The Blake Digital Text Project, which originated three years ago, offers all work of the Romantic poet and artist William Blake in digital format. Available to humanities scholars, librarians, graduate students, and others interested in the multifaceted talent of Blake, the Blake Digital Text Project is the perfect blend of scholarship, creativity, and technology. Included in the “Complete Works” are not only poetry and prose, but also letters and Blake’s often humorous Annotations to: Swedenborg’s “Heaven and Hell,” Bacon’s “Essays Moral, Economical and Political,” Boyd’s “Historical Notes on Dante,” and “The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds.” In addition to the standard textual Blake interpretation are a series of RealAudio files offering musical interpretations of the “Songs of Innocence and Experience.”
The project coordinator, Dr Nelson Hilton, Department of English, University of Georgia, received permission to digitize the Newly Revised Edition (1988) of The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake from editor David V. Erdman, a distinguished Blake scholar. The searchable Concordance or “electronic Erdman” (eE) returns all hits of a phrase or word as found throughout the works of Blake. Not only is the “search string” returned with each line it appears in, but the surrounding three lines are reported back for each appearance, thereby putting each occurrence in context. The home page consists of three major sections: the “eE online Blake Concordance,” “The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake, edited by David V. Erdman” and “Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, graphical hypertext.”
Complementing Blake’s images and graphic artistry are RealAudio files, allowing for musical interpretation of Blake’s words by numerous artists. Signified by a piper next to a graphical image of the verse, the audio interpretations vary stylistically and offer significant insight about the impact of the creative Blake. Interpretations by Benjamin Britten, Allen Ginsberg, Greg Forbes, and Ralph Vaughan Williams exemplify the variety of musicians represented on the site.
In “Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, graphical hypertext” comments and annotations from scholars and students researching Blake are shared and attributed. Expansion of this section is planned and anticipated.
The site design seems simple and straightforward. Upon exploration and examination, the visitor finds that the site is very much like William Blake’s work ‐ on the surface, easy to read and understand. As the layers are peeled back, removed, and examined, the intricacies of the messages and the massiveness of Blake’s talent surface.
