Observations placeholder
Samuel Laman Blanchard - from Lyric offerings 1828
Identifier
013237
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Samuel Laman Blanchard (15 May 1804 – 15 February 1845) was a British author and journalist. The son of a painter and glazier, he was born at Great Yarmouth. He was educated at St Olave's school, Southwark, and then became clerk to a proctor in Doctors' Commons. At an early age he developed an interest in literature, contributing dramatic sketches to a paper called Drama. For a short time he belonged to a travelling theatre company, but then became a proof-reader in London, and wrote for the Monthly Magazine. In 1827 he was made secretary of the Zoological Society, a post he held for three years. In 1828 he published Lyric Offerings, dedicated to Charles Lamb.
But his story had a sad, truly sad end. Over-work broke down his strength and, after his wife died in December 1844 of a painful illness, Blanchard entered a depression from which he never recovered. He committed suicide with a razor, and was buried at West Norwood Cemetery.
A description of the experience
Lyric offerings - Samuel Laman Blanchard 1828
Pleasures lie thickest where no pleasures seem
There's not a leaf that falls upon the ground
But holds some joy, of silence or of sound,
Some sprite begotten of a summer dream,
The very meanest things are made supreme
With innate ecstasy. No grain of sand
But moves a bright and million peopled land
And hath its Edens and its Eves, I deem.
The source of the experience
Poet otherConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
AtomSymbols
Science Items
Activities and commonsteps
Activities
Suppressions
Communing with natureReducing desires
Squash the big I am
Suppressing obligations