ca.1784 1789
Nurse's Song
When the voices of children are heard on the green And laughing is heard on the hill, My heart is at rest within my breast And everything else is still.
5 "Then come home my children, the sun is gone down And the dews of night arise; Come, come, leave off play, and let us away Till the morning appears in the skies."
"No, no, let us play, for it is yet day 10 And we cannot go to sleep;
1. In the Anglican Church the Thursday celebrat-2. Lower church officers, one of whose duties is ing the ascension of Jesus (thirty-nine days after to keep order. Easter). It was the custom on this day to march the 3. Cf. Hebrews 13.2: "Be not forgetful to entertain poor (frequently orphaned) children from the strangers: for thereby some have entertained charity schools of London to a service at St. Paul's angels unawares." Cathedral.
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INTRODUCTIO N / 8 7 Besides, in the sky, the little birds fly And the hills are all coverd with sheep." "Well, well, go & play till the light fades away And then go home to bed." 15 The little ones leaped & shouted & laugh'd And all the hills ecchoed. ca. 1784 1789
Infant Joy
"I have no name, I am but two days old." What shall I call thee? "I happy am,
5 Joy is my name." Sweet joy befall thee!
Pretty joy! Sweet joy but two days old, Sweet joy I call thee;
10 Thou dost smile, I sing the while� Sweet joy befall thee.
1789
FROM SONGS OF EXPERIENCE
Introduction
Hear the voice of the Bard! Who Present, Past, & Future sees; Whose ears have heard The Holy Word
5 That walk'd among the ancient trees;1
Calling the lapsed Soul2 And weeping in the evening dew, That might controll3 The starry pole,
io And fallen, fallen light renew!
1. Genesis 3.8: "And [Adam and Eve] heard the "the Bard" or "the Holy Word" who calls to the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the fallen ("lapsed") soul and to the fallen earth to stop cool of the day." The Bard, or poet-prophet, whose the natural cycle of light and darkness. imagination is not bound by time, has heard the 3. The likely syntax is that "Soul" is the subject of voice of the Lord in Eden. "might controll." 2. The syntax leaves it ambiguous whether it is
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88 / WILLIAM BLAKE
PERIENCL Pr/nW V fib I Separate title page for Songs of Experience (1794)
"O Earth, O Earth, return! Arise from out the dewy grass; Night is worn, And the morn 15 Rises from the slumberous mass. 20"Turn away no more; Why wilt thou turn away? The starry floor The watry shore4 Is giv'n thee till the break of day." 1794
Earth's Answer1
Earth rais'd up her head, From the darkness dread & drear.
4. In Blake's recurrent symbolism the starry sky 1. The Earth explains why she, the natural world, ("floor") signifies rigid rational order, and the sea cannot by her unaided endeavors renew the fallen signifies chaos. light.
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TH E CLO D & TH E PEBBL E / 8 9 5Her light fled: Stony dread! And her locks cover'd with grey despair. 10"Prison'd on watry shore Starry Jealousy does keep my den, Cold and hoar Weeping o'er I hear the Father of the ancient men.2
"Selfish father of men, Cruel, jealous, selfish fear! Can delight Chain'd in night
15 The virgins of youth and morning bear?
"Does spring hide its joy When buds and blossoms grow? Does the sower Sow by night,
20 Or the plowman in darkness plow?
"Break this heavy chain That does freeze my bones around; Selfish! vain! Eternal bane!
25 That free Love with bondage bound."
1794
The Clod & the Pebble
"Love seeketh not Itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care; But for another gives its ease, And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair."
5 So sang a little Clod of Clay, Trodden with the cattle's feet; But a Pebble of the brook, Warbled out these metres meet:
"Love seeketh only Self to please,
10 To bind another to its delight; Joys in another's loss of ease, And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite."
2. This is the character that Blake later named imposes a moral bondage on sexual desire and "Urizen" in his prophetic works. He is the tyrant other modes of human energy. who binds the mind to the natural world and also
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90 / WILLIAM BLAKE
Holy Thursday
Is this a holy thing to see, In a rich and fruitful land, Babes reduced to misery, Fed with cold and usurous hand?
5 Is that trembling cry a song? Can it be a song of joy? And so many children poor? It is a land of poverty!
And their sun does never shine,
10 And their fields are bleak & bare, And their ways are fill'd with thorns; It is eternal winter there.
For where-e'er the sun does shine, And where-e'er the rain does fall, 15 Babe can never hunger there, Nor poverty the mind appall.
1794
The Chimney Sweeper
A little black thing among the snow Crying " 'weep, weep," in notes of woe! "Where are thy father & mother? say?" "They are both gone up to the church to pray.
5 "Because I was happy upon the heath, And smil'd among the winter's snow; They clothed me in the clothes of death, And taught me to sing the notes of woe.
"And because I am happy, & dance & sing,
IO They think they have done me no injury, And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King, Who make up a heaven of our misery."
1790-92 1794
Nurse's Song
When the voices of children are heard on the green And whisperings are in the dale, The days of my youth rise fresh in my mind, My face turns green and pale.
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T H E F L Y / 9 1 5 Then come home my children, the sun is gone down And the dews of night arise; Your spring & your day are wasted in play, And your winter and night in disguise. 1794 The Sick Rose O Rose, thou art sick. The invisible worm That flies in the night In the howling storm 5 Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy, And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy. 1794 The Fly Little Fly Thy summer's play My thoughtless hand Has brush'd away 5 Am not I A fly like thee? Or art not thou A man like me? 10For I dance And drink & sing, Till some blind hand Shall brush my wing. 15If thought is life And strength & breath, And the want Of thought is death; 20Then am I A happy fly, If I live, Or if I die. 179 4
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92 / WILLIAM BLAKE
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