Paperblanks Wildflower Song

• Original Art: The Poems by William Blake
• Era: 1893
• Region: England

Inspired by an 1893 binding of The Poems by William Blake (1757–1827), our Wildflower Song cover design features delicate golden wildflowers stamped on a rich blue background. The original volume, crafted in Britain by the renowned bindery Zaehnsdorf, had endpapers made of pink floral silk. The botanical beauty of this binding exquisitely reflects the reverence for the natural world felt by poets of the Romantic era.

William Blake was an English poet, painter, engraver and visionary. Though in his lifetime his work went largely unrecognized, he is now considered one of the greatest artistic and literary geniuses of the 18th and 19th centuries. Growing up in London against a backdrop of the Industrial Revolution, Blake was surrounded by great social and political change. He was deeply affected by the city’s social ills, which profoundly influenced his works. He was particularly critical of institutions of power for their corruption and neglect of human rights and sought to bring about change in the social order. Blake explored themes of oppression, imagination, innocence and religion in his poetry and awe-inspiring illustrations. He produced a diverse and symbolically rich collection of works that had both philosophical, political and mystical undercurrents. As a poet who embraced the divine imagination, he used rich metaphors to convey his principles, often using nature and flowers as tools to communicate his thoughts. Blake believed that it is through nature that man can reach an awareness of his place in the universe.

Echoing the tune of Blake’s extraordinary imagination and affection for nature, this Wildflower Song design is sure to make your spirit sing.