The Grave A Poem

The Grave: A Poem by Robert Blair. Illustrated by Twelve Etchings Executed by l.Schiavonetti from the original inventions of William Blake. The Grave is a blank verse poem by the Scottish poet Robert Blair. It is the work for which he is primarily renowned. According to Blair, in a letter he wrote to Dr. Dodderidge, the greater part of the poem was composed before he became a minister, Edinburgh editor and publisher John Johnstone stating that it was composed whilst he was still a student, although “probably corrected and amplified by his more matured judgement”. The poem, 767 lines long, is an exemplar of what became known as the school of graveyard poetry. Part of the poem’s continued prominence in scholarship involves a later printing of poems by Robert Hartley Cromek which included illustrations completed by the Romantic poet and illustrator William Blake. He completed forty illustrations for the poem, twenty of which were printed in Cromek’s edition. Blake’s original watercolours for the prints were believed lost, until they were rediscovered in 2003.