Blake: He does.
Flaxman: And what do you do?
Blake: What do I do? WhyI swear again! and he says aston-
ished, vy, Blake, you are svaring! but he leaves o him-
self!'
And he illustrates the Yorkshire accent and French aectations of his
bte noir Robert Hartley Cromek in
English Encouragement of Art
Cromeks opinion put into Rhyme
If you must Please Every body you will
Mennywouver both Bunglishness & skill
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
When you a look at a picture you always can see
If a Man of Sense has Painted he[.]
Then never inch but keep up a Jaw
About freedom & Jenny Suck awa
(Notebook, 41)
But what dialect did Blake use? What did he sound like when he
spoke?
Blakes contemporaries did not call him a Cockney, but some mod-
'
All quotations from Blake derive from my edition, William Blakes Writings (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1978) and will be identihed by poem, song, or letter in the tables that
accompany this article. Biographical details noted here and elsewhere are taken from my
Blake Records, 2nd ed. (London: Yale University Press, 2004), 72.

In 1827 Blakes intimate friend George Cumberland implied that Blakes patron John
Linnell was a Cockney, but he is referring to manners not speech: your Cockneys are
all so direct and having had probably little intercourse with Gentleman are brusque and
unreecting (Blake Records, 478).
G. E. Bentley, Jr. 115
ern critics have done so. For instance, David Punter refers to the Cock-
ney, in which he [Blake] wrote and, no doubt, spoke. However, I hnd
no trace of Cockney pronunciation, such as the treatment of aspirates
(e.g., hartist and orse), in Blakes writings or in the records of his
speech. Sometimes the justihcation for the term involves a wanton re-
dehnition of Cockney apparently without regard to speech habits.
Peter Ackroyd describes Blake as a Cockney visionary, but for him
Cockney apparently means a lover of London [like Samuel Johnson?]
and is not related to speech habits.
One of the few pieces of evidence pointing toward Cockney pronun-
ciation in Blakes family is the mistranscription of Armitage, the name
of the hrst husband of Blakes mother, as Harmitage when she mar-
ried Blakes father. The error must be due to the second church clerk,
for when the couple wrote separate letters applying to join the Mora-
vian Church Congregation in 1750 they signed themselves Tho.
s
Art-
mitage and Catherine Armitage, though the Moravian records refer
to them indierently as Armitage and Hermitage.
Blake is plausibly, but on remarkably little biographical evidence,
said to have learned his letters at his mothers knee. His mothers only
surviving letter indicates that she was a far more erratic orthographer
than her son; she writes allways, Bretheren, frale, halfe, hapy,
hould (for hold), I shall be very thanku, itt, know (for now),
lay (for lie), littell, nor never, pore crature, rit (for writ-
ten), rite (for write), satsfy, Savour (for Saviour), Sistors,
and tast. Her son improved enormously on her teaching, though

David Punter, Blake and Gwendolen: Territory, Periphery and the Proper Name,
in English Romantics and the Celtic World, ed. Gerard Carruthers and Alan Rawes (Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 68.

Peter Ackroyd, Blake (London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1995), 92.

Ackroyd uses Blake, Charles Dickens, and J. M. W. Turner as exemplars of London
luminaries and Cockneys who in their art have expressed the true nature and spirit of
London (Cockney Visionaries, Independent, 18 Dec 1993, p. 27).

Blake Records, 4, 7. The hrst listing recorded was in 1746 by the church clerk named
James Frith and the second in 1752 by the church clerk named Baillie. Both marriages took
place in St. Georges Chapel, Hanover Square.

The letters and church records are among the Moravian Church Records in London.

Blake wrote: Thank God I never was sent to School To be ogd into following the
Style of a Fool (You say their pictures, Notebook, 41). The best contemporary evidence
of his elementary schooling is Cunninghams statement that he was privately encour-
aged by his mother in his love of art (Blake Records, 628).

