The importance of Blake in today's world William Blake, who lived in the second half of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century , was a deeply moving poet who was, in large part, responsible for the emergence of the Romantic movement in poetry; was able to obtain “remarkable results with the simplest means”; and was one of many poets of the time who restored “a rich musicality to the language” (Appelbaum v). His research and introspection into the human mind and soul earned him the nickname “Columbus of the psyche.” Since no language existed at the time to describe what he discovered during his travels, he created his own mythology to describe what he discovered. found there (Damon ix). He was an accomplished poet, painter and printmaker. Blake scholars disagree on whether or not Blake was a mystic. In the Norton Anthology, he is described as "a noted mystic, [who] had visions from the age of four" (Mack 783). Frye, however, who appears to be one of the most influential Blake scholars, disagrees, saying that Blake was a visionary rather than a mystic. “‘Mysticism’…denotes a certain type of religious technique that is difficult to reconcile with anyone’s poetry,” Frye says (Frye 8). He then says that "visionary" is "a word that Blake uses and uses constantly" and cites the example of Plotinus, the mystic, who experienced a "direct apprehension of God" four times in his life, and then only with “great apprehension of God.” relentless effort and discipline. He finally cites Blake's poem "I Rose at the Dawn of the Day," in which Blake states, "I am in the presence of God night and day, and he never turns away his face (Frye 9). In addition to all these achievements, Blake was a social critic of his time and considered himself a prophet of times to come. Frye says that “all his poetry was written as if it were about to have the immediate social impact of a new play” (Frye 4). His social criticism is not only representative of his own country and times, but also strikes a chord in our times. As Appelbaum said in the introduction to his anthology English Romantic Poetry, “[Blake] was not fully rediscovered and rehabilitated until a century after his death” (Appelbaum v). For Blake was not really appreciated during his lifetime, except by small cliques of individuals, and was not well known during the rest of the 19th century (Appelbaum c.).