BIBLIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE
TO THE
POETICAL SKETCHES
The Poetical Sketches, Blake's earliest work, is a slender demy octavo volume of 38 leaves, privately issued, without publisher's or printer's name. The title-page reads: POETICAL | SKETCHES. | By W. B. | LONDON: | Printed in the Year MDCCLXXXIII. The first quire of two leaves contains the title and 'advertisement'; then nine quires in fours, signed B—K (K4 blank) and paginated 1-70. There are no half-titles to the section 'Miscellaneous Poems' or to 'King Edward the Third.' The book is without index or table of literary contents, which are as follows:—
| Miscellaneous Poems | PAGE |
| To Spring | 1 |
| To Summer | 2 |
| To Autumn | 3 |
| To Winter | 4 |
| To the Evening Star | 5 |
| To Morning | 6 |
| Fair Elenor | 7 |
| Song: 'How sweet I roam'd...' | 10 |
| Song: 'My silks and fine array ' | 11 |
| Song: 'Love and harmony combine' | 12 |
| Song: 'I love the jocund dance ' | 13 |
| Song: 'Memory, hither come | 14 |
| Mad Song | 15 |
| Song: 'Fresh from the dewy hill | 16 |
| Song: 'When early morn walks forth | 17 |
| To the Muses | 18 |
| Gwin, King of Norway | 19 |
| An Imitation of Spencer | 24 |
| Blind-man's Buff | 26 |
| King Edward the Third. | 29 |
| Prologue intended for a dramatic piece of King Edward the Fourth | 56 |
| Prologue to King John | 57 |
| A War Song to Englishmen | 57 |
| The Couch of Death | 60 |
| Contemplation | 63 |
| Samson | 64 |
The little book, which is exceedingly rare, is the only one of Blake's poetical writings, except the first book of the French Revolution, which made its appearance in
