William Blake

“ When he “sat down to write” it was evidently the “strong heroic verse” of Vala: compare “terrible Blake” and the “oath that made heavn quake” (lines 2 and 5) with the “terrible Sentence” and heaven quaking of the opening lines of Vala. ”

“ N 1 (pencil) G. Keynes in his edition omitted 4 lines after line 28 as illegible. D. Erdman printed them in full. He dated the poem as ca 1797-99, and mentioned the well known fact that "Klopstock had been declaring to English visitors that their language was incapable of the epic grandeur of hexameters, and be had spoken with scorn of English writers' coarseness of tone traceable to Swift. ”