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Creator:
William Blake, 1757–1827
Text by Thomas Gray, 1716–1771
Title:
"And purple tyrants vainly groan..." (Design 37)
Additional Title(s):

Verso: "Stern rugged nurse!..." Virtue Nurs'd in the Lap of Adversity (Design 38)

Ode to Adversity
Part Of:

Collective Title: The Poems of Thomas Gray

Date:
between 1797 and 1798
Materials & Techniques:
Watercolor with pen and black ink and graphite on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper with inlaid letterpress page
Dimensions:
Sheet: 16 1/2 x 12 3/4 inches (41.9 x 32.4 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Inscribed in gray ink upper right: "3"; in graphite center: "x"; on verso in black ink upper left: "4"; in graphite upper center; "+"

Lettered on inlaid page: "ODE | To | ADVERSITY. | DAUGHTER of Jove, relentless power, | Thou tamer of the human breast, | Whose iron scourge, and tort'ring hour, | The bad affright, afflict the best! | Bound in thy adamantine chain, | The proud are taught to taste of pain, | And purple tyrants vainly groan | With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone. | F2 When"; Lettered on verso, on inlaid page: "78 ODE TO ADVERSITY. | When first thy Sire to send on earth | Virtue, his darling child, design'd, | To thee he gave the heavenly birth, | And bade to form her infant mind. | Stern rugged nurse! thy rigid lore | With patience many a year she bore: | What sorrow was, thou bad'st her know, | And from her own she learn'd to melt at others | woe. | Scar'd at thy frown terrific, fly | Self-pleasing Folly's idle brood, | Wild Laughter, Noise, and thoughtless Joy, | And leave us leisure to be good, | Light they disperse; and with them go | The summer-friend, the flatt'ring foe; | By vain Prosperity receiv'd, | To her they vow their truth, and are again | believ'd. | Wisdom"

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1992.8.11(19)
Classification:
Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
book | boy | cell | chains | compass | correctional institution | crowns (costume components) | jail | king (person) | literary theme | man | men | moustache | nudes | pen | prison | robe | shackles | stones | tears | text | wall | women | writing (processes)
Access:
Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:3625
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Captive Bodies: British Prisons, 1750-1900 (Yale Center for British Art, 2018-08-27 - 2018-12-17) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Colin Cross, Blake revealed, William Blake : Discovery of a Masterwork , Observer, vol. 12, November 21, 1971, pp. 19-23, V 1245 Detached from Observer colour magazine [ORBIS]

Arnold Fawcus, Unknown Watercolours by William Blake, Illustrated London News, vol. 259, No. 6881, December 25, 1971, pp. 45-46, 49-51, Illustrated London News Historical Archive [ORBIS]


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