Life of William Blake (1863), Volume 2

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Life of William Blake, "Pictor ignotus". Alexander Gilchrist, Anne Burrows Gilchrist, William James Linton, William Blake

LIFE

OF

WILLIAM BLAKE.

LIFE

OF

WILLIAM BLAKE,

"PICTOR IGNOTUS"

WITH SELECTIONS FROM HIS POEMS AND OTHER WRITINGS

BY THE LATE

OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW;
AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE OF WILLIAM ETTY, R.A."

ILLUSTRATED FROM BLAKE'S OWN WORKS,

IN FACSIMILÉ BY W. J. LINTON,

AND IN PHOTOLITHOGRAPHY;

WITH A FEW OF BLAKE'S ORIGINAL PLATES.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL II.

MACMILLAN AND CO.

1863.

LONDON:
R CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS,
BREAD STREET HILL.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.

PART II. SELECTIONS.

	PAGE
Introductory Note	3
Song. My silks and fine array	4
Song. Love and harmony combine	5
Song. I love the jocund dance	6
Mad Song. The wild winds weep	7
Song. How.sweet I roamed from field to field	8
Song. Memory, hither come	9
To the Muses. Whether on Ida's shady brow	10
To the Evening Star. Thou fair-hair'd angel of the Evening	11
To Spring. O thou, with dewy locks, who lookest down	12
To Summer. O thou who passest thro' our valleys in	13
Blind-Man's Buff. When silver snow decks Susan's clothes	14
King Edward the Third (Selections from)	16

SONGS OF INNOCENCE.

Introductory Note	25
Introduction. Piping down the valleys wild	26
The Shepherd. How sweet is the shepherd's sweet lot	27
The Echoing Green. The sun does arise	28
The Lamb. Little lamb, who made thee?	29
The Little Black Boy. My mother bore me in the southern wild	30
The Blossom. Merry, merry sparrow!	31
The Chimney-Sweeper. When my mother died I was very young	32
The Little Boy Lost. Father, father, where are you going?	33
The Little Boy Found. The little boy lost in the lonely fen	33
Laughing Song. When the great woods laugh with the voice of joy	34
A Cradle Song. Sweet dreams form a shade	35
The Divine Image. To mercy, pity, peace, and love	36
Holy Thursday. 'Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean	37

	PAGE
Night. The Sun descending in the West	38
Spring. Sound the flute!	40
Nurse's Song. When the voices of children are heard on the green	41
Infant Joy. I have no name	42
A Dream. Once a dream did weave a shade	43
On Another's Sorrow. Can I see another's woe	44
The Voice of the Ancient Bard. Youth of delight! come hither	46

SONGS OF EXPERIENCE.

Introduction. Hear the voice of the bard	47
Earth's Answer. Earth raised up her head	48
The Clod and the Pebble. Love seeketh not itself to please	49
Holy Thursday. Is this a holy thing to see	50
The Little Girl Lost. In futurity	51
The Little Girl Found. All the night in woe	53
The Chimney Sweeper. A little black thing among the snow	55
The Sick Rose. O Rose, thou art sick !	56
Nurse's Song. When the voices of children are heard on the green	56
The Fly. Little Fly	57
The Angel. I dreamt a dream ! What can it mean?	58
The Tiger. Tiger, tiger, burning bright	59
My Pretty Rose Tree. A flower was offered to me	60
Ah! Sunflower. Ah! Sunflower! weary of time	60
The Lily. The modest rose puts forth a thorn	61
The Garden of Love. I laid me down upon a bank	61
The Little Vagabond. Dear mother, dear mother, the church is cold	62
London. I wander through each charter'd street	63
The Human Abstract. Pity would be no more	64
Infant Sorrow. My mother groaned, my father wept	65
Christian Forbearance. I was angry with my friend	65
A Little Boy Lost. Nought loves another as itself	66
A Little Girl Lost. Children of the future age	67
A Cradle Song. Sleep, sleep, beauty bright	68
The Schoolboy. I love to rise on a summer morn	69
To Tirzah. Whate'er is born of mortal birth	70
THE BOOK OF THEL	71

Introductory Note	76
The Birds. Where thou dwellest, in what grove	78
Broken Love. My spectre around me night and day	79
The Two Songs. I heard an angel singing	81
The Defiled Sanctuary. I saw a chapel all of gold	82

	PAGE
Cupid. Why was Cupid a boy?	83
The Woman taken in Adultery. The vision of Christ that thou dost see	84
Love's Secret. Never seek to tell thy love	86
The Wild Flower's Song. As I wandered in the forest	87
The Crystal Cabinet. The maiden caught me in the wild	88
Smile and Frown. There is a smile of love	89
The Golden Net. Beneath a white thorn's lovely May	90
The Land of Dreams. Awake, awake, my little boy	91
Mary. Sweet Mary, the first time she ever was there	92
Auguries of Innocence. To see a world in a grain of sand	94
Auguries of Innocence. I travelled through a land of men	94
The Mental Traveller. I travelled through a land of men	98
William Bond. I travelled through a land of men	103
Scoffers. Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau	105
The Agony of Faith. "I see, I see," the mother said	106
Daybreak. To find the western path	107
Thames and Ohio. Why should I care for the men of Thames?	107
Young Love. Are not the joys of morning sweeter	108
Riches. Since all the riches of this world	108
Opportunity. He who bends to himself a joy	109
Seed Sowing. Thou hast a lapful of seed	109
Barren Blossom. I feared the fury of my wind	110
Night and Day. Silent, silent night	110
In A Myrtle Shade. To a lovely myrtle bound	111
Couplets and Fragments	112
Epigrams and Satirical Pieces on Art and Artists	114

PROSE WRITINGS.

Introductory Note	118
Descriptive Catalogue	119
Public Address	144
Memoranda by Blake of his mode of Engraving	158
Sibylline Leaves	159
A Vision of the Last Judgment	161

APPENDIX.

Letters from Blake to Mr. Butts	178
Annotated Catalogue of Blake's Pictures and Drawings. List I, of Works in Colours.
Section a. Dated Works	201
Section b. Undated Works. Biblical and Sacred	223
Ditto Ditto Poetic and Miscellaneous	232

	PAGE
List II. Uncoloured Works.
Section a. Dated Works	240
Section b. Undated Works. Biblical and Sacred	246
Ditto ditto Poetic and Miscellaneous	248
List III. Works of Unascertained Method.
Biblical and Sacred	255
Poetic and Miscellaneous	255
Account between Blake and Mr. Butts	256
Lists of Engravings.
Works designed as well as engraved by Blake	257
Works engraved, but not designed by Blake	259
Works designed, but not engraved by Blake	261
List of Writings	261
Prospectus by Blake issued in 1793	263
Engraved Designs by Blake.	265
The Book of Job.
Songs of Innocence and Experience.

I give you the end of a golden string:
Only wind it into a ball,
It will lead you in at Heaven's gate,
Built in Jerusalem wall.