Night-Thoughts

Night-Thoughts is a famous long poem written by the English poet Edward Young. It was published in nine parts, called "nights," between the years 1742 and 1745. The poem was also beautifully illustrated with engravings by William Blake.

In his poem, Young shares his deep thoughts about life, death, and what happens after we pass away. He writes about missing his wife and friends and talks about how weak and imperfect humans can be. One well-known line from the poem reminds readers how quickly life can pass by and how important it is to use our time wisely.

Each part of the poem is dedicated to a different important person from Young’s time, including leaders and nobles like Arthur Onslow, Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington, and Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland, among others.

Style and content

The poem is written in blank verse. It shares the poet's thoughts about death during nine "nights". In these parts, he thinks about losing his wife and friends and talks about human weaknesses. One famous line from the poem says, "procrastination is the thief of time", showing how quickly life and chances can disappear.

For many years, Night-Thoughts was very well liked. It is most famous today for the illustrations made by William Blake in 1797. Another artist, Thomas Stothard, also made pictures for it in 1799.

Each of the nine nights is its own poem. They are: "Life, Death, and Immortality" (dedicated to Arthur Onslow); "Time, Death, Friendship" (dedicated to Spencer Compton); "Narcissa" (dedicated to Margaret Bentinck); "The Christian Triumph" (dedicated to Philip Yorke); "The Relapse" (dedicated to George Lee); "The Infidel Reclaim'd" (in two parts; dedicated to Henry Pelham); "Virtue's Apology; or, The Man of the World Answered" (with no dedication); and "The Consolation" (dedicated to Thomas Pelham-Holles).

In his book Life of Samuel Johnson, James Boswell called Night-Thoughts "the grandest and richest poetry that human genius has ever produced".

Blake's illustrations of 1795–1797

William Blake was asked in 1795 to create artwork for a new version of the poem Night-Thoughts for a big book by Richard Edwards. Blake started by painting 537 pictures and planned to turn about 200 of them into printed pictures for the book. The first part of the book, with forty-three of Blake’s printed pictures, came out in 1797. But it didn’t sell well, and the expensive project was stopped.

Because only a few of Blake’s printed pictures were made, people didn’t fully understand how important this work was for a long time. In 1980, Oxford University Press started a big project to study Blake’s work on these pictures, but only two books of this project were finished. In 2005, the Folio Society published all 537 of Blake’s pictures together in full color for the first time, along with explanations by Robyn Hamlyn.