Songs of Experience: Facsimile Reproduction with 26 Plates in Full Color

by William Blake and BLAKE (William)

Book Overview

One of Blake's most inspired creations, "The Tyger" mingles the lyric and mystical in an exquisite union. Now you can experience the beauty of this and other poems the way Blake intended them -- with his own hand-colored illustrations giving them visual form.
This facsimile edition of one of Blake's celebrated "Illuminated Books" reproduces a collection of calligraphed poems, each enclosed in a masterful full-color illustration. Twenty-six plates...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486246361
• ISBN13: 9780486246369
• Release Date: July 1984
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 48 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.3" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

The Poems as Blake Would Have Wanted Them

William Blake is one of the most original and influential English poets - so eccentric and ground-breaking that even his biggest fans considered him insane long after his death. The poems in Songs of Innocence are one of his most popular and lasting achievements, essential for anyone even remotely interested in poetry and a good place for those new to Blake and poetry generally to start. This edition is particularly valuable in that, unlike nearly all others, it presents the poems as Blake intended. It is important to realize that he was as much a visual as a literary artist and in fact issued the poems in "Illuminated Books" where they were written on color plates with various pictorial representations. He did not consider the poems standalone works, and the visual element is indeed important. Pictures often underline or reinforce the words but sometimes seem to give a contrary impression; only a few are apparently incidental. Whether or not one likes visual art and regardless of how one thinks the poems work in themselves, they do play off visual elements in complicated and interesting ways. Needless to say, because the plates are expensive and difficult to reproduce, nearly all collections have only the poems - a concept that would have appalled Blake if he could have even conceived it. The poems are of course more than good enough to stand alone, but we must remember that Blake never meant them to do so. This volume reproduces the plates in a manner as close as realistically possible to his intent; this is not one of Dover's Thrift Editions but a very high quality production with vivid colors and strong binding. In short, it is absolutely essential for the dedicated and a pleasant surprise for casuals. It also usefully reprints the poems alone for reading ease. Anyone wanting only the poems can easily find such a volume, but this edition's bonuses and incredible value make it well worth buying even for general readers. Also, for reasons I will make clear, the companion volume Songs of Experience is a necessary counterpart. 1789's Songs of Innocence celebrated innocence as variously reflected in childhood, showing infants' and children's relatively pure mental and physical states before adult corruption. Many of its poems are first person from a child's perspective, and most of the rest describe a child's point of view; others speak to or about them. Blake used appropriately simple vocabulary and form; lines are short, rhymes obvious, and imagery very pared down. Indeed, at first glance, the poems seem puerile. However, a closer look shows they are anything but; despite - or perhaps even to a certain degree because of - this, they have a wealth of significance. They are in fact at least as complex as most far longer works; extremely thought-provoking and often morally ambiguous, they raise a host of important questions. These apparently simple poems address a wide range of theological and ontological queries. They also deal with more practica

From humility, genius.

Dover has done the reading world an enormous favor by keeping books like this available in low-cost editions. Poems like "The Little Black Boy," The Chimney Sweeper," and "The Lamb" are among the sweetest, saddest lyrics ever penned by a poet in English. Reading these poems in an edition that provides facsimile color reproductions of the original watercolor plates (painted individually by hand) helps in our perception of them. These poems were meant to be absorbed visually. Branches, vines and leaves weave through the lines as we read. Of course children can appreciate the sentiment and charm of the poems, but older readers will see their sharp social criticism as well, especially when balanced against matching poems in Blake's "Songs of Experience." This book has my favorite pastoral lyics in the language. It is a permanent contribution to the spirit of humankind.

Thank God for Dover editions!

Finally, a crisp, clean reproduction of Songs of Innocense and Songs of Experience for all the Blake fans with high school incomes! These books are small--the size of the originals, easy to manage (although a magnifying glass may come in handy for some of the finer figures like the man in the "I" of Innocense!). They consist of reproductions of the original plates and normal typeset lyrics for each poem in the back.While the facsimiles for Innocense are taken from an earlier copy and are fairly pale, with limited coloring, those for Experience are bold and vivid. It's nice to have both books simply to compare, in the poems that Blake moved to Experience, how his style evolved. This reproduction of "A Poison Tree" is my favorite of any I've seen.At this price, these two books are a Blakey's dream come true.