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James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902.

August 12

William Blake

By Edmund Gosse (1849–1928)

William Blake died August 12, 1827.

THEY win who never near the goal,

They run who halt on wounded feet;

Art hath its martyrs like the soul,

Its victors in defeat.

This seer’s ambition soared too far;

He sank, on pinions backward blown;

But, tho’ he touched nor sun nor star,

He made a world his own.