- Title:
- 'Swift on his downy pinion flies from woe' (Page 1)
- Part Of:
- Date:
- 1797
- Materials & Techniques:
- Etching, line engraving, and letterpress, with hand coloring in watercolor on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper
- Dimensions:
- Spine: 17 1/2 inches (44.5 cm), Sheet: 16 3/4 x 13 inches (42.5 x 33 cm), Plate: 15 5/8 x 12 3/8 inches (39.7 x 31.4 cm)
- Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Lettered inside image: "1 | NIGHT THE FIRST | TIRED nature's sweet restorer, balmy Sleep! | He, like the world, his ready visit pays | Where fortune smiles; the wretched he forsakes: | *Swift on his downy pinion flies from woe, | And lights on lids unsullied with a tear. | From short, as usual, and disturb'd repose, | I wake: how happy they, who wake no more! | Yet they were vain, if dreams infest the grave. | I wake, emerging from a sea of dreams | Tumultuous; where my wreck'd, desponding thought | From wave to wave of fancied misery, | At random drove, her helm of reason lost: | Though now restored, 'tis only change of pain, | A bitter change! severer for severe: | The day too short for my distress! and night, | Even in the zenith of her dark domain, | Is sunshine, to the colour of my fate."; lower left: "Pubd. June 27th 1796, by R. Edwards, No. 142 New Bond Street."
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1992.8.10(2)
- Classification:
- Prints
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Subject Terms:
- angel | blanket | clouds | grass | literary theme | night | nudes | religious and mythological subject | sheep | shroud | sleeping | stars | text | vine | wings
- 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:3548
- Export:
- XML
- IIIF Manifest:
- JSON
The Human Form Divine - William Blake from the Paul Mellon Collection (Yale Center for British Art, 1997-04-02 - 1997-07-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]