William Blake: Poetry in Seeds, Flowers, and Trees

November 28, 1757

On this day, William Blake, the English poet, was born. During his lifetime, Blake lived in relative obscurity, but today he is remembered as one of the essential voices of the Romantic Age — a poet who found eternity in a flower and the human soul in a garden.

Blake had a gardener’s heart for the seasons of life. He once wrote:

“In seed-time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.”

In his famous poem Auguries of Innocence, he offered a vision of infinite wonder contained within the smallest of natural things:

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.”

Blake often used the imagery of the garden to reflect the inner life. In his haunting poem A Poison Tree, he compared anger to a tree — one that grows stronger the more it is nurtured, bearing a deadly fruit:

“I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe;
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I water'd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles
And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright;
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine,

And into my garden stole,
When the night had veiled the pole:
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.”

Through his words, William Blake taught us that gardens are not only places of beauty, but also mirrors of the human spirit — places where seeds of kindness or anger may take root, and where the smallest blossom can open into eternity.