Catherine Armitages letter, probably of Nov 1750, to My Dear Bretheren & Sistors
of the Moravian congregation (in the Moravian Archives in London), was reproduced
online in Keri Davies, The Lost Moravian History of William Blakes Family: Snapshots
from an Archive, Literature Compass (2006), 1309 http://www.literature-compass.com.
116 Blakes Pronunciation
often his orthography is old-fashioned as in tyger and compleat.'
Her spelling may indicate something of the pronunciation she learned
in her native village of Walkeringham in Nottinghamshirepore cra-
ture, for instancewhich her son probably echoed. In Blakes poetry
he rhymes poor with door, oor, and more as his mother would
have done. Further, he rhymes Creature with Nature, indicating that
he pronounced Creature as his mother apparently did. Blake usually
spells as I do, but manifestly he does not sound as I dosee the table
of Blakes Imperfect Rhymes, below. However, his contemporaries did
not allude to his pronunciation, suggesting that it did not dier greatly
from that of those who reported his speech.
In some respects, Blakes pronunciation is less like oursor at least like
minethan it is like the county-speak of the English huntin, shootin,
and hshin squirearchy. Like them, he often drops the terminal g in past
participles, with sobbing-robin and reason-teazing. He omits the l
before t as in vault-fraught, health-death, and halter-water. (Note
the analogy of the silent l in could and walk.) Perhaps most strik-
ingly, he minimizes the r at the end of a syllable,'' as in dawn-scorn,
here-Arimathea-queer, Meletus-curse, quartering-slaughtering,
and girl-small (English county-speak: gel, U. S. rural-speak: gal).
And he may have pronounced a terminal thes as v, as when he makes
breathes rhyme with sheaves. Did he regularly convert the dental
the to the labial ve? I dont knowbut see nothing-nutn below.
Blake seems to have pronounced short e very much like short i, as in
devil-civil, river-ever, heavn-givn (letter of 22 Nov 1802),heaven-
driven, spirit-inherit, Error-Mirror, Pigeons-regions, and Thames-
limbs-streams.
There are touches of U. S. rural-speak, slightly sub-standard English
descended from eighteenth-century English rural-speak, as in divil
(devil-civil), cuss, gal, and the swallowed r as in sho nu.
And occasionally there is a hint of an Irish brogue, as in joy-by and
fashion-circulation-imagination and passion-nation.
Polysyllabic words ending in y seem to have been pronounced to
rhyme with sigh, as in symmetry-eye. However, his rhymes more
frequently require the last syllable to be pronounced as in see.
'
Blakes mothers hrst husband Thomas Armitage was a much more conventional
orthographer, and his letter of application to the Moravian congregation (in the Moravian
Archives) gave scarcely a hint of his Yorkshire origin: doctrin, non (none), I am but
very poor in my Self, hes (hes), acctions, and sais (says). The only orthographical
eccentricity in the only known letter of the poets brother James is Seson for Season
(1 April 1785, Blake Records, 3738).
''
Note Boston-speak: Havad Yad.
G. E. Bentley, Jr. 117
BLAKE S RHYMES
POLYSYLLABIC WORDS ENDI NG I N Y OR I ES
PRONOUNCED
AS IN SIGH
PRONOUNCED
AS IN SEE

SOURCE TEXT
aery y Imitation of Spenser
blasphemy me Everlasting Gospel
bodily me I rose up
chastity he thee Everlasting Gospel
company me he The School Boy
Everlasting Gospel
country see Gwin King of Norway
Emily he me Laughing Song
enemies ease Everlasting Gospel
enemy see Everlasting Gospel
enmity y Auguries of Innocence
eternally high The Caverns of the Grave
eternity eye eternity be me My Spectre
Everlasting Gospel (twice)
family die Jerusalem, pl. z;
futurity sky Imitation of Spenser
high y Futurity see The Little Girl Lost
Gentility he Everlasting Gospel
Hypocrisy Pharisee Everlasting Gospel
harmony be Jerusalem pl.
Humility he Everlasting Gospel
Immortality be Everlasting Gospel
Invisibly be me Never pain to tell thy love
jealousy eye jealousy tree be My Pretty rose Tree
Auguries of Innocence
liberty me Song [How sweet]
Majesty be Everlasting Gospel
merrily sky merrily knee A Fairy leapt
misery be see Tree The Smile
Holy Thursday (Experience)
Everlasting Gospel
mystery y mystery he A Little Boy Lost (Notebook)
philosophy he Everlasting Gospel
poetry see Gwin King of Norway
poverty joy Holy Thursday
prophecy lie William Cowper Esq
re

