- Title:
- A Cradle Song (Plate 26)
- Additional Title(s):
- Verso: A Cradle Song (Plate 27)
- Part Of:
Collective Title: Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Copy F
- Date:
- 1789
- Materials & Techniques:
- Relief etching printed in green ink, with hand coloring in watercolor on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper
- Dimensions:
- Sheet: 7 1/4 x 4 3/4 inches (18.4 x 12.1 cm), Plate: 4 1/2 x 2 7/8 inches (11.4 x 7.3 cm), Plate: 4 1/2 x 2 3/4 inches (11.4 x 7 cm)
- Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscribed in graphite, upper center: "15"
Lettered inside image: "A CRADLE SONG | Sweet dreams form a shade. | O'er my lovely infants head. | Sweet dreams of pleasant streams, | By happy silent moony beams | Sweet sleep with soft down. | Weave thy brows an infant crown. | Sweet sleep Angel mild, | Hover o'er my happy child. | Sweet smiles in the night, | Hover over my delight. | Sweet smiles Mothers smiles | All the livelong night beguiles. | Sweet moans, dovelike sighs. | Chase not slumber from thy eyes. | Sweet moans, sweeter smiles. | All the dovelike moans beguiles. | Sleep sleep happy child. | All creation slept and smil'd. | Sleep sleep. happy sleep. | While o'er thee thy mother weep | Sweet babe in thy face. | Holy image I can trace. | Sweet babe once like thee. | Thy maker lay and wept for me | Wept"; Lettered on verso, inside image: "Wept for me for thee for all. | When he was an infant small. | Thou his image ever see. | Heavenly face that smiles on thee. | Smiles on thee on me on all. | Who became an infant small, | Infant smiles are his own smiles. | Heaven & earth to peace beguiles"
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1978.43.1560
- Classification:
- Prints
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Subject Terms:
- baby | branches | chair | children | cradle | crib | drapes | historical subject | infant | leaf | mother | sleeping | text | vegetation | vines | woman | women
- Access:
- Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details. - Link:
- https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:2505
- Export:
- XML
- IIIF Manifest:
- JSON
William Blake - His Art & Times (Art Gallery of Ontario, 1982-12-03 - 1983-02-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
William Blake - His Art & Times (Yale Center for British Art, 1982-09-15 - 1982-11-14) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]