- Title:
- "With screaming Horror's funeral cry, Despair, and fell Disease, and ghastly Poverty..." Design 39)
- Additional Title(s):
Verso: "Oh, gently on thy suppliant's head, Dread Goddess, lay thy chast'ning hand!..." (Design 40)
Ode to Adversity- Part Of:
- Date:
- between 1797 and 1798
- Materials & Techniques:
- Watercolor with pen and black ink and graphite on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper with inlaid letterpress page
- Dimensions:
- Sheet: 16 1/2 x 12 3/4 inches (41.9 x 32.4 cm)
- Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscribed in black ink upper right: "5"; in graphite center: "x"; on verso in black ink upper left: "6"; in graphite upper center: "+"
Lettered on inlaid page: "ODE TO ADVERSITY. 79 | Wisdom is sable garb array'd, | Immerse'd in rapt'rous thought profound, | And Melancholy, silent maid | With leaden eye, that loves the ground, | Still, on thy solemn steps attend: | Warm Charity, the general friend, | With Justice to herself severe, | And Pity, dropping soft the sadly-pleasing tear. | Oh, gently on thy suppliant's head, | Dread Goddess, lay thy chast'ning hand! | Not in thy Gorgon terrors clad, | Nor circled with the vengeful band | (As by the impious thou art seen) | With thund'ring voice, and threat'ning mien, | With screaming Horror's funeral cry, | Despair, and fell Disease, and ghastly Poverty. | F3 Thy"; Lettered on verso, on inlaid page: "80 ODE TO ADVERSITY. | Thy form benign, oh Goddess, wear, | Thy milder influence impart, | Thy philosophic train be there | To soften, not to wound my heart. | The gen'rous spark extinct revive, | Teach me to love, and to forgive, | Exact my own defects to scan, | What other are to feel; and know myself a | man. | THE"
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1992.8.11(20)
- Classification:
- Drawings & Watercolors
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Subject Terms:
- cave | daggers | fire | flames | knives | literary theme | pointing | religious and mythological subject | serpents | shawl | shawls | shroud | snakes | text | whips | witch | 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:3627
- 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]
Colin Cross, Blake revealed, William Blake : Discovery of a Masterwork , Observer, vol. 12, November 21, 1971, pp. 19-23, V 1245 Detached from Observer colour magazine [ORBIS]
Arnold Fawcus, Unknown Watercolours by William Blake, Illustrated London News, vol. 259, No. 6881, December 25, 1971, pp. 45-46, 49-51, Illustrated London News Historical Archive [ORBIS]