secretly Pharisee Everlasting Gospel

simplicity sigh in a myrtle shade
symmetry eye The Tyger
treasury eye Riches
118 Blakes Pronunciation
This is plainly poetic license; Blake chooses how to pronounce ter-
minal y for his convenience. He rhymes eternity with eye and
me, futurity with sky and see, jealousy with eye and tree,
merrily with sly and knee, and mystery with y and he.
(Here and below, see the table of Blakes Imperfect Rhymes.) Similarly
in Everlasting Gospel, he twice rhymes again with pen and with
pain and vain (The Angel, Mock on, When Klopstock, and
My Spectre).
He uses words ending in ing that must be pronounced in, as
in sobbing-robin, rhyming-crime in, singing-bring in, teazing-
reason, and worshipping-enter in. However, he also uses the hnal
consonant occasionally, as in suering rhymed with bring (Ever-
lasting Gospel). Clearly Blake sometimes used variant pronunciations
to suit his poetic convenience. It is therefore dicult to be sure which
of the variants he used in his own speech. Perhaps he used both.
Sometimes the spelling does not indicate the pronunciation, mani-
festly as in fellow-umbrella and cloathes-nose and probably as
in Newton [nutn]-button-Sutton. For Blake, newt and root are
clearly pronounced as I say put and soot, and probably for him
Newton was a homonym for nothing. The dierences in pronuncia-
tion are chiey of vowels, but the omission of l and r is notable.
I conclude that Blakes rhymes are far truer when pronounced in his
way than I had previously assumed. It was not his rhymes that were
astray; the faut was mine.
Note also that pronunciation may vary by the nation or region of the
auditor. For instance, the person to whom I am talking may determine
whether I say shedule or skedule, aggen or again. Thus if Blake
spoke as he wrote, he would have said the true divil, the faut of
Plato, I might roll in weath, Reason as the crature of man, Infant
Jy, the pore people in general, were all bound for Slaves, the Sons
of God shoutin for Jy, and why should I fea death.'
What do those harmless drudges,' the contemporary lexicographers,
'
Blake Records, 651, 422, 632, 434, 160, 17, and 654 respectively. Infant Jy is in Songs
of Innocence.
'
Lexicographer is dehned as A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge, in
Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language (1765) (New York: Arno Press, 1979).
Note that Johnsons Dictionary does not give pronunciation. Besides, he carefully takes his
examples from pre-Restoration literature as the wells of English undefled (C1
r
).
According to Joan C. Beal (English Pronunciation in the Eighteenth Century [Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1999])and to my own experiencethere are few scholarly works on
eighteenth-century pronunciation.
G. E. Bentley, Jr. 119
say about correct pronunciation? Well, in the hrst place they agree that
there is such a thing as correct pronunciation, rather than letting the
separate dialects of, say, Cumberland and Devon and Perthshire and
Cairnarvonshire ourish in their separate isolations. Of course, in the
eighteenth century the agreed standard was the best speech heard in
London. An irony is that many of the best lexicographers did not learn
to speak in London; Thomas Sheridan was Irish, Thomas Spence was
from Newcastle, and even Dr. Johnson was from Lichheld.
In the second place, these enthusiastic drudges were not so harmless.
