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Creator:
Print made by William Blake, 1757–1827
Title:
Nurse's Song (Plate 22)
Additional Title(s):
Verso: Holy Thursday (Plate 23)
Part Of:

Collective Title: Songs of Innocence, Copy G

Date:
1789
Materials & Techniques:
Relief etching printed in brown ink, with watercolor and pen and black ink on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 7 1/2 x 5 3/8 inches (19.1 x 13.7 cm), Plate: 4 5/8 x 3 1/8 inches (11.7 x 7.9 cm), Plate: 4 1/2 x 3 1/8 inches (11.4 x 7.9 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Lettered inside image: "Nurse's Song | When the voices of children are heard on the green | And laughing is heard on the hill, | My heart is at rest within my breast | And everything else is still | Then come home my children the sun is gone down | And the dews of night arise | Come come leave off play, and let us away | Till the morning appears in the skies | No no let us play, for it is yet day | And we cannot go to sleep | Besides in the sky, the little birds fly | And the hills are all coverd with sheep | Well well go & play till the light fades away | And then go home to bed | The little ones leaped & shouted & laugh'd | And all the hills ecchoed"; Lettered on verso, inside image: "HOLY THURSDAY | Twas on a Holy Thursday their innocent faces clean | The children walking two & two in red & blue & green | Grey headed beadles walkd before with wands as white as snow | Till into the high dome of Pauls they like Thames waters flow | O what a multitude they seemd these flowers of London town | Seated in companies they sit, with radiance all their own | The hum of multitudes was there but multitudes of lambs | Thousands of little boys & girls raising their innocent hands | Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song | Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among | Beneath them sit the aged men wise guardians of the poor | Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door"

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1992.8.12(13)
Classification:
Prints
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
branches | children | comb | fruit | grapes | leaf | literary theme | men | mother | pairs | procession | text | trees | vegetation | vines | vineyard | walking | 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:3709
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