William Blake was a true visionary, andhis visions reached beyond the Jim Morrison variety, though he may be most famous for being the biggest influence on the Doors' frontman. He similarly had a large influence on the Frency Symboliste poets, who also influenced The Doors as well as Bob Dylan. Indeed, "The Tyger," one of Blake's most well known poems, has been set to music more times than any other poem I can think of.
Despite other masterpieces like "The Auguries of Innocence," Blake's reputation rests mostly upon Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. These two companion volumes, released in lavishly lithographed illustrated editions, imagine the world as created first by a Christian God and then by Satan. They are best read inconjunction, and may poems, such as "The Lamb," "London," and "The Sick Rose," have been extracted and heavily anthologized.
One of the most unique contributions Blake has made to the arts is in way of inspiring the Jim Jarmusch surrealist comedy Dead Man in which a Native American taking peyote mistakes a man named William Blake as the ghost of the poet, whose works he has confused with those of Jim Morrison.
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