Allen Ginsberg’s July 20, 1979 Naropa Institute class on William Blake continues from here
AG: Now how many here have read Songs of Innocence and of Experience? How many have not? How many have read no Blake at all, ever? Raise your hands. Okay. How many have read just a couple of poems? So what does that mean? How many have not read Songs of Innocence and Experience through? It’s alright, just raise your hands. I’m just trying to figure out what to do, where to begin. How many have read one or another of his so-called “prophetic books”? Raise your hands. (to Student) What did you read?
Student: The Four Zoas.
AG: Pardon me?
Student: The Four Zoas
AG: Was that for this class?
Student: No, it wasn’t.
AG: On your own.
Student: It was for another university.
AG: (to another Student) And you?
Student (2): Ahania
AG: Yeah. Were you in my class before on the Blake? Yeah
Student (2) : Not Blake.
AG: Oh, okay. And who else? Has anybody here read a lot of Blake? Has anybody read all through Blake? Is there any Blake specialist here who’s read all through Blake or am I the only (one) ? So that means I can con everybody all I want. Has anybody read Jerusalem? ? Has anybody read Milton? Has anybody read The Four Zoas? Yes. Vala or the Four Zoas (to Student) – Where did you do that, or why?
Student (3): At the University of Copenhagen.
AG: Who taught it?
Student (3): I don’t even remember his name. It was just an assistant teacher.
AG: Was he teaching all (of) Blake?
Student (3): Yeah, by and by. I think he was teaching (indecipherable) (Romanticism?)
AG: Uh-huh.
Student: It was two years ago.
AG: (to Student): You read it with Jack Clark.
Student (4): Diane Christian.
AG: Pardon me?
Student(4): Diane Christian’s class.
AG: Yeah. In Buffalo. Did you read more or less all the way through the prophetic books?
Student(4): No, that’s the only one.
AG: Yeah. Anybody else here read more or less all through the prophetic books? Has anybody else here read more or less all through the prophetic books? Pretty good, actually. So how many have read some of the prophetic books? One or another. So that’s maybe a third of the class.
Well, what I’ve done so far is I started a couple of years ago teaching Blake chronologically and so one year I started The Book of Urizen – U-R-I-Z-E-N – very carefully one spring semester in about six meetings. A workshop. Then what did I do next? Then, this winter,
I went into it really heavy here, and began it with a very early work, and taught up through sort of middle period, all the short poems and prophetic books. Since most of you are not familiar with his work, why don’t I just run down for a moment what he wrote, up to the point where we’ll pick up now.
to be continued