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)
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:
chairs | table | children | mother | women | men | vines | trees | food | text | literary theme | drinking | branches | leaf | sitting | sunset | dinner
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
William Blake and the Age of Aquarius (Block Museum of Art, 2017-09-23 - 2018-03-11)Caribbean - Crossroads of the World (El Museo del Barrio, 2012-06-12 - 2013-01-06)