- Title:
- "Brush'd by the hand of rough Mischance, Or chill'd by Age..." (Design 5)
- Additional Title(s):
Verso: Summer Flies Reproaching the Poet (Design 6)
Ode on the Spring- 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 gray ink upper right: "5"; in graphite center: "+"; on verso in gray ink upper left: "6"; in graphite center: "+"
Lettered on inlaid page: "ODE ON THE SPRING. 45 | And float amid the liquid noon: | Some lightly o'er the current skim, | Some shew their gaily-guilded trim | Quick-glancing to the sun. | To Contemplation's sober eye | Such is the race of man: | And they that creep, and they that fly, | Shall end where they began. | Alike the busy and the gay | But flutter thro' life's little day, | In Fortune's varying colours drest: | Brush'd by the hand of rough Mischance, | Or chill'd by Age, their airy dance | They leave in dust to rest. | Methinks I hear, in accents low, | The sportive kind reply; | Poor Moralist! and what are thou? | A solitary fly! | D2 Thy"; Lettered on verso, on inlaid page: "46 ODE ON THE SPRING. | Thy joys no glitt'ring female meets, | No hive hast thou of hoarded sweets, | No painted plumage to display: | On hasty wings thy youth is flown; | Thy sun is set, thy spring is gone-- | We frolic while 'tis May. | ODE"
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1992.8.11(3)
- Classification:
- Drawings & Watercolors
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Subject Terms:
- beard | book | fairies | kneeling | literary theme | man | men | nude | nudes | reading | religious and mythological subject | scroll (information artifact) | shroud | sitting | text | tree | trees | web | 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:3639
- Export:
- XML
- IIIF Manifest:
- JSON
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]