WEBVTT

1
00:00:03.439 --> 00:00:13.880
Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Colin Louva
and I'm Katie Blake. Spotlight uses a

2
00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:24.199
special English method of broadcasting. It
is easier for people to understand no matter

3
00:00:24.280 --> 00:00:38.280
where in the world they live.
Imagine a painting of an old man.

4
00:00:39.119 --> 00:00:46.200
The man is crouching on the edge
of the sun. All around him there

5
00:00:46.359 --> 00:00:53.880
is only darkness. There is nothing
but this man and an empty world.

6
00:00:55.079 --> 00:01:02.960
In his hand, the man holds
a tool called as This is a tool

7
00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:12.439
people use to create perfect circles on
paper. Builders use them to design buildings.

8
00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:22.680
Usually compasses are made of steel,
but this compass is made of gold,

9
00:01:23.719 --> 00:01:30.400
and the man is not using it
on paper. He draws with the

10
00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:38.879
compass on the emptiness around him.
His long white hair blows in the wind.

11
00:01:42.120 --> 00:01:49.599
This is a painting called Ancient of
Days. It is by the English

12
00:01:49.719 --> 00:02:01.000
poet and painter William Blake. Blake
painted it in seventeen ninety four. The

13
00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:10.159
painting shows Blake's version of the creation
of the universe. Here, a being

14
00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:21.960
like the Christian God designs the world
from nothing. Like many people of his

15
00:02:22.199 --> 00:02:30.560
time, Blake was a Christian.
But Blake was also very different than the

16
00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:38.879
people around him. He believed he
could see angels. He said that the

17
00:02:38.120 --> 00:02:46.759
dead spoke to him. These beliefs
made him difficult to work with. People

18
00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:57.240
did not value his poetry and art
during his life, but his beliefs also

19
00:02:57.639 --> 00:03:06.479
made his work some of the most
beautiful and interesting of that time. Today's

20
00:03:06.759 --> 00:03:22.280
spotlight is on William Blake. William
Blake was born in seventeen fifty seven in

21
00:03:22.599 --> 00:03:32.400
London, England. His family was
not wealthy. His father made clothing and

22
00:03:32.639 --> 00:03:42.439
was not always well paid, but
he had enough money to let his children

23
00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:53.479
follow their interests. It became clear
early on that Blake was good at art.

24
00:03:54.159 --> 00:04:02.800
He would spend hours looking at paintings
in the market. He loved them

25
00:04:03.199 --> 00:04:13.360
so much that he wanted to become
an engraver. Engraving was a way of

26
00:04:13.560 --> 00:04:24.279
cutting images into wood or metal.
Engravers would then color these images with wet

27
00:04:24.519 --> 00:04:34.639
paint. Then they could put these
images onto paper. Blake became the student

28
00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:45.639
of a master engraver. It was
clear even then that he had a lot

29
00:04:45.879 --> 00:04:56.000
of talent. But Blake also started
seeing things at an early age. As

30
00:04:56.040 --> 00:05:01.839
a young child, Blake was wandering
in a field. He looked up at

31
00:05:01.879 --> 00:05:11.959
a tree to see angels flying in
the branches. The angels shocked Blake and

32
00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:21.439
filled him with wonder. Ann Malcolmson
wrote about William Blake. He ran to

33
00:05:21.480 --> 00:05:30.319
tell his family what he had seen. His father decided that the time had

34
00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:39.920
come for the boy to learn the
difference between imagination and reality. He threatened

35
00:05:39.959 --> 00:05:46.959
to hit him for lying. His
mother, however, took his side when

36
00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:56.399
she questioned him about his experience.
He described the angels as looking like thoughts

37
00:05:57.480 --> 00:06:09.000
he had seen them in his orgination, but the feeling words vivid. We

38
00:06:09.240 --> 00:06:17.480
do not know if Blake really saw
these things. We do not know if

39
00:06:17.519 --> 00:06:27.360
he only imagined them. We do
not know if he saw something he could

40
00:06:27.439 --> 00:06:36.480
not explain. But Blake strongly believed
he saw them. As he grew up,

41
00:06:38.279 --> 00:06:46.839
he saw other religious things. They
would shape his work powerfully. He

42
00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:58.360
would even develop his own version of
Christian belief because of these visions. Much

43
00:06:58.439 --> 00:07:08.639
of his art presented these things he
saw that others could not. Blake's odd

44
00:07:08.839 --> 00:07:16.439
religious beliefs made it difficult for him
to find work. Sometimes this was because

45
00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:25.959
people found him too strange, but
mostly Blake did not want to do work

46
00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:32.800
for money. He did not like
other people telling him what he could and

47
00:07:32.959 --> 00:07:43.399
could not make so Blake and his
family often lived in poverty. When he

