The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

One of Blake’s most philosophically influential works, this poem shows the antagonistic relationship between a stable, unchanging “heaven” and a roiling, dynamic “hell.” Blake’s visions of the two realms were influenced both by his Manichean views of good and evil and the work of theologian Emanuel Swedenborg. Blake sees hell as a repository of unrepressed creative energy instead of a domain of evil or place of punishment. It is opposed to a static, authoritarian heaven that seeks to restrict and control natural human impulses. Most famous in the book are Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell,” pithy sayings that are both paradoxical and profound.