Whatever you think of Terry Eagleton, he always makes for a provocative read. His piece on Blake at the Guardian Unlimited provides fascinating perspective on one of history’s greatest poets: Terry Eagleton: The original political vision: sex, art and transformation. See sample quote below:

Blake, however, was not enamoured of the third way. The New Testament that Gordon Brown reads in his Presbyterian fashion as a model of prudence, conscience and sobriety, Blake read as a hymn to creative recklessness. He sees that Jesus’s ethics are extravagant, hostile to the calculative spirit of the utilitarians. If they ask for your coat, give them your cloak; if they ask you to walk one mile, walk two. The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom, and those who restrain their desires do so because their desires are feeble enough to be restrained.