Relief etching on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/william-blake-39" aria-label="More by William Blake" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">William Blake</a>
Songs Innocence and Experience Infant Sorrow
Presented by Mrs John Richmond 1922
actions: postures and motions
adults
baby
bed
bedroom
bending forward
Blake, William, ‘Songs of Innocence and of Experience’, 1789
children
cradle
curtain
domestic
family
furnishings
inscriptions
interiors
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
mother and child
objects
people
poem
printed text
society
symbols and personifications
woman
<p>This poem is a contrast to 'Infant Joy' from 'Songs of Innocence'. The child is a person. Accompanied by pain and tears he is born into a dangerous world, though the trappings of comfort and prosperity around his bed belie this. Even in his first natural state of naked helplessness the child conceals what parents and others would regard as an evil spirit ('fiend'). The pressures of conformity ('my swaddling bands') will release this spirit in 'struggling' and 'striving against'. The act of sulking on his mother's breast suggests only a brief respite before the 'fiend' (properly, the child's true individuality) finally asserts itself in adulthood.</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 1994</em></p>
paper print relief etching
1 April 2006 – 16 April 2007
2007-04-16
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-04-01
Blake in the 1940s
Collection based display
13 May 2013 – 6 April 2015
2015-04-06
13 May 2013 – 6 April 2015
2015-04-06
2013-05-13
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2013-05-13
William Blake
Collection based display
Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Infant Sorrow
image: 112 × 70 mm
support: 244 × 202 mm
Presented by Mrs John Richmond 1922
<p>This poem is a contrast to 'Infant Joy' from 'Songs of Innocence'. The child is a person. Accompanied by pain and tears he is born into a dangerous world, though the trappings of comfort and prosperity around his bed belie this. Even in his first natural state of naked helplessness the child conceals what parents and others would regard as an evil spirit ('fiend'). The pressures of conformity ('my swaddling bands') will release this spirit in 'struggling' and 'striving against'. The act of sulking on his mother's breast suggests only a brief respite before the 'fiend' (properly, the child's true individuality) finally asserts itself in adulthood.</p>
Display caption
1994-07-14T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-songs-of-innocence-and-of-experience-infant-sorrow-a00035" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A00035</span></a> [from] <b><i>Songs of Innocence and of Experience</i>: Miscellaneous Pages</b> 1789 and 1794/1831 or later [<span>A00035</span>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-songs-of-innocence-title-page-a00039" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A00039</span></a>; complete]
<br/>
<br/><span>A00035</span>- A00039/ -</p>
<p>5 relief etchings, printed in grey
<br/>Presented by Mrs John Richmond 1922
<br/>PROVENANCE ?Mrs Blake; Frederick Tatham; his brother-in-law George Richmond, sold Christie's 29 April 1897 (in 147 with 22 other works; see no.2) £2.10.0 bt Dr Richard Sisley; his daughter Mrs John Richmond
<br/>LITERATURE Keynes <i>Bibliography</i> 1921, pp.114–28; Erdman <i>Illuminated Blake</i> 1974, pp.41–97, book repr.; Bentley <i>Blake Books</i> 1977, pp.364–432 no.139 (Tate works pp.371, 430); Bindman <i>Graphic Works</i>
1978, pp.468–9 nos.40–70, 474 nos.214–69, two books repr.
<br/></p>
<p>Blake published his <i>Songs of Innocence</i> on their own in 1789. In his prospectus <i>To the Public</i> of 10 October 1793 he advertised both <i>Songs of Innocence</i> and, as a separate item, <i>Songs of Experience</i>; however the separate title-page for <i>Songs of Experience</i> is dated 1794 (Keynes <i>Writings</i> 1957, p.208). Most though not all of the existing copies of <i>Songs of Experience</i> are bound up with <i>Songs of Innocence</i> with a joint titlepage reading <i>Songs of Innocence and of Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul</i>; this is undated. In some of these joint copies certain poems originally included in <i>Songs of Innocence</i> are moved to <i>Songs of Experience</i>. Even within the two sets, the order of the poems was frequently altered.
<br/>
<br/><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-songs-of-innocence-and-of-experience-spring-a00037" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A00037</span></a> is watermarked ‘1831’ and, as all these pages show the same palish grey inking and type of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a>, all were presumably printed after Blake's death in 1827, probably by Frederick Tatham from the plates that Mrs Blake would have brought with her when she went to stay with him in September 1828, though not necessarily before her death on 18 October 1831.
<br/>
<br/>These works were formerly inventoried as nos.3694 vii, viii, vi, v, va and iv respectively.
<br/>
<br/><span>A00035</span> <b><i>Songs of Innocence and of Experience:</i> ‘Infant Sorrow’</b> 1794/1831 or later
<br/>
<br/>A 00035 /-
<br/>Relief etching, printed in grey 112×97 (4 1/4×3 1/8) on paper 245×201 (9 7/8×7 1/4)
<br/>Watermarked ‘JW[HATMAN]’.
<br/>
<br/>This poem, one of those added in 1794, normally occurs as page 40 in the combined
<br/><i>Songs of Innocence and of Experience</i>.</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin, <i>William Blake 1757-1827</i>, Tate Gallery Collections, V, London 1990
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults baby bed bedroom bending forward Blake, William, ‘Songs of Innocence and of Experience’, 1789 children cradle curtain domestic family furnishings inscriptions interiors literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) mother and child objects people poem printed text society symbols and personifications woman