Swelld limbs with no outline that you can descry

by William Blake

Blake manuscript - Notebook 1808 - 47-49 Swelld limbs... etc.

Edited text:^[1]

[On the school of Rubens]

SWELLED limbs, with no outline that you can descry,
That stink in the nose of a stander-by;
But all the pulp-wash’d, painted, finish’d with labour,
Of an hundred journeymen’s—how-d’ye do neighbour?

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The original text:^[2]

 
* * *

Swelld limbs with no outline that you can descry
That Stink in the Nose of a Stander by
But all the Pulp washd painted finishd with labour
Of an hundred journeymens how dye do Neighbour

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Notes

1. The Poetical Works of William Blake, including the unpublished French Revolution together with the Minor Prophetic Books and Selections from The Four Zoas, Milton & Jerusalem; edited with an introduction and textual notes by John Sampson, Hon. D.Litt. Oxon., 1862–1931. London, New York: Oxford University Press, 1908.
2. "The Complete Poetry & Prose of William Blake", ed. by David V. Erdman, Anchor Books, 1988, p. 513.