- Title:
- 'As if the sun could envy, check'd his beam' (Page 49)
- Part Of:
- Date:
- 1797
- Materials & Techniques:
- Etching, line engraving, and letterpress, with hand coloring in watercolor on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper
- Dimensions:
- Spine: 17 1/2 inches (44.5 cm), Sheet: 16 3/4 x 12 3/4 inches (42.5 x 32.4 cm), Plate: 16 1/8 x 12 5/8 inches (41 x 32.1 cm)
- Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Lettered on facing page: "48 | It call'd her tender soul by break of bliss, | From the first blossom, from the buds of joy-- | Those few our noxious fate unblasted leaves | In this inclement clime of human life. | Sweet harmonist! and beautiful as sweet-- | And young as beautiful--and soft as young-- | And gay as soft--and innocent as gay-- | And happy, if aught happy here, as good! | For fortune fond had built her nest on high. | Like birds quite exquisite of note and plume, | Transfix'd by fate who loves a lofty mark, | How from the summit of the grove she fell | And left it inharmonious! all its charm | Extinguish'd in the wonders of her song! | Her song still vibrates in my ravish'd ear | Still melting there, and with voluptuous pain | O to forget her! thrilling through my heart! | Song, beauty, youth, love, virtue, joy! this group | Of bright ideas, flowers of paradise | As yet unforfeit! in one blaze we bind, | Kneel, and present it to the skies as all | We guess of heaven: and these were all her own, | And she was mine; and I was--was!--most blest-- | Gay title of the deepest misery! | As bodies grow more pond'rous robb'd of life; | Good lost weighs more in grief, than gain'd in joy: | Like blossom'd trees o'erturn'd by vernal storm, | Lovely in death the beauteous ruin lay; | And if in death still lovely, lovelier there | Far lovelier! pity swells the tide of love."
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1992.8.10(25)
- Classification:
- Prints
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Subject Terms:
- clouds | flower (plant) | flowers (plants) | horse (animal) | literary theme | man | men | nude | nudes | plant | religious and mythological subject | sun | sunset | text | vine | woman | women
- 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:3554
- Export:
- XML
- IIIF Manifest:
- JSON
YCBA Collections Search
Print made by William Blake, 1757–1827, British, 'As if the sun could envy, check'd his beam' (Page 49), 1797
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