San Antonio College Library

Spine title: Songs of innocence and of experience. Contains critical essays in chronological order of publication.

Reproduces the texts and the fifty-four hand-colored etchings of Blake's famous and now much sought-after double volume of lyrics. Here is a beautifully illustrated edition of Blake's classic poems. The text of each poem is given in letterpress on the page facing the color plate, and a brief commentary by Sir Geoffrey Keynes on each poem follows. It is printed on paper especially manufactured to match the tint of that used by Blake.

The first section of this book follows Blake out of the family haberdashery shop, where his parents tacitly and unwittingly shaped his future as a poet; then into (and out of) the custody of Basire, Moser, and the Medway militia. The book then turns back to the days of Samuel Pepys for the crowning of King Mob, and for the formulation of systems of social control, particularly directed at the young. Gardner traces the exploitation of children (both...