Life of William Blake (1880), Volume 2

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506063Life of William Blake (1880), Volume 2William Blake, Anne Gilchrist, Alexander Gilchrist, Dante Gabriel Rossetti

LIFE

OF

WILLIAM BLAKE,


VOL. II.

T. PhillipsSchiavonetti

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


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


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


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


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

alt-text=WILLIAM BLAKE [title design] SELECTIONS
alt-text=WILLIAM BLAKE [title design] SELECTIONS


VOL. II.

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 [text underlined by illustration].
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 [text underlined by illustration]

SELECTIONS


EDITED BY


DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI.