Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Illuminated Manuscript

By William Blake

Songs of Innocence was the first of Blake's illuminated books published in 1789. It is a cheerful and optimistic volume which concerns itself with such themes as springtime, children's games, the freedom of the human spirit, and a kind and loving God. Songs of Experience is the second part of Songs of Innocence and of Experience. The poems and artwork were reproduced by copperplate engraving and colored with washes by hand. Blake republished Songs of Innocence and Experience several times, often changing the number and order of the plates. The spellings, punctuation and capitalizations are those of the original Blake manuscripts. William Blake (1757 – 1827) was a British poet, painter, visionary mystic, and engraver, who illustrated and printed his own books. Blake proclaimed the supremacy of the imagination over the rationalism and materialism of the 18th-century. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.

• Language: English
• Publisher: DigiCat
• Release date: May 25, 2022
• ISBN: 8596547000792

William Blake

William Blake was born in London in 1757. He was apprenticed to a master engraver and then studied at the Royal Academy under the guidance of Joshua Reynolds. In 1789 he engraved and published Songs of Innocence and the contrasting Songs of Experience came later in 1794. A poet, painter and printmaker of great originality and imagination, his work was largely unrecognized during his lifetime and he struggled to make a living. Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. He died in 1827.

Book preview

William Blake

Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Illuminated Manuscript

EAN 8596547000792

DigiCat, 2022

Contact: [e-mail]

Table of Contents

Songs of Innocence

Introduction

The Shepherd

Infant Joy

On Another's Sorrow

The School Boy

Holy Thursday

Nurse's Song

Laughing Song

The Little Black Boy

The Voice of the Ancient Bard

Ecchoing Green

The Chimney Sweeper

The Divine Image

A Dream

The Little Girl Lost

The Little Girl Found

The Little Boy Lost

The Little Boy Found

A Cradle Song

Spring

The Blossom

The Lamb

Night

Songs of Experience

Introduction

Earth's Answer

The Clod & the Pebble

Holy Thursday

The Little Girl Lost

The Little Girl Found

The Chimney Sweeper

Nurses Song

The Sick Rose

The Fly

The Angel

The Tyger

My Pretty Rose Tree

Ah! Sun-flower

The Lilly

The Garden of Love

The Little Vagabond

London

The Human Abstract

Infant Sorrow

A Poison Tree

A Little Boy Lost

A Little Girl Lost

To Tirzah

The School Boy

The Voice of the Ancient Bard

Songs of Innocence

Table of Contents

Songs of Innocence was the first of Blake's illuminated books published in 1789. The poems and artwork were reproduced by copperplate engraving and colored with washes by hand. In 1794 he expanded the book to include Songs of Experience. The spellings, punctuation and capitalizations are those of the original Blake manuscripts.

Introduction

Introduction

Table of Contents

Piping down the valleys wild,

Piping songs of pleasant glee,

On a cloud I saw a child,

And he laughing said to me:

Pipe a song about a Lamb!

So I piped with merry chear.

Piper, pipe that song again

So I piped, he wept to hear.

"Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;

Sing thy songs of happy chear-

So I sung the same again,

While he wept with joy to hear.

"Piper, sit thee down and write

In a book, that all may read."

So he vanish'd from my sight,

And I pluck'd a hollow reed,

And I made a rural pen,

And I stain'd the water clear,

And I wrote my