Print made by William Blake, 1757–1827, BritishHand colored by William Blake, 1757–1827, BritishText by Edward Young, 1683–1765, BritishPublished by Richard Edwards, active 1796–1797, British
Title:
'This King of Terrors is the Prince of Peace' (Page 63)
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)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Lettered on facing page: "62 | With wreath triumphant: death is victory; | It binds in chains the raging ills of life: | Lust and ambition, wrath and avarice, | Dragg'd at his chariot-wheel, applaud his power. | That ills corrosive, cares importunate | Are not immortal too, O death! is thine. | Our day of dissolution!--name it right | 'Tis our great pay-day, 'tis our harvest rich | And ripe: what though the sickle, sometimes keen, | Just scars us as we reap the golden grain; | More than thy balm, O Gilead! heals the wound. | Birth's feeble cry, and death's deep dismal groan | Are slender tributes low-tax'd nature pays | For mighty gain: the gain of each, a life! | But O! the last former so transcends, | Life dies compared! life lives beyond the grave. | And feel I, death! no joy from thought of thee? | Death, the great counsellor, who man inspires | With nobler thought, and fairer deed! | Death, the deliverer, who rescues man! | Death, the rewarder, who the rescued crowns! | Death, that absolves my birth, a curse without it! | Rich death, that realizes all my cares, | Toils, virtues, hopes;--without it a chimera! | Death, of all pain the period, not of joy; | Joy's source and subject still subsist unhurt, | One in my soul, and one in her great sire; | Though the four winds were warring for my dust: | Yes, and from winds, and waves, and central night, | Though prison'd there, my dust too I reclaim,"
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1992.8.10(29)
Classification:
Prints
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
paper | beard | man | literary theme | scroll (information artifact) | religious and mythological subject | text