- Title:
- 'Draw the dire steel? – ah no! – the dreadful blessing' (Page 73)
- Part Of:
- Date:
- ca. 1797
- Materials & Techniques:
- Etching, line engraving, and letterpress, with hand coloring in watercolor on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper
- Dimensions:
- Spine: 16 3/4 inches (42.5 cm), Sheet: 16 1/2 x 12 3/4 inches (41.9 x 32.4 cm), Plate: 15 5/8 x 12 inches (39.7 x 30.5 cm)
- Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Lettered inside image: "73 | With joy--with grief, that healing hand I see; | Ah! too conspicuous! it is fix'd on high! | On high?--what means my phrensy? I blaspheme; | Alas! how low! how far beneath the skies-- | The skies it form'd! and now it bleeds for me: | But bleeds the balm I want?--yet still it bleeds. | *Draw the dire steel?--ah no!--the dreadful blessing | What heart or can sustain, or dares forego? | There hangs all human hope!!! that nail supports | The falling universe!!! that gone, we drop! | Horror receives us, and the dismal wish | Creation had been smother'd in her birth: | Darkness his curtain! and his bed the dust! | When stars and sun are dust beneath his throne: | In heaven itself can such indulgence dwell? | O what a groan was there! a groan not his, | HE seized our dreadful right; the load sustain'd; | And heaved the mountain from a guilty world: | A thousand worlds so bought were bought too dear. | Sensations new, in angels bosoms rise; | Suspend their song, and make a pause in bliss. | O for their song to reach my lofty theme! | Inspire me, night! with all thy tuneful spheres inspire, | Whilst I with seraphs share seraphic themes, | And shew to men the dignity of man; | Lest I blaspheme my subject with my song. | Shall pagan pages glow celestial flame, | And christian languish? on our hearts, not heads, | Falls the foul infamy: my heart! awake; | What can awake thee, unawaked by this?--"
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1978.43.1409
- Classification:
- Prints
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Subject Terms:
- crowns | flames | hands | literary theme | nails | text | thorns
- Associated People:
- Jesus Christ (7–2 BC/BCE to 30–36 AD/CE)
- Access:
- Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details. - Link:
- https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:2335
- Export:
- XML
- IIIF Manifest:
- JSON
The Romantic Print in the Age of Revolutions: Hero, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (Yale Center for British Art, 2003-01-23 - 2003-06-01) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]