- -Commentary by Stuart Curran, Vartan Gregorian Professor of English and Comparative Literature
at the University of Pennsylvania
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Special, side-by-side comparison of plates from the 1794 and 1826 copies
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William Blake began life as a professional engraver, copying
the designs of other artists for prints. He set up on his own and married,
but it was possibly his younger brother Robert’s death in 1787 that turned
him from ordinary work to give visual form to his own compositions. “In
sketching designs, engraving plates, writing songs, and composing music,
he employed his time, with his wife sitting at his side, encouraging him in all his undertakings. As he
drew the figure he meditated the song that was to accompany it, and the
music to which the verse was to be sung, was the offspring of the same
moment.” So a contemporary recalled Blake’s visionary process, the sole
witnesses of which are his plates, engraved in relief with text and illustration
combined and colored by hand.
Songs of Innocence was first completed in 1789 and enlarged as Songs of Innocence and of Experience in 1794. These are now some of the most famous lyrics in the English language. From the introduction, “Piping down the valleys wild,” to “The Ecchoing Green,” “The Chimney Sweeper,” and “The Tyger,” there is hardly one that does not stir conscious or unconscious memories. The pictures, head- and tailpieces, vignettes and line-fillers that provide the visual accompaniment to the songs, are an integral part of each composition. The least line has a meaning and purpose, augmenting text and picture alike; only the tunes are lost, though other composers since have set many of them to music. They remain, light but deeply serious, simple but capable of endless reinterpretation, the most vivid and approachable of all Blake’s visions.
The original books imaged for this digital edition:
Copy C: 7 1/16 x 4 7/8 inches (180 x 124 mm)
Copy Z: 8 1/2 x 5 1/8 inches (216 x 130 mm)
Songs of Innocence was first completed in 1789 and enlarged as Songs of Innocence and of Experience in 1794. These are now some of the most famous lyrics in the English language. From the introduction, “Piping down the valleys wild,” to “The Ecchoing Green,” “The Chimney Sweeper,” and “The Tyger,” there is hardly one that does not stir conscious or unconscious memories. The pictures, head- and tailpieces, vignettes and line-fillers that provide the visual accompaniment to the songs, are an integral part of each composition. The least line has a meaning and purpose, augmenting text and picture alike; only the tunes are lost, though other composers since have set many of them to music. They remain, light but deeply serious, simple but capable of endless reinterpretation, the most vivid and approachable of all Blake’s visions.
The original books imaged for this digital edition:
Copy C: 7 1/16 x 4 7/8 inches (180 x 124 mm)
Copy Z: 8 1/2 x 5 1/8 inches (216 x 130 mm)
Personalized Production
Wholly in charge of his own production, from etching and inking his copperplates to hand-coloring the pages, Blake did not have to subscribe to the terms of production or the kinds of schedules we normally associate with a publishing house. His works could be produced individually or in small multiples over a period of decades, at times in response to specific commissions. Necessity probably dictated the method that Blake came to use. Unable to afford a commercial etching press and even at times hard put to undertake the expense of the essential copperplates, Blake developed a method that was fundamentally the opposite of customary etching, allowing him, using a varnish resistant to acid, to transfer his texts onto a heated copperplate from a specially coated paper, then add his designs and, after printing onto paper, superimpose coloring. This innovation required great skill but it also allowed Blake extraordinary flexibility in rendering his final product.
Wholly in charge of his own production, from etching and inking his copperplates to hand-coloring the pages, Blake did not have to subscribe to the terms of production or the kinds of schedules we normally associate with a publishing house. His works could be produced individually or in small multiples over a period of decades, at times in response to specific commissions. Necessity probably dictated the method that Blake came to use. Unable to afford a commercial etching press and even at times hard put to undertake the expense of the essential copperplates, Blake developed a method that was fundamentally the opposite of customary etching, allowing him, using a varnish resistant to acid, to transfer his texts onto a heated copperplate from a specially coated paper, then add his designs and, after printing onto paper, superimpose coloring. This innovation required great skill but it also allowed Blake extraordinary flexibility in rendering his final product.
Slippery Sequence
Readers have occasionally attempted to derive a linear narrative thread through the Songs of Innocence and of Experience, but Blake’s inconsistent arrangement of the plates in various copies ultimately frustrates any such endeavor. There are thirty-four distinct plate orders of the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Innocence and of Experience. In a manuscript dating after 1818, which is reproduced in this edition, Blake specifies an order for the combined Songs, but there is only one copy that actually subscribes to it (Copy V [1821], Morgan Library); later editors have generally disregarded this sequence. In this Octavo edition we resuscitate it as a useful means for structuring a comparison of the plates of Copy C and Copy Z, which are quite differently arranged. With the combined Songs, as with all of Blake’s illuminated works, readers must realize that no two copies are exactly alike, and that each was intended to be a radically distinct work of art.
Readers have occasionally attempted to derive a linear narrative thread through the Songs of Innocence and of Experience, but Blake’s inconsistent arrangement of the plates in various copies ultimately frustrates any such endeavor. There are thirty-four distinct plate orders of the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Innocence and of Experience. In a manuscript dating after 1818, which is reproduced in this edition, Blake specifies an order for the combined Songs, but there is only one copy that actually subscribes to it (Copy V [1821], Morgan Library); later editors have generally disregarded this sequence. In this Octavo edition we resuscitate it as a useful means for structuring a comparison of the plates of Copy C and Copy Z, which are quite differently arranged. With the combined Songs, as with all of Blake’s illuminated works, readers must realize that no two copies are exactly alike, and that each was intended to be a radically distinct work of art.
Conspicuous Coloring
Copy C of the Songs of Innocence and of Experience is, as the letter suggests, designated as one of the early renderings (though the paper lacks confirming watermarks). Its delicate pastel shadings emphasize the firm delineation of the designs underlying the coloring and effect a balance between design and poem, with neither given precedence over the other. Blake carefully composed the plates in Copy C so as never to intrude color onto the text and thus obscure its sense. Copy Z, on the other hand, from a full generation later, reflects the vivid coloration of Blake’s last great project, the designs for Dante’s Divine Comedy, particularly those for the Inferno. By this point, critics assume, Blake felt that his works appealed to audiences mostly as visual artifacts and accordingly he invested much greater effort in their elaborate decoration, despite the fact that very coloration made some of the text difficult to read.
Copy C of the Songs of Innocence and of Experience is, as the letter suggests, designated as one of the early renderings (though the paper lacks confirming watermarks). Its delicate pastel shadings emphasize the firm delineation of the designs underlying the coloring and effect a balance between design and poem, with neither given precedence over the other. Blake carefully composed the plates in Copy C so as never to intrude color onto the text and thus obscure its sense. Copy Z, on the other hand, from a full generation later, reflects the vivid coloration of Blake’s last great project, the designs for Dante’s Divine Comedy, particularly those for the Inferno. By this point, critics assume, Blake felt that his works appealed to audiences mostly as visual artifacts and accordingly he invested much greater effort in their elaborate decoration, despite the fact that very coloration made some of the text difficult to read.
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