48
00:07:43.560 --> 00:07:49.639
did find work, he had a
hard time doing what he was asked to

49
00:07:49.720 --> 00:07:59.519
do. Doctor John Trustler was a
successful writer. He was also a member

50
00:07:59.680 --> 00:08:07.879
of the Church of England. Trustler
asked Blake to work for him. He

51
00:08:07.040 --> 00:08:16.199
asked Blake to work under a set
of directions, but Blake did not follow

52
00:08:16.279 --> 00:08:26.000
them. After finishing his work,
he wrote to doctor Trustler. I attempted

53
00:08:26.319 --> 00:08:35.440
every morning for two weeks to follow
your directions, but I found all of

54
00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:45.320
my attempts were unsuccessful. So I
decided to show an independence that I know

55
00:08:45.679 --> 00:08:52.679
will please you better. I will
not follow the path of another, however

56
00:08:54.039 --> 00:09:01.799
wonderful that path may be at any
rate. My excuse must be. I

57
00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:11.519
could not do anything else. It
was out of my power. Doctor Trustler

58
00:09:11.120 --> 00:09:18.879
was not happy with Blake's new direction. He told Blake the images were not

59
00:09:20.200 --> 00:09:31.039
realistic. Trustler refused to have Blake
work for him again. But though Blake

60
00:09:31.440 --> 00:09:39.799
was not wealthy, he continued to
make his own art. He created his

61
00:09:39.039 --> 00:09:48.559
own way of engraving on copper,
and he began writing poetry. Blake created

62
00:09:48.919 --> 00:09:56.440
many books of poetry, and he
would make images to go along with his

63
00:09:56.759 --> 00:10:05.440
poems. Some of these books were
about the future as Blake imagined it,

64
00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:16.039
but he also wrote poems about love
and wonder. One of Blake's best known

65
00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:26.840
poems is called the Tiger. It
is from his book Songs of Innocence and

66
00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:39.559
Experience. Nick Page reads part of
Blake's poem, Tiger Tiger burning bright in

67
00:10:39.639 --> 00:10:48.240
the forests of the night. What
immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful

68
00:10:48.480 --> 00:10:56.159
symmetry? In what distant deeps or
skies burnt the fire of thine eyes?

69
00:10:56.240 --> 00:11:03.600
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sees the fire?

70
00:11:05.200 --> 00:11:11.120
When the stars threw down their spears
and watered Heaven with their tears, did

71
00:11:11.159 --> 00:11:18.879
he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?

72
00:11:20.519 --> 00:11:28.440
Blake's poem speaks about the creation of
a tiger. He compares the process

73
00:11:28.480 --> 00:11:37.679
to making steel or iron. This
process, called forging, is dangerous.

74
00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:46.080
It needs a lot of heat and
strength. Blake wonders who could create such

75
00:11:46.240 --> 00:11:56.840
a powerful thing? He asks who
would have that kind of strength. Blake

76
00:11:56.159 --> 00:12:05.600
died in eighteen twenty seven Heaven.
At that time few people knew who he

77
00:12:05.799 --> 00:12:16.440
was, but soon Blake's work gained
wider recognition. People saw his paintings as

78
00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:26.639
strange when he was alive, but
today we recognize that these works are one

79
00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:39.480
of a kind. Blake's paintings are
powerful markers of faith and creativity. His

80
00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:50.679
poems also influenced many writers, but
Blake did not seem to care about popularity.

81
00:12:50.600 --> 00:12:58.919
He believed in his art, and
he believed in the things he saw.

82
00:12:58.759 --> 00:13:07.919
He felt it was important to express
what he believed, and he worked

83
00:13:07.960 --> 00:13:22.559
toward doing this with everything he had. Blake saw his faith and creativity as

84
00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:33.240
one united thing. His creativity built
his faith, His faith guided his creativity.

85
00:13:35.960 --> 00:13:43.919
Is there a link between faith and
creativity? Are they similar? How

86
00:13:45.200 --> 00:13:52.799
are they different? The writer of
this program was Dan Christman. The producer

87
00:13:54.120 --> 00:14:01.480
was Michio Ozaki. The voices you
heard were from the United Kingdom and the

88
00:14:01.639 --> 00:14:09.679
United States. All quotes were adapted
for this program and voiced by Spotlight.

89
00:14:09.559 --> 00:14:18.080
You can listen to this program again
and read it on the internet at www

90
00:14:18.120 --> 00:14:28.679
dot Radio English dot net. This
program is called The Divine Imagination of William

91
00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:39.279
Blake. You can also get our
programs delivered directly to your Android or Apple

92
00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:48.919
device through our free official Spotlight English
app. We hope you can join us

93
00:14:48.960 --> 00:15:03.559
again for the next Spotlight program.
Goodbye,