Description of the design for Blake's drawing, The Youthful Poet's Dream, and quotation from Milton's L'Allegro : autograph manuscript : [England], [ca. 1816-1820].

Accompanies no. 6 of 12 watercolor designs for Milton's early poems L'Allegro and Il Penseroso that contrast the cheerful man with the melancholic, thoughtful one. Blake created them on commission for Thomas Butts about 1816-1820. The two series were separated in 1903 and were not reunited until 1949, when they were acquired by the Library. Each of the watercolors in this series is accompanied by Blake's transcription of the relevant portion of the poem as well as his notes on his design.
16 lines of text written in ink on the recto of a sheet of laid paper accompanying the watercolor, The Youthful Poet's Dream (1949.4:6, cataloged separately). Lines 1-9 are quoted from Milton's "L'Allegro," lines 125-26, 128-34.
Transcription: "6 There let Hymen oft appear / In Saffron Robe with Taper clear / With Mask & antique Pageantry / Such Sights as youthful Poets dream / On Summers Eve by haunted Stream / Then to the well trod Stage anon / If Johnsons learned Sock be on / Or Sweetest Shakespeare Fancys Child / Warble his native wood notes wild / The youthful Poet sleeping on a bank / by the Haunted Stream by Sun Set / sees in his dream the more bright Sun / of Sun of Imagination. under the auspices / of Shakespeare & Johnson. in which is / Hymen at a Marriage & the Antique / Pageantry attending it"