Songs of Innocence and of Experience (The Illuminated Books of William Blake, Volume 2)
"Blake's polarities as poet and artist are ... directly revealed. The illustrative ingenuousness and sweetness ofSongsbelie the explosive lyricism that girds these poems."--Leonard Baskin,The Washington Times"Part of the pleasure of this lovely volume results from Andrew Lincoln's intel-ligent introduction and commentary.... But the greatest pleasure by far is the color reproduction itself.... One of the most beautiful and finely finished copies we have."--Irene Tayler,Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly"It is a very strong light indeed that comes from these quarto volumes. They reproduce, plate by plate, Blake's hand-lettered verses and colored illustrations. . . . These illuminated books, masterpieces of the book maker's art, answer critical questions, especially about the poet's late, recondite allegories. They remind the poetry scholar that his Blake was first a visual artist, indebted to Raphael and Michelangelo, and second a writer beholden to Spenser and Milton. . . . The greatest contribution of the Princeton facsimiles is that they have madeMiltonandJerusalemaccessible in the only form Blake ever wished to present them."--Daniel Mark Epstein,New Criterion