"In this poem, Blake portrays the concepts of the return to innocence from experience."
This resonated with my very soul when I read the poem and the meaning behind it.
Something I never expected when I became an artist, is the journey. There have been so many hills and valleys, so much learning, and unlearning. And at every moment of revelation, I am always hope to find myself back to the innocence of beginning as an artist.
This painting represents that dream to innocence, but I didn't know it at the time. It felt like a new adventure as I was painting it, just like when I picked up my first brush.
A Dream
by William Blake
Once a dream did weave a shade
O'er my Angel-guarded bed,
That an Emmet lost its way
Where on grass methought I lay.
Troubled, wildered, and forlorn,
Dark, benighted, travel-worn,
Over many a tangle spray,
All heart-broke, I heard her say:
"Oh my children! do they cry,
Do they hear their father sigh?
Now they look abroad to see,
Now return and weep for me."
Pitying, I dropped a tear;
But I saw a glow-worm near,
Who replied, "What wailing wight
Calls the watchman of the night?
"I am set to light the ground,
While the beetle goes his round:
Follow now the beetle's hum;
Little wanderer, hie thee home."
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