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Creator:
Print made by William Blake, 1757–1827
Title:
Spring (Plate 26)
Additional Title(s):
Verso: The School Boy (Plate 27)
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 1/8 x 3 inches (10.5 x 7.6 cm), Plate: 4 3/8 x 2 3/4 inches (11.1 x 7 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Lettered inside image: "Little Girl | Sweet and small | Cock does crow | So do you. | Merry voice | Infant noise | Merrily Merrily to welcome in the Year | Little Lamb | Here I am. | Come and lick | My white neck. | Let me pull | Your soft Wool. | Let me kiss | Your soft face. | Merrily Merrily we welcome in the Year"; Lettered on verso, inside image: "The School Boy | I love to rise in a summer morn, | When the birds sing on every tree; | The distant huntsman winds his horn, | And the sky-lark sings with me. | O! what sweet company. | But to go to school in a summer morn, | O! it drives all joy away; | Under a cruel eye outworn. | The little ones spend the day. | In sighing and dismay. | Ah! then at times I drooping sit. | And spend many an anxious hour. | Nor in my book can I take delight, | Nor sit in learnings bower, | Worn thro' with the dreary shower. | How can the bird that is born for joy | Sit in a cage and sing. | How can a child when fears annoy. | But droop his tender wing. | And forget his youthful spring. | O! father & mother, if buds are nip'd, | And blossoms blown away. | And if the tender plants are strip'd | Of their joy in the springing day, | By sorrow and cares dismay. | How shall the summer arise in joy. | Or the summer fruits appear. | Or how shall we gather what griefs des (troy | Or bless the mellowing year. | When the blasts of winter appear."

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1992.8.12(15)
Classification:
Prints
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
angels | branches | calf (animal) | child | children | grass | kneeling | lamb | leaf | literary theme | nude | religious and mythological subject | sheep | text | trees | vegetation | vines | wings
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:3713
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