William Blake: the Creation of the Songs

The Songs of Innocence and Experience is William Blake's most accessible work. All the manuscript pages are reproduced here, and the details of Blake's composition are shown, as is his technique for etching text and design onto a single copperplate. Blake's development of a selective colour printing process, printing the design in opaque pigments over the original monochrome impression is explained. This technique was used in the production of The Songs of Experience, and contrasts with the first copies of The Songs of Innocence, which had hand-coloured transparent watercolours.