Songs of Experience: Nurses Song 1794 - 1825

William Blake created "Nurses Song," sometime around 1794, using etching and watercolor. The work is a delicate composition, framed by a vine motif, with soft watercolor washes that lend an ethereal quality. The central figures – a nurse and two children – are rendered with fluid lines and gentle hues. Blake’s use of color, particularly the juxtaposition of the nurse’s pink gown against the children’s pale green and lavender garments, evokes a sense of both tenderness and melancholy. The vine frames the image, suggesting the cyclical nature of life and experience. The figures are stylized, and the lines defining their forms, while elegant, lack strict realism. This abstraction is typical of Blake, who aimed to convey emotional and spiritual truths rather than depict literal reality. Blake destabilizes traditional modes of representation. "Nurses Song" becomes a symbolic tableau exploring themes of innocence, experience, and the passage of time. The soft watercolor washes and stylized figures work together to create a dreamlike atmosphere that invites contemplation on the complex interplay between joy and sorrow, freedom and constraint.