Accompanies no. 8 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 Wandring Moon (1949.4:8, cataloged separately). Lines 1-10 are quoted from Milton's "Il Penseroso," lines 67-76.
Transcription: "8 To behold the wandring Moon / Riding near her highest Noon / Like one that has been led astray / Thro the heaving wide pathless way / And oft as if her head she bowd / Stooping thro' a fleecy Cloud / Oft on a plat of rising ground / I hear the far off Curfew Sound / Over Some wide waterd Shore / Swinging slow with Sullen roar / Milton in his Character of a Student / at Cambridge. Sees the Moon terrified / as one led astray in the midst of her / path thro heaven. The distant Steeple / Seen across a wide water indicates / the Sound of the Curfew Bell"