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"The Tyger"
The Tyger1
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
5 In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
10 Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand? & what dread feet?
1. For the author's revisions while composing "The Tyger," see "Poems in Process," in the appendices to this volume.
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A H SUN-FLOWE R / 9 3 isWhat the hammer? what the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp? 20When the stars threw down their spears2 And water'd heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee? Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? 1790-92 1794
My Pretty Rose Tree
A flower was offerd to me; Such a flower as May never bore, But I said, "I've a Pretty Rose-tree," And I passed the sweet flower o'er.
5 Then I went to my Pretty Rose-tree, To tend her by day and by night. But my Rose turnd away with jealousy, And her thorns were my only delight.
1794
Ah Sun-flower
Ah Sun-flower! weary of time, Who countest the steps of the Sun, Seeking after that sweet golden clime Where the traveller's journey is done;
5 Where the Youth pined away with desire, And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow, Arise from their graves and aspire, Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.
2. "Threw down" is ambiguous and may signify that the stars either "surrendered" or "hurled down" their spears.
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94 / WILLIAM BLAKE
The Garden of Love
I went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen: A Chapel was built in the midst, Where I used to play on the green.
5 And the gates of this Chapel were shut, And "Thou shalt not" writ over the door; So I turn'd to the Garden of Love, That so many sweet flowers bore,
And I saw it was filled with graves,
10 And tomb-stones where flowers should be; And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds, And binding with briars my joys & desires.
1794
London I wander thro' each charter'd' street, Near where the charter'd Thames does flow, And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. 5 In every cry of every Man, In every Infant's cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban,2 The mind-forg'd manacles I hear: 10How the Chimney-sweeper's cry Every blackning Church appalls, And the hapless Soldier's sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls. 15But most thro' midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlot's curse Blasts the new-born Infant's tear,3 And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.4 1794
1. "Given liberty," but also, ironically, "preempted as private property, and rented out." 2. The various meanings of ban are relevant (political and legal prohibition, curse, public condemnation) as well as "banns" (marriage proclamation). 3. Most critics read this line as implying prenatal blindness, resulting from a parent's venereal disease (the "plagues" of line 16) by earlier infection from the harlot.
4. In the older sense: "converts the marriage bed into a bier." Or possibly, because the current sense of the word had also come into use in Blake's day, "converts the marriage coach into a funeral hearse."
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INFANT SORROW / 95
The Human Abstract1
Pity would be no more, If we did not make somebody Poor; And Mercy no more could be, If all were as happy as we;
5 And mutual fear brings peace, Till the selfish loves increase; Then Cruelty knits a snare, And spreads his baits with care.
He sits down with holy fears,
10 And waters the ground with tears; Then Humility takes its root Underneath his foot.
Soon spreads the dismal shade Of Mystery over his head; is And the Catterpiller and Fly Feed on the Mystery.
And it bears the fruit of Deceit, Ruddy and sweet to eat; And the Raven his nest has made
20 In its thickest shade.
The Gods of the earth and sea, Sought thro' Nature to find this Tree, But their search was all in vain: There grows one in the Human Brain.
1790-92 1794
Infant Sorrow
My mother groand! my father wept. Into the dangerous world I leapt, Helpless, naked, piping loud; Like a fiend hid in a cloud.
5 Struggling in my father's hands, Striving against my swadling bands; Bound and weary I thought best To sulk upon my mother's breast.
1794
1. The matched contrary to "The Divine Image" in represented as possible marks for exploitation, cru- Songs of Innocence. The virtues of the earlier elty, conflict, and hypocritical humility, poem, "Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love," are now
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96 / WILLIAM BLAKE
A Poison Tree
I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow.
5 And I waterd it in fears, Night & morning with my tears; And I sunned it with smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night,
10 Till it bore an apple bright. And my foe beheld it shine, And he knew that it was mine,
And into my garden stole, When the night had veild the pole; 15 In the morning glad I see My foe outstretchd beneath the tree.
1794
To Tirzah1 Whate'er is Born of Mortal Birth Must be consumed with the Earth To rise from Generation free; Then what have I to do with thee?2 5 The Sexes sprung from Shame & Pride, Blow'd0 in the morn, in evening died; But Mercy changd Death into Sleep; The Sexes rose to work & weep. blossomed 10Thou, Mother of my Mortal part, With cruelty didst mould my Heart, And with false self-deceiving tears Didst bind my Nostrils, Eyes, & Ears. 15Didst close my Tongue in senseless clay And me to Mortal Life betray. The Death of Jesus set me free; Then what have I to do with thee? ca. 1805
1. Tirzah was the capital of the northern kingdom as the mother�in the realm of material nature and of Israel and is conceived by Blake in opposition to "Generation"�of the mortal body, with its restric- Jerusalem, capital of the southern kingdom of tive senses. Judah, whose tribes had been redeemed from cap-2. Echoing the words of Christ to his mother at tivity. In this poem, which was added to late ver-the marriage in Cana, John 2.4: "Woman, what sions of Songs of Experience, Tirzah is represented have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come."