I don't wonder what the "certain meanness of culture" was that Eliot spoke of about Blake. I think of Blake as having Gaelic tempers and manners. These manners don't jibe with the Franco-Prussian manners of the English upper-class. Always be ready to speak your mind, and everyone's going to know you've got a lot of Gaul.
There is a resonance between the German mystical tradition and British Romanticism, and I'm glad you feel it. German poetry never stopped being about nature. Herman Hesse was a 20th century German mystic writer. His novels and poetry are great. Both Blake and Hesse were interested in Eastern mystical traditions and they are my two favorite writers...the two that I've read the most exhaustively. Both Blake and Hesse led me backward in time, to their antecedents. I believe this was what Blake intended by winding the thread into a ball. Blake's thread leads back to Milton and the symbolism of classical poetry. Hesse leads back to ancient Taoism. Lao Tzu and Chaung Tzu. I Ching, as well as to the German tradition of Paracelsus and Boehme (among many others).
I don't wonder what the "certain meanness of culture" was that Eliot spoke of about Blake. I think of Blake as having Gaelic tempers and manners. These manners don't jibe with the Franco-Prussian manners of the English upper-class. Always be ready to speak your mind, and everyone's going to know you've got a lot of Gaul.
There is a resonance between the German mystical tradition and British Romanticism, and I'm glad you feel it. German poetry never stopped being about nature. Herman Hesse was a 20th century German mystic writer. His novels and poetry are great. Both Blake and Hesse were interested in Eastern mystical traditions and they are my two favorite writers...the two that I've read the most exhaustively. Both Blake and Hesse led me backward in time, to their antecedents. I believe this was what Blake intended by winding the thread into a ball. Blake's thread leads back to Milton and the symbolism of classical poetry. Hesse leads back to ancient Taoism. Lao Tzu and Chaung Tzu. I Ching, as well as to the German tradition of Paracelsus and Boehme (among many others).
Thank you for your posts. I enjoy them very much. This short story by Hesse is perfect. https://www.alastairmcintosh.com/general/resources/2008-Hesse-The-Poet.pdf