Songs of Innocence: Frontispiece
This frontispiece to Songs of Innocence illustrates Blake's "Introduction," a poem that casts the poet as a wandering piper inspired by the vision of a divine child:
Piping down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me
"Pipe a song about a Lamb!"
So I piped with merry cheer . . .
"Piper, sit thee down and write
In a book, that all may read."
So he vanished from my sight;
And I plucked a hollow reed,
And I made a rural pen,
And I stained the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear.
Piping down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me
"Pipe a song about a Lamb!"
So I piped with merry cheer . . .
"Piper, sit thee down and write
In a book, that all may read."
So he vanished from my sight;
And I plucked a hollow reed,
And I made a rural pen,
And I stained the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear.
Artwork Details
- Title: Songs of Innocence: Frontispiece
- Series/Portfolio: Songs of Innocence and Experience (copy Y), plate 2
- Artist: William Blake (British, London 1757–1827 London)
- Date: [1789] printed ca. 1825
- Medium: Relief etching printed in orange-brown ink and hand-colored with watercolor and shell gold
- Dimensions: sheet: 6 3/16 x 5 9/16 in. (15.7 x 14.1 cm)
- Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1917
- Object Number: 17.10.2
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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William Blake
1841–50
Multiple artists/makers
1885, facsimile of 1790
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1904
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1965
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March 1, 1813
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