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Creator:
Print made by William Blake, 1757–1827
Title:
Laughing Song (Plate 28)
Additional Title(s):
Verso: The Little Black Boy (Plate 29)
Part Of:

Collective Title: Songs of Innocence, Copy G

Date:
1789
Materials & Techniques:
Relief etching printed in brown ink, with watercolor and pen and 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 1/4 x 2 5/8 inches (10.8 x 6.7 cm), Plate: 4 3/8 x 2 5/8 inches (11.1 x 6.7 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Lettered inside image: "Laughing Song, | When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy, | And the dimpling stream runs laughing by, | When the air does laugh with our merry wit, | And the green hill laughs with the noise of it. | When the meadows laugh with lively green | And the grasshopper laughs in the merry scene, | When Mary and Susan and Emily. | With their sweet round mouths sang Ha, Ha, He, | When the painted birds laugh in the shade | Where our table with cherries and nuts is spread | Come live & be merry and join with me, | To sing the sweet chorus of Ha, Ha, He."; Lettered on verso, inside image: "The Little Black Boy | My mother bore me in the southern wild, | And I am black, but O! my soul is white. | White as an angel is the English child: | But I am black as if bereav'd of light. | My mother taught me underneath a tree | And sitting down before the heat of day | She took me on her lap and kissed me, | And pointing to the east began to say. | Look on the rising sun! there God does live | And gives his light, and gives his heat away. | And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive | Comfort in morning joy in the noon day. | And we are put on earth a little space. | That we may learn to bear the beams of love. | And these black bodies and this sun-burnt face | Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove. | For"

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1992.8.12(16)
Classification:
Prints
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
branches | chairs | children | dinner | drinking | food | leaf | literary theme | men | mother | sitting | sunset | table | text | trees | vines | 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:3715
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IIIF Manifest:
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