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: expressive
actions: postures and motions
adults
baby
bed
bedroom
bending forward
Blake, William, ‘Songs of Innocence and of Experience’, 1789
children
comforting
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 born into a dangerous world, despite the trappings of comfort and prosperity around his bed.</p><p>Even in his first natural state of naked helplessness, the child conceals what adults 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, May 2003</em></p>
paper print relief etching
18 November 2002 – 23 March 2003
2003-03-23
18 November 2002 – 23 March 2003
2003-03-23
2002-11-18
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-11-18
Paul Nash: The Englishness of Surrealism
Collection based display
24 March 2003 – 17 November 2003
2003-11-17
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-03-24
Blake and Illustration
Collection based display
20 April 2015 – 7 May 2017
2017-05-07
20 April 2015 – 7 May 2017
2017-05-07
2015-04-20
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2015-04-20
William Blake
Collection based display
‘Songs of Innocence and of Experience’: ‘Infant Sorrow’
image: 112 × 97 mm
Presented by Mrs John Richmond 1922
<div>
    This poem is a contrast to Infant      Joy from Songs of      Innocence. The child is born into  a dangerous      world, despite the trappings  of comfort and      prosperity around his bed.  </div>
<div>
<br/> </div>
<div>
    Even in his first natural state of naked helplessness, the child conceals what adults 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.  </div>

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2003-05-07T00:00:00
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-a00036" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A00036</span></a> [from] <b><i>Songs of Innocence and of Experience</i>: Miscellaneous Pages</b> 1789 and 1794/1831 or later [<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>-<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>A00036</span> <b><i>Songs of Innocence and of Experience:</i> ‘Infant Sorrow’ (second copy)</b> 1794/1831 or later
<br/>
<br/>A 00036/-
<br/>Relief etching, printed in grey 112×97 (4 5/8×3 13/16) on paper 241×202 (9 5/8×8)</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin, <i>William Blake 1757-1827</i>, Tate Gallery Collections, V, London 1990
<br/>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions adults baby bed bedroom bending forward Blake, William, ‘Songs of Innocence and of Experience’, 1789 children comforting 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