Songs of Innocence: Frontispiece

William Blake

[1789] printed ca. 1825 · Relief etching printed in orange-brown ink and hand-colored with watercolor and shell gold · Drawings and Prints

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.

Artist

William Blake

Date

[1789] printed ca. 1825

Medium

Relief etching printed in orange-brown ink and hand-colored with watercolor and shell gold

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1917