# Life of William Blake (1880), Volume 2

LIFE
OF
WILLIAM BLAKE,
VOL. II.
WILLIAM BLAKE
LIFE
OF
WILLIAM BLAKE
WITH SELECTIONS FROM HIS POEMS AND OTHER WRITINGS
BY
ALEXANDER GILCHRIST
OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE OF WILLIAM ETTY, R.A."
A NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION
ILLUSTRATED FROM BLAKE'S OWN WORKS
WITH ADDITIONAL LETTERS AND A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. II.
London
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1880.
The Right of Translation is Reserved
CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.
SELECTIONS.
EDITED BY DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI.
POETICAL SKETCHES.
| | PAGE |
| Introductory Note | 1 |
| Song. My silks and fine array | 3 |
| Song. Love and harmony combine | 4 |
| Song. I love the jocund dance | 5 |
| Mad Song. The wild winds weep | 6 |
| Song. How sweet I roamed from field to field | 7 |
| Song. Memory, hither come | 8 |
| To the Muses. Whether on Ida's shady brow | 9 |
| To the Evening Star. Thou fair-hair'd angel of the Evening | 10 |
| To Spring. O thou, with dewy locks, who lookest down | 11 |
| To Summer. O thou who passest thro' our valleys in | 12 |
| Blind-Man's Buff. When silver snow decks Susan's clothes | 13 |
| King Edward the Third (Selections from) | 16 |
SONGS OF INNOCENCE.
| Introductory Note | 27 |
| Introduction. Piping down the valleys wild | 29 |
| The Shepherd. How sweet is the shepherd's sweet lot | 30 |
| | PAGE |
| The Echoing Green. The sun does arise | 31 |
| The Lamb. Little lamb, who made thee? | 32 |
| The Little Black Boy. My mother bore me in the southern wild | 33 |
| The Blossom. Merry, merry sparrow! | 34 |
| The Chimney-Sweeper. When my mother died I was very young | 35 |
| The Little Boy Lost. Father, father, where are you going? | 36 |
| The Little Boy Found. The little boy lost in the lonely fen | 36 |
| Laughing Song. When the great woods laugh with the voice of joy | 37 |
| Cradle Song. Sweet dreams form a shade | 38 |
| The Divine Image. To mercy, pity, peace, and love | 40 |
| Holy Thursday. 'Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean | 41 |
| Night. The Sun descending in the West | 42 |
| Spring. Sound the flute! | 44 |
| Nurse's Song. When the voices of children are heard on the green | 45 |
| Infant Joy. I have no name | 46 |
| A Dream. Once a dream did weave a shade | 47 |
| On Another's Sorrow. Can I see another's woe | 48 |
| The Voice of the Ancient Bard. Youth of delight! come hither | 50 |
SONGS OF EXPERIENCE.
| Introduction. Hear the voice of the bard | 51 |
| Earth's Answer. Earth raised up her head | 52 |
| The Clod and the Pebble. Love seeketh not itself to please | 53 |
| Holy Thursday. Is this a holy thing to see | 54 |
| The Little Girl Lost. In futurity | 55 |
| The Little Girl Found. All the night in woe | 57 |
| The Chimney Sweeper. A little black thing among the snow | 59 |
| The Sick Rose. O Rose, thou art sick! | 60 |
| Nurse's Song. When the voices of children are heard on the green | 60 |
| The Fly. Little Fly | 61 |
| The Angel. I dreamt a dream! What can it mean? | 62 |
| The Tiger. Tiger, tiger, burning bright | 63 |
| My Pretty Rose Tree. A flower was offered to me | 64 |
| | PAGE |
| Ah! Sunflower. Ah! Sunflower! weary of time | 64 |
| The Lily. The modest rose puts forth a thorn | 65 |
| The Garden of Love. I laid me down upon a bank | 65 |
| The Little Vagabond. Dear mother, dear mother, the church is cold | 66 |
| London. I wander through each charter'd street | 67 |
| The Human Abstract. Pity would be no more | 68 |
| Infant Sorrow. My mother groaned, my father wept | 69 |
| Christian Forbearance. I was angry with my friend | 69 |
| A Little Boy Lost. Nought loves another as itself | 70 |
| A Little Girl Lost. Children of the future age | 71 |
| A Cradle Song. Sleep, sleep, beauty bright | 73 |
| The Schoolboy. I love to rise on a summer morn | 74 |
| To Tirzah. Whate'er is born of mortal birth | 76 |
| THE BOOK OF THEL | 77 |
IDEAS OF GOOD AND EVIL.