Each one invented his own system for representing pronunciation, one
with superscript numbers, another with diering fonts of type (black
letter for letters that are not sounded, like the l in should), another
with adapted letters, such as overlapping OOs (as in moon), and each
system has to be memorized to make the pronunciation comprehen-
sible.
Worst of all, surprisingly frequently contemporary lexicographers do
not agree on pronunciation. For as common a word as girl, the pro-
nunciation is variously given as girl, gerl, and garl, and devil
may also be divil and devl.
For words with unorthodox pronunciations in Blakes poetry, con-
temporary dictionaries give these.
120 Blakes Pronunciation
TABLE OF DICTIONARY PRONUNCI ATIONS'
SPELLING BLAKE BUCHANAN JOHNSTON SPENCE BURN ANON. FULTON
(1;j;) (1;6) (1;;j) (1;8o) (1;6) (18oz)
boy by boy boy boy boy boy boy
breathe breave breathe breathe breathe breathe breathe breathe
creature crater' creature creature creature creature creature creature
curse cuss curse curse curse curse curse curse
devil divil devil divil devil devil devl devl
family familigh familee familee familee familee` familee familee
foot foot ' fut' fut fut fut fut fut
girl gall gerl girl or garl girl girl gerl girl
halter hater halter halter halter halter halter
health heath health health health health health health
ing sufx in in (p. j) ing
joy jy joy joy joy joy joy joy
newt nut' nute nute nute nute
Newton Nutn Newton
poor pore poor poor poor poor poor poor
scorn scon scorn scorn scorn scorn scorn skarn
symme- symme- symme- symme- symme- symme- symme- symme-
try trigh trigh trigh tree tree tree trigh
vault vaut vault vaut vault vault vault vault
Bold-faced variants correspond to Blakes pronunciation.
'
The works cited are James Buchanans Linguae Britannicae Vera Prononciatio: or, A
New English Dictionary (London, 1757; repr., Menston, West Yorkshire: Scolar Press, 1967);
William Johnstons A Pronouncing and Spelling Dictionary: Wherein, by a new and sufcient
Method, The Proper Sounds of English Words are exactly ascertained; And by which, Both His
Majestys Subjects, and Foreigners, may correct an Improper, or acquire a Right Pronuncia-
tion of the English Language (London, 1764; repr., Menston, West Yorkshire: Scolar Press,
1968); Thomas Spences The Grand Repository of the English Language (Newcastle Upon
Tyne, 1775; repr., Menston, West Yorkshire: Scolar Press, 1969); John Burns A Pronouncing
Dictionary of the English Language (2nd ed. [Glasgow, 1786; repr., Menston, West Yorkshire:
Scolar Press, 1969]); Anon.s A Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language . . . the Ac-
centuation Adjusted According to Sheridan and Walker, and the Orthography Chiefy Taken from
Johnson (London, 1796; repr., Menston, West Yorkshire: Scolar Press, 1969); and G. Fulton
and G. Knights A General Pronouncing and Critical Dictionary of the English Language (Edin-
burgh, 1802).
'
William Angus gives the pronunciation of creature as krtr (A Pronouncing
Dictionary of the English Language . . . Extracted from the Dictionaries of Walker, Sheridan,
Jones, etc. [Glasgow, 1800; repr., Menston, West Yorkshire: Scolar Press, 1969]).
'
In Blake, foot rhymes with root.
'
As in blood.
'
As in soot.
G. E. Bentley, Jr. 121
It would be kind to think that these dierences in standard London
cultivated pronunciation recorded from 1757 to 1802 represent changes
