Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul

'Songs of Innocence and of Experience' is a collection of illustrated poems. They appeared in two phases, a few first copies were printed and illuminated by Blake himself in 1789, five years later, he bound these poems with a set of new poems in a volume titled 'Songs of Innocence and of Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul'. This is a new popular facsimile edition, inspired by the William Blake Trust, published in 1967. Some edge wear and slight chipping to top and bottom of largely brick red jacket and spine, corners rubbed and slightly bruised, spine slightly browned, some slight overall time staining, not price clipped (84s), small previous owner's bookplate to bottom ffep, internally clean tight and square, overall a vg+ copy for its age, unpaginated. Romantic poet and artist William Blake (1757-1827), juxtaposes the innocent world of childhood with the corrupt and repressed one of adults. Many of the poems are in pairs enabling the reader to see the same situation first from the perspective of innocence and then from that of experience. With colour facsimile plates of Blake's original illustrations. Quite a scarce book.…