auguries of innocence

Eric Whitacre: Eternity in an Hour – programme note (BBC Proms)

Eric Whitacre: Eternity in an Hour – programme note (BBC Proms)

Artist, mystic and political radical William Blake is today considered one of the major cultural figures of the Romantic Age. And, although he was virtually unknown as a poet during his lifetime, Auguries of Innocence has become one of his best-loved works. Rich with symbolist imagery and social criticism, the poem meditates on the interconnectedness of all living things, the inherent goodness in nature and the fragility of human innocence …