Spectre (Blake)

The Spectre in William Blake's mythology is one aspect of the fourfold nature of the human psyche. It is introduced in Blake's prophetic book Jerusalem:

I see the Four-fold Man, The Humanity in deadly sleep
And its fallen Emanation, the Spectre and its cruel Shadow.

Elsewhere in Jerusalem, Blake defines it this way: "The Spectre is the Reasoning Power in Man, and when separated from Imagination and closing itself as in steel in a Ratio of Things of Memory, It thence frames Laws and Moralities ." The Spectre also appears in Milton and The Four Zoas.

William Blake
Literary works
Early writings
  • Poetical Sketches
  • An Island in the Moon
  • All Religions are One
  • There is No Natural Religion
Songs of Innocence
and of Experience
Songs of Innocence
  • Introduction
  • The Shepherd
  • The Ecchoing Green
  • The Lamb
  • The Little Black Boy
  • The Blossom
  • The Chimney Sweeper
  • The Little Boy lost
  • The Little Boy Found
  • Laughing Song
  • A Cradle Song
  • The Divine Image
  • Holy Thursday
  • Night
  • Spring
  • Nurse's Song
  • Infant Joy
  • A Dream
  • On Another's Sorrow
Songs of Experience
  • Introduction
  • Earth's Answer
  • The Clod and the Pebble
  • Holy Thursday
  • The Little Girl Lost
  • The Little Girl Found
  • The Chimney Sweeper
  • Nurse's Song
  • The Sick Rose
  • The Fly
  • The Angel
  • The Tyger
  • My Pretty Rose Tree
  • Ah! Sun-flower
  • The Lily
  • The Garden of Love
  • The Little Vagabond
  • London
  • The Human Abstract
  • Infant Sorrow
  • A Poison Tree
  • A Little Boy lost
  • A Little Girl Lost
  • To Tirzah
  • The School Boy
  • The Voice of the Ancient Bard
Prophetic
Books
The continental
prophecies
  • America a Prophecy
  • Europe a Prophecy
  • The Song of Los
Other
  • Tiriel
  • The Book of Thel
  • The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
  • The French Revolution
  • Visions of the Daughters of Albion
  • The Book of Urizen
  • The Book of Ahania
  • The Book of Los
  • The Four Zoas
  • Milton a Poem
  • Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion
The Pickering
Manuscript
  • Auguries of Innocence
  • The Mental Traveller
  • The Crystal Cabinet
Mythology
  • Ahania
  • Albion
  • Bromion
  • Enion
  • Enitharmon
  • Fuzon
  • Grodna
  • Har
  • Leutha
  • Los
  • Luvah
  • Orc
  • Spectre
  • Tharmas
  • Thiriel
  • Tiriel
  • Urizen
  • Urthona
  • Utha
  • Vala
Art
Paintings and prints
  • Relief etching
  • Engravings for Original Stories from Real Life
  • The Ancient of Days
  • The Night of Enitharmon's Joy
  • Newton
  • Nebuchadnezzar
  • Illustrations for Night Thoughts
  • The Four and Twenty Elders Casting their Crowns before the Divine Throne
  • Illustrations of Paradise Lost
  • A Vision of the Last Judgment
  • Descriptive Catalogue
  • The Great Red Dragon Paintings
  • Pity
  • The Ghost of a Flea
  • Illustrations of On the Morning of Christ's Nativity
  • The Wood of the Self-Murderers: The Harpies and the Suicides
  • Illustrations of the Book of Job
  • Illustrations of The Divine Comedy
The Ancients
  • Samuel Palmer
  • Edward Calvert
  • Frederick Tatham
  • George Richmond
  • John Linnell
Criticism and scholarship
Scholars and critics
  • Peter Ackroyd
  • Donald Ault
  • Harold Bloom
  • Nancy Bogen
  • S. Foster Damon
  • David V. Erdman
  • Northrop Frye
  • Alexander Gilchrist
  • Geoffrey Keynes
  • Alicia Ostriker
  • Kathleen Raine
  • E. P. Thompson
Scholarly works
  • Life of William Blake
  • Fearful Symmetry
  • A Blake Dictionary: The Ideas and Symbols of William Blake
  • Blake: Prophet Against Empire
  • Witness Against the Beast
Archives and Collections
  • William Blake Archive
Wikimedia
  • Blake at Wiktionary
  • Blake at Wikibooks
  • Blake at Wikiquote
  • Blake at Wikisource
  • Blake at Commons

Famous quotes containing the word spectre:

    “The acorn’s not yet
    Fallen from the tree
    That’s to grow the wood,
    That’s to make the cradle,
    That’s to rock the bairn,
    That’s to grow a man,
    That’s to lay me.”
    —Unknown. The Cauld Lad of Hilton or, The Wandering Spectre (l. 2–8)