To any Blake fans or scholars - Help!

Matt the Poet

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M
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OK, I've got myself into a bit of a bind.

I've volunteered to put together a poetry quiz for our writer's group Christmas party on Friday. To join in the general celebrations of his life, I wanted to have a Blake round (also, because I'm a massive nerd, I need it to have seven questions, but this is by the by).

Anyhow, I could ask about a load of dull facts that I can find on Wikipedia - birth dates, publications etc., but it's a party, for god's sake, albeit a party full of poets - I'd like to get some 'not a lot of people know that' trivia, and preferably something that will raise eyebrows and/or titters.

So - anybody out there got some off-the-beaten-track Blake factoids?
 
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A really obscure one for the old hippies:

What 60's rock group set a couple of Blake poems to amusingly inappropriate music, including "Ah Sunflower" as a raga, and "How Sweet I Roamed from Field to Field" as a country song?

The Fugs
 
Here's an off-the-wall suggestion that, if it pays off, could pay off big.

Go to your local library and see if it has a copy of the transcripts from Steve Allen's "Meeting of Minds" TV series.

There was one episode featuring Paganini, da Vinci and Blake. It was, hands-down, the best episode of the series, and it was a two-parter.

There are lots of Blake factoids there. The guy was brilliant, but a major screwball. The one that got me was that he thought he saw angels in the trees. Allen said something like, "Ah, yes, sometimes it seems like the shapes in the trees are like angels," and Blake said something like, "I am not talking about SEEMING, sir; I am talking about BEING!"

By the way, we're talking William Blake, not Robert Blake, right?
 
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One thing you could do is a finish the proverb of hell question.

Some of my favourites:
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.
No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.
Every thing possible to be believ'd is an image of truth.
The eagle never lost so much time, as when he submitted to learn of the crow.
Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.
As the catterpiller chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys.
 
salazar said:
One thing you could do is a finish the proverb of hell question.

Some of my favourites:
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.
No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.
Every thing possible to be believ'd is an image of truth.
The eagle never lost so much time, as when he submitted to learn of the crow.
Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.
As the catterpiller chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys.
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I like that last one!
 
Maybe too obscure, but the film Dead Man with Johnny Depp.

Depp's an accountant named Bill Blake and a Native American named Nobody decides that he's William Blake, reincarnate. Many many Blake references in the film.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Man

There are multiple references in the film to the poetry of William Blake. Nobody recites from several Blake poems, including Auguries of Innocence, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and The Everylasting Gospel, and is surprised that none of them impress, or even seem familiar to, his oddly-named travelling companion (who at one point mistakenly retorts, "I've had it up to here with this Indian malarkey!" - Depp's Blake never seems to catch on about the existence of the poet, although on the movie soundtrack and in the promotional music video, Depp recites passages from Blake.) When bounty hunter Cole warns his companions against drinking from standing water, it references the Proverb of Hell (from the aforementioned Marriage), "Expect poison from standing water". Thel's name is also a reference to Blake's The Book of Thel.
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Be nice if you could find the promotional video with Depp reading Blake and have them guess who it is, maybe?
 
salazar said:
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
Click to expand...

Annie Savoy, Susan Sarandon's character in "Bull Durham", quotes that line. A fact, while maybe not trivia worthy, I personally enjoy.

You shouldn't have any trouble coming up with non-boring Blake questions though. The dude talked with the freaking Angel Gabriel.
 
Hey - thanks, all, for your input. It helped a great deal with the quiz, which went down rather well

Do feel free to continue discussing Blake, if you like. And who doesn't?
 
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