- Title:
- "To him the mighty mother did unveil Her awful face..." (Design 49)
- Additional Title(s):
Verso: "Dryden... Bright-eyed Fancy, hov'ring o'er..." (Design 50)
The Progress of Poesy- Part Of:
- Date:
- between 1797 and 1798
- Materials & Techniques:
- Watercolor with pen and black ink over 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 gray ink upper right: "9"; in graphite center: "x"; on verso in black ink upper left: "10"; in graphite center: "x"
Lettered on inlaid page: "A PINDARIC ODE. 89 | III. 1. | Far from the sun and summer gale, | In thy green lap has Nature’s darling laid, | What time, where lucid Avon stray’d, | To him the mighty mother did unveil | Her awful face: the dauntless child | Stretch’d forth his little arms, and smil’d. | This pencil take (she said) whose colours clear | Richly paint the vernal year: | Thine too these golden keys, immortal boy! | This can unlock the gates of Joy; | Of Horror that, and thrilling Fears, | Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic Tears. | III. 2. | Nor second he, that rode sublime | Upon the seraph-wings of Ecstasy, | The secrets of th’ abyss to spy. | He pass’d the flaming bounds of Place and Time: | The"; Lettered on verso, on inlaid page: "90 THE PROGRESS OF POESY. | The living throne, the sapphire blaze, | Where angels tremble, while they gaze, | He saw; but, blasted with excess of light, | Clos’d his eyes in endless night. | Behold, where Dryden’s less presumptuous car, | Wide o’er the fields of glory bear | Two coursers of ethereal race, | With necks in thunder cloth’d, and long- | resounding pace. | III. 3. | Hark, his hands the lyre explore! | Bright-eyed Fancy, hov’ring o’er, | Scatters from her pictur’d urn | Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn. | But ah! ‘tis heard no more-- | Oh! Lyre divine, what daring spirit | Wakes thee now? tho’ he inherit | Nor"
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1992.8.11(25)
- Classification:
- Drawings & Watercolors
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Subject Terms:
- child | children | fairies | flames | girl | infant | key | keys | literary theme | lyre | men | meteorology | mother | nude | rainbow | religious and mythological subject | science | shawl | shawls | snakes | text | vase | vessel | water | 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:3638
- Export:
- XML
- IIIF Manifest:
- JSON
Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]
Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (The State Hermitage Museum, 2007-10-23 - 2008-01-13) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]
Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2007-07-11 - 2007-09-30) [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]
Yale Center for British Art, Great British watercolors : from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2007, pp. 72-75, nos. 30 A & B, ND1928 .Y35 2007 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]