Born to a middle-class family in London, William Blake (1757–1827) received his formal education in art, studying at the Royal Academy of Arts. When he was fourteen, he was apprenticed to James Basire, a well-known engraver. During his free time, Blake wrote poetry and read.

As a child, Blake had a number of "visions." The earliest one was of God looking through his bedroom window, a vision which left him screaming in fear. When he was eight or nine, he told his father he had seen a tree filled with bright, shining angels. He grew accustomed to his visions and later reported talking with spirits and angels. Thus, Blake's experience of the world was intensely visual and was reflected in both the imagery of his poetry and in his other love, painting and drawing. He told the people around him that his poetry and his drawings were "copied" from the visions he saw.

Blake earned a living giving drawing lessons, illustrating books, and engraving. Later, when work was not plentiful, he and his wife moved to the Sussex seacoast. A wealthy patron of the arts supported the Blakes and tried to convince William to work with a more conventional style. Blake, however, rebelled, insisting that his poems reflected a passionate, spiritual world and that this world must be kept separate from the "corporeal," or physical, world. Consequently, he kept his own style and lived for a time in poverty and isolation because his work was so contrary to the tastes and conventions of his time.

In his sixties, Blake left his poetry behind, attracted a small group of painters, and began to concentrate on his visual work. He died at the age of seventy.