over the course of the years. However, I strongly suspect that the expla-
nation is much more idiosyncratic than that.
Blakes pronunciation, at least in his poetry, of boy, breathes,
creature, curse, family, foot, halter, health, joy, newt,
poor, and scorn is not echoed in these dictionaries. However, Johns-
ton (1764) gives Blakes pronunciation of divil, the sux ing as in,
symmetrigh (as does Fulton [1802]), and vaut. Note that Johnstons
dictionary (1764) was published just when Blakes pronunciation as a
child was presumably becoming hxed.
A few of Blakes rhymes are so unorthodox that no plausible varia-
tion of pronunciation can justify them, rhyming invisible with ter-
rible, house with youth, made with pavd, and naked with
created.
Blakes pronunciation dehes genteel conventions, both his own and
ours. In his poetry, he manipulates pronunciation for its sound and for
his convenience. Perhaps he did in conversation as well.
BLAKE S I MPERFECT RHYMES'
EYE RHYMES, NEAR RHYMES, AND ODD RHYMES
Poetical Sketches (1;8)
held beheld Song [How sweet I roamd]
brow grow Song [How sweet I roamd]
grave have Song [My silks and hne array]
heavn givn Song [My silks and hne array]
tomb come Song [My silks and hne array]
mine combine join Song [Love and harmony combine]
intwine
sit sweet Song [Love and harmony combine]
young song Song [Love and harmony combine]
song tongue Song [I love the jocund dance]
valley Melancholy Song [Memory, hither come]
dawn scorn Mad Song
vault fraught Mad Song
heaven driven Mad Song
year car Song [Fresh from the dewy hill]
shade head Song [Fresh from the dewy hill]
lawn morn Song [Fresh from the dewy hill]
122 Blakes Pronunciation
feet light Song [Fresh from the dewy hill]
sky joy' Song [Fresh from the dewy hill]
song tongue Song [Fresh from the dewy hill]
love move To the Muses
poor door Gwin, King of Norway
bread humbled Gwin, King of Norway
blood food Gwin, King of Norway
clouds oods Gwin, King of Norway
humbled head Gwin, King of Norway
seas skies Gwin, King of Norway
fail hell Gwin, King of Norway
wide dight Imitation of Spencer
brow throw Imitation of Spencer
sky high y futurity Imitation of Spencer
y aery Imitation of Spencer
invincible terrible Imitation of Spencer
held beheld Imitation of Spencer
move rove Imitation of Spencer
cloaths nose Blind-Mans Bu
hush push Blind-Mans Bu
head made Blind-Mans Bu
key convey Blind-Mans Bu
stayd head Blind-Mans Bu
a-gone grown Blind-Mans Bu
wantoness increase Blind-Mans Bu
An Island in the Moon (?1;8)
milk suck When old corruption hrst began
vest beast When old corruption hrst began
woman common When old corruption hrst began
fever ever When old corruption hrst began
aloud good When old corruption hrst began
spots guts When old corruption hrst began
hat compleat Phebe drest like beauties Queen
Love drove Hail Matrimony made of Love
Creatures Natures Hail Matrimony made of Love
Newton Sutton To be or not to be (twice)
South death To be or not to be (twice)
house youth To be or not to be
Bricklayer Carpenter To be or not to be
made pavd To be or not to be
mayors chairs This city & this country
G. E. Bentley, Jr. 123
town own Upon a holy Thursday
lambs hands Upon a holy Thursday
song among Upon a holy Thursday (twice)
poor door Upon a holy Thursday
fast lost O father father
ways Breeze Leave o leave
Songs by Shepherds (?1;8;)
bough sow [verb] Song 1
st

Rose browse Song 1

st

cheek neck Song 1

st

joy by Song z
d

shade spread Song z

d

cloathes nose Song

d

storm warm Song

d
(thrice)
Songs of Innocence (1;8)
warm harm The Chimney Sweeper
behind wind (noun) The Chimney Sweeper
dark work The Chimney Sweeper
name lamb The Lamb (twice)
thrush bush The Ecchoing Green
weary merry The Ecchoing Green
name am Infant Joy
fast lost The Little Boy Lost
live receive The Little Boy Lost
love grove The Little Boy Lost
fast lost The Little Boy Lost
sobbing robin The Blossom
joy by Laughing Song
shade spread Laughing Song
shade bread Laughing Song
live receive The Little Black Boy
love grove The Little Black Boy
dear care The Divine Image
face dress The Divine Image
distress peace The Divine Image
town own Holy Thursday
lambs hands Holy Thursday
song among Holy Thursday
poor door Holy Thursday
124 Blakes Pronunciation
shade head A Cradle Song
groves moves Night
blessing ceasing Night
blossom bosom Night
nest beast Night
warm harm Night
dreadful heedful Night
spirit inherit Night
meekness sickness Night
lamb name Night
river ever Night
sky merrily Spring
girl small Spring
crow you Spring
voice noise Spring
lick neck Spring
kiss face Spring
bed ecchoed Nurses Song
shade bed A Dream
hum home A Dream
woe too On Anothers Sorrow (twice)
tear [noun] share On Anothers Sorrow
wear tear [noun] On Anothers Sorrow
child hlld On Anothers Sorrow
gone moan On Anothers Sorrow
stood viewd The Little Girl Lost
lick neck The Little Girl Lost
woe-begone moan The Little Girl Found
said maid The Little Girl Found
followed led The Little Girl Found
sit delight The School Boy
reason teazing The Voice of the Ancient Bard
Notebook (?1;-?1818)
quartering slaughtering Let the Brothels
singing bring in swinging Let the Brothels
water halter Let the Brothels
love move Never Seek to Tell thy love
have Grave My spectre around me
love grove My spectre around me
naked created When Klopstock England dehed
war star I saw a Monk of Charlemaine
G. E. Bentley, Jr. 125
afar war I saw a Monk of Charlemaine
prove love I die I die the Mother said
on moan Morning
foot root The Fairy
heath death The sword sung
heath death The Chimney Sweeper
eye treasury Riches
joy poverty Holy Thursday
grove love The Birds
build held The Birds
tear [noun] bear The Birds
wood loud The Birds
appears Papers No real Style of Colouring
aqua fortis thought is And his legs carried it
Parson ears on And his legs carried it
stone gone And his legs carried it
love move Never Pain to tell thy love
enter in worshipping I saw a chapel all of gold
worm storm The sick rose
more poor I heard an angel singing
oor poor S in Childhood
say Joshua Sir Joshua praises Michel Angelo
to Angelo Florentine Ingratitude
fool scroll Florentine Ingratitude
Fashion Circulation Florentine Ingratitude
lectures directors To the Royal Academy
chear despair Earths Answer
fear bear Earths Answer
plow grow Earths Answer
Ass was To F
come home Some Men created for destruction come
sigh simplicity in a mirtle shade
Jealousy Eye To Nobodaddy
eye symmetry The Tyger (twice each in two draughts)
more poor The Human Image
root foot The Human Image
shade head The Human Image
y mystery The Human Image
has brass On S
Evils devils Cosway Frazer & Baldwin of Egypts Lake
stone gone An Epitaph
provd lovd My title as a Genius
those Ooze A Pretty Epigram
126 Blakes Pronunciation
Fortune Tune On the Great Encouragement
Wardle Cawdle On the Great Encouragement
Thought Groat The Cunning-sures and the aim at yours
Bunglery Rantery English Encouragement of Art
Prophecy lie William Cowper Esq
re

