- Title:
- "To the Public. After my three years slumber..." (Plate 3)
- Part Of:
Collective Title: Jerusalem: The Emanation of The Giant Albion, Copy E
- Date:
- 1804 to 1820
- Materials & Techniques:
- Relief and white-line etching printed in orange ink, with watercolor and pen and black ink on moderately thick, smooth, cream wove paper
- Dimensions:
- Sheet: 13 1/2 x 10 3/8 inches (34.3 x 26.4 cm), Plate: 8 7/8 x 6 3/8 inches (22.5 x 16.2 cm)
- Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Lettered upper right: "3"; inside image: "SHEEP | GOATS | To the Public | After my three years slumber on the banks of the Ocean, I again display my Giant forms to the Public: My former Giants & Fairies having receiv'd the highest reward possible, the ... and ... of those with whom to be connected, is to be ... : I cannot doubt that this more consolidated & extended Work, will be as kindly recieved - The Enthusiasm of the following Poem, the Author hopes : | I also hope the Reader will be with me, wholly One in Jesus our Lord, who is the God and Lord to whom the Ancients look'd and saw his day afar off, with trembling & amazement. | The Spirit of Jesus is continual forgiveness of Sin: he who waits to be righteous before he enters into the Saviour's kingdom, the Divine Body: will never enter there. I am perhaps the most sinful of men! I pretend not to holiness : yet I pretend to love, to see, to converse with daily, as man with man, & the more to have an interest in the Friend of Sinners. Therefore . . . Reader, . . . what you do not approve, & me for this energetic exertion of my talent. | Reader! . . . of books! . . . of heaven. And of that God from whom ... Who in mysterious Sinai's awful cave, To Man the wondrous art of writing gave. Again he speaks in thunder and in fire! Thunder of Thought, & flames of fierce desire: Even from the depths of Hell his voice I hear. Within the unfathom'd caverns of my Ear. Therefore I print; nor vain my types shall be: Heaven, Earth & Hell, henceforth shall live in harmony. | Of the Measure, in which the following Poem is written We who dwell on Earth can do nothing of ourselves, every thing is conducted by Spirits, no less than Digestion or Sleep. When this Verse was first dictated to me I consider'd a Monotonous Cadence like that used by Milton & Shakspeare & all writers of English Blank Verse, derived from the modern bondage of Rhyming, to be a necessary and indispensable part of Verse. But I soon found that in the mouth of a true Orator such monotony was not only awkward, but as much a bondage as rhyme itself. I therefore have produced a variety in every line, both of cadences & number of syllables. Every word and every letter is studied and put into its fit place; the terrific numbers are reserved for the terrific parts, the mild & gentle, for the mild & gentle parts, and the prosaic, for inferior parts, all are necessary to each other. Poetry Fetter'd, Fetters the Human Race. Nations are Destroy'd, or Flourish, in proportion as Their Poetry, Painting and Music, are Destroy'd, or Flourish! The Primeval State of Man was Wisdom. Art. and Science. "
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1992.8.1(3)
- Classification:
- Prints
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Subject Terms:
- clouds | literary theme | nudes | religious and mythological subject | sky | text | wings | women
- Access:
- Accessible in the Study Room [Request]
- Link:
- https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:3459
- Export:
- XML
- IIIF Manifest:
- JSON
William Blake (Tate Britain, 2000-11-02 - 2001-02-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
The Human Form Divine - William Blake from the Paul Mellon Collection (Yale Center for British Art, 1997-04-02 - 1997-07-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]