This is an inexpensive reproduction of William Blake's SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE. I just shared a copy of A VISIT TO WILLIAM BLAKE'S INN by Nancy Willard and it occurred to me, that a copy of these poems and illuminations should go with it. So I'm ordering a copy to share with the bookcrossing recipient of the Willard book. These poems have been so important to me throughout my life. I can't imagine not loving and knowing them. One particular song haunted me through a young adult experience of terrible illness:

The Sick Rose
BY WILLIAM BLAKE
O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.

In those days, both my young lovely body and the man I thought I loved had betrayed me. Nothing else summed up that Experience so well.

Fortunately, Blake also offers plenty of light here to illuminate the darkness:

The Divine Image

To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
All pray in their distress;
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is God, our father dear,
And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is Man, his child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.

Then every man, of every dime
That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine,
Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.

And all must love the human form,
In heathen, turk, or jew;
Where Mercy, Love & Pity dwell
There God is dwelling too.

For nimrodiel, A book to read with A VISIT TO WILLIAM BLAKE'S INN.

Thanks so much! I plan on reading this before it gets released.

I didn't realize that this was a reproduction of Blakes original handprinted and painted book. I really loved seeing what the original artwork and prose looked like. I have recently been studying about how the English language evolved as the Modern English came into being and I loved seeing how words were spelled differently from current use.

There are some fantastic poems in this collection. However there were also a few that were hard to read because of how dark the original painted pages were, so I will be looking for translations elsewhere.

Left on the upper shelf of the Little Free Library