love prove William Cowper Esq

re

high eternally The Caverns of the Grave

thames streams Why should I care for the men of thames
Thames limbs Why should I care for the men of thames
head shade Infant sorrow
Arimathea queer I will tell you what Joseph of Arimathea
here Arimathea I will tell you what Joseph of Arimathea
Boy Joy Why was Cupid a Boy
Push brush I askd my dear Friend Orator Prigg
have crave I rose up at the dawn of day
Ignorant grant Raphael Sublime, Public Address
Umbrella Fellow Blakes Apology for his Catalogue
crime in Rhyming Blakes Apology for his Catalogue
Error Mirror Call that the Public Voice
War Star Everlasting Gospel, part d
Meletus Curse Everlasting Gospel, part e
God ood Everlasting Gospel, part f
move love Everlasting Gospel, part f
forth birth Everlasting Gospel, part f
See it deceit Everlasting Gospel, part f
Adulteries rise Everlasting Gospel, part f
Passion Nation Everlasting Gospel, part g
Priest breast Everlasting Gospel, part i
Bar War Everlasting Gospel, part i
howld rolld Everlasting Gospel, part i
Tomb Rome Everlasting Gospel, part i
long Tongue Everlasting Gospel, part j
Escape trap Everlasting Gospel, part j
Ass Caiaphas Everlasting Gospel, part j (twice)
devil Civil Everlasting Gospel, part k
Newton button Everlasting Gospel, part k
imagination[?] Fashion Everlasting Gospel, part k
Scorn burn Everlasting Gospel, part k
form worm A Fairy leapt (?1;)
Songs of Experience (1;)
Bard heard word Introduction
return worn Introduction
G. E. Bentley, Jr. 127
drear despair Earths Answer
fear bear Earths Answer
grow plow Earths Answer
see misery Holy Thursday
joy poverty Holy Thursday
heath death The Chimney Sweeper
worm storm The Sick Rose
eye symmetry The Tyger (twice)
more poor The Human Abstract
root foot The Human Abstract
shade head The Human Abstract
y mystery The Human Abstract
he mystery A Little Boy Lost
afar near fear A Little Girl Lost
fear care hair A Little Girl Lost
face dress A Divine Image
To Mrs Nancy Flaxman (1;;)
grass was
Letter z Oct 18oo
wolf gulf
Letter zz Nov 18oz
Wind (noun) behind (twice)
one mone
said betrayd
sworn return
foot root
power before
given heaven (twice)
hot Thought
breathes sheaves
Annotations to Reynolds (?18o1)
woman roman
128 Blakes Pronunciation
Jerusalem (18o[?zo])
heaven given pl.
war far pl. z;, jz
family die pl. z;
blood stood pl. z;
move love pl. ;;
Ballads [Pickering] Manuscript (after 18o;)
Poor door The Mental Traveller (twice)
mourn return The Land of Dreams
throng tongue Mary
prove lovd The Grey Monk
Pigeons regions Auguries of Innocence
Road blood Auguries of Innocence
howl soul Auguries of Innocence
movd lovd Auguries of Innocence
y enmity Auguries of Innocence
War Bar Auguries of Innocence
song Tongue Auguries of Innocence
Newt foot Auguries of Innocence
Eye Eternity Auguries of Innocence
beneath Death Auguries of Innocence
Faith Death Auguries of Innocence (twice)
known Crown Auguries of Innocence
Plow Bow [noun] Auguries of Innocence
out Nut Long John Brown & Little Mary Bell
have crave I rose up at the dawn of day
joy destroy He who binds to himself a joy
quartering slaughtering Let the Brothels of Paris be opend
water halter Let the Brothels of Paris be opend
eye treasury Riches
joy poverty Holy Thursday
foot root The Fairy
heath death The sword sung on the barren heath
joy destroy Eternity
more poor The Human Image
root foot The Human Image
shade head The Human Image
y Mystery The Human Image
among song The wild owers Song
worm storm The sick rose
G. E. Bentley, Jr. 129
joy destroy The sick rose
Jealousy Eye To Nobodaddy
eye symmetry The Tyger (four times)
drear despair Earths Answer
year bear Earths Answer
grow plow Earths Answer
sigh simplicity in a mirtle shade
wind [noun] shind in a mirtle shade
Thames streams Why should I care for the men of Thames
Thames limbs Why should I care for the men of Thames
head shade Infant Sorrow
joy destroy coy Silent Silent Night
enter in worshipping I saw a chapel all of gold
For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise (?18z6)
Dungeons Sons
Toronto, Ontario
'
These rhymes are imperfect according to modern, or at least to my, pronunciation. It
is only fair to confess that I speak in a benighted trans-Atlantic English, an adventitious
mixture of the accents of Chicago, Princeton, Oxford, and Toronto, avored occasionally
with India and Oz.

Join is such an unfamiliar rhyme here that it was not recognized as such by Marsha
Keith Schuchard (Why Mrs Blake Cried: William Blake and the Sexual Basis of Spiritual Vision
[London: Century, 2006], 191), who quotes:
While thy branches mix with mine,
And our roots join together [ for together join].
'
Note also joy-decoy (Letter 14, Sept 1800) and Boy-joy (Why was Cupid a Boy,
Notebook).

The badness of the rhymes is a deliberate device in When old corruption hrst
began and To be or not to be.

This essay forms part of a not-yet-published book entitled Thus Spake William Blake:
Conversations with the Quick and the Dead. The essay is dedicated to David Fuller, generous
friend, admirable scholar.