| Introductory Note | 85 |
| The Birds. Where thou dwellest, in what grove | 89 |
| Broken Love. My spectre around me night and day | 90 |
| The Two Songs. I heard an angel singing | 93 |
| The Defiled Sanctuary. I saw a chapel all of gold | 94 |
| Cupid. Why was Cupid a boy? | 95 |
| The Woman taken in Adultery. The vision of Christ that thou dost see | 96 |
| Love's Secret. Never seek to tell thy love | 98 |
| The Wild Flower's Song. As I wandered in the forest | 99 |
| The Crystal Cabinet. The maiden caught me in the wild | 100 |
| Smile and Frown. There is a smile of love | 102 |
| The Golden Net. Beneath a white thorn's lovely May | 103 |
| The Land of Dreams. Awake, awake, my little boy | 104 |
| Mary. Sweet Mary, the first time she ever was there | 105 |
| Auguries of Innocence. To see a world in a grain of sand | 107 |
| The Mental Traveller. I travelled through a land of men | 112 |
| In A Myrtle Shade. To a lovely myrtle bound | 118 |
| William Bond. I wonder whether the girls are mad | 119 |
| | PAGE |
| Scoffers. Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau | 121 |
| The Agony of Faith. "I see, I see," the mother said | 123 |
| Daybreak. To find the western path | 124 |
| Thames and Ohio. Why should I care for the men of Thames? | 124 |
| Young Love. Are not the joys of morning sweeter | 125 |
| Riches. Since all the riches of this world | 125 |
| Opportunity. He who bends to himself a joy | 126 |
| Seed Sowing. Thou hast a lapful of seed | 126 |
| Barren Blossom. I feared the fury of my wind | 127 |
| Night and Day. Silent, silent night | 127 |
| Love and Deceit. Love to faults is always blind | 128 |
| Couplets and Fragments | 129 |
| Epigrams and Satirical Pieces on Art and Artists | 132 |
PROSE WRITINGS.
| Introductory Note | 137 |
| Descriptive Catalogue | 139 |
| Public Address | 164 |
| Memoranda by Blake of his mode of Engraving | 178 |
| Sibylline Leaves— |
| On Homer's Poetry | 179 |
| On Virgil | 180 |
| The Ghost of Abel | 181 |
| A Vision of the Last Judgment | 185 |
| Note upon Blake's Engraved Designs | 203 |
| Illustrations of the Book of Job |
| Songs of Innocence and of Experience. |
ANNOTATED CATALOGUE OF BLAKE'S PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS.
By William Michael Rossetti.
| Introductory Note | 205 |
| | PAGE |
| List I. Works in Colour. |
| Section a. Dated Works | 207 |
| Section b. Undated Works, Biblical and Sacred | 235 |
| DittoDittoPoetic and Miscellaneous | 245 |
| List II. Uncoloured Works. |
| Section a. Dated Works | 255 |
| Section b. Undated Works. Biblical and Sacred | 264 |
| DittoDittoPoetic and Miscellaneous | 267 |
| List III. Works of Unascertained Method. |
| Biblical and Sacred | 275 |
| Poetic and Miscellaneous | 275 |
| Items from the Sale Catalogues of Mr. George Smith | 276 |
| Items from the Catalogue of an Exhibition of Blake's Works in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, U.S.A. | 276 |
| Account between Blake and Mr. Butts | 278 |
| Lists of Engravings. |
| Works designed as well as engraved by Blake | 279 |
| Works engraved, but not designed by Blake | 281 |
| Works designed, but not engraved by Blake | 283 |
| List of Writings | 283 |
| Prospectus by Blake issued in 1793 | 285 |
| Descriptive Notes of the Designs to Young's "Night Thoughts," by Frederic James Shields | 289 |
| Essay on Blake by James Smetham | 309 |
| In Memoriam F. O. Finch, by Samuel Palmer | 353 |
| Memoir of Alexander Gilchrist, by Anne Gilchrist | 357 |
VOL. II.
SELECTIONS
EDITED BY
DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI.