Page:Life of William Blake, Gilchrist.djvu/100



CHAPTER IX.

POEMS OF MANHOOD. 1788—89. [ÆT. 31—32.]

Blake's brother Robert had ceased to be with him in the body, he was seldom far absent from the faithful visionary in spirit. Down to late age the survivor talked much and often of that dear brother; and in hours of solitude and inspiration his form would appear and speak to the poet in consolatory dream, in warning or helpful vision. By the end of 1788, the first portion of that singularly original and significant series of Poems, by which of themselves, Blake