THE FOLIO SOCIETY
BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATED BOOKS
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
William Blake
Your price US$29.95
Introduced by Richard Holmes.
Bound in full buckram, blocked in gold with a design from Blake's title page.
Engraved plates, drawn and painted by William Blake.
Size: 6 ¼" x 4¼", 128 pages.
Visionary, artist, poet and craftsman, William Blake had a unique view of the world around him. At the age of eight he saw 'a tree filled with angels,' and his perception of beauty in a paradisiacal arcadia shines from every naïve watercolour line of his paintings. Addressed to children, his poems are still loved today - 'Little Lamb who made thee/ Dost thou know who made thee' ('Lamb').
Yet Blake was no mere pastoral piper. He was always aware of social injustice, poverty and corruption. His passionate concern produced darker images and poetry - 'I hear/ How the youthful Harlots curse/ Blasts the new-born Infants tear' ('London'). His genius was to use the language and imagery of childhood to explore a wholly adult concern - 'Two Contrary States of the Human Soul'. This exquisite little book is reproduced from the finest extant copy, printed and hand-coloured by Blake and kept in King's College, Cambridge.
'William Blake's insanity was worth more than the sanity of any number of artistic mediocrities'Gerald Abraham
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