To see a world in a grain of sand, | |
And a heaven in a wild flower, | |
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, | |
And eternity in an hour. | |
A robin redbreast in a cage | 5 |
Puts all heaven in a rage. | |
A dove-house fill’d with doves and pigeons | |
Shudders hell thro’ all its regions. | |
A dog starv’d at his master’s gate | |
Predicts the ruin of the state. | 10 |
A horse misused upon the road | |
Calls to heaven for human blood. | |
Each outcry of the hunted hare | |
A fibre from the brain does tear. | |
A skylark wounded in the wing, | 15 |
A cherubim does cease to sing. | |
The game-cock clipt and arm’d for fight | |
Does the rising sun affright. | |
Every wolf’s and lion’s howl | |
Raises from hell a human soul. | 20 |
The wild deer, wand’ring here and there, | |
Keeps the human soul from care. | |
The lamb misus’d breeds public strife, | |
And yet forgives the butcher’s knife. | |
The bat that flits at close of eve | 25 |
Has left the brain that won’t believe. | |
The owl that calls upon the night | |
Speaks the unbeliever’s fright. | |
He who shall hurt the little wren | |
Shall never be belov’d by men. | 30 |
He who the ox to wrath has mov’d | |
Shall never be by woman lov’d. | |
The wanton boy that kills the fly | |
Shall feel the spider’s enmity. | |
He who torments the chafer’s sprite | 35 |
Weaves a bower in endless night. | |
The caterpillar on the leaf | |
Repeats to thee thy mother’s grief. | |
Kill not the moth nor butterfly, | |
For the last judgment draweth nigh. | 40 |
He who shall train the horse to war | |
Shall never pass the polar bar. | |
The beggar’s dog and widow’s cat, | |
Feed them and thou wilt grow fat. | |
The gnat that sings his summer’s song | 45 |
Poison gets from slander’s tongue. | |
The poison of the snake and newt | |
Is the sweat of envy’s foot. | |
The poison of the honey bee | |
Is the artist’s jealousy. | 50 |
The prince’s robes and beggar’s rags | |
Are toadstools on the miser’s bags. | |
A truth that’s told with bad intent | |
Beats all the lies you can invent. | |
It is right it should be so; | 55 |
Man was made for joy and woe; | |
And when this we rightly know, | |
Thro’ the world we safely go. | |
Joy and woe are woven fine, | |
A clothing for the soul divine. | 60 |
Under every grief and pine | |
Runs a joy with silken twine. | |
The babe is more than swaddling bands; | |
Throughout all these human lands | |
Tools were made, and born were hands, | 65 |
Every farmer understands. | |
Every tear from every eye | |
Becomes a babe in eternity; | |
This is caught by females bright, | |
And return’d to its own delight. | 70 |
The bleat, the bark, bellow, and roar, | |
Are waves that beat on heaven’s shore. | |
The babe that weeps the rod beneath | |
Writes revenge in realms of death. | |
The beggar’s rags, fluttering in air, | 75 |
Does to rags the heavens tear. | |
The soldier, arm’d with sword and gun, | |
Palsied strikes the summer’s sun. | |
The poor man’s farthing is worth more | |
Than all the gold on Afric’s shore. | 80 |
One mite wrung from the lab’rer’s hands | |
Shall buy and sell the miser’s lands; | |
Or, if protected from on high, | |
Does that whole nation sell and buy. | |
He who mocks the infant’s faith | 85 |
Shall be mock’d in age and death. | |
He who shall teach the child to doubt | |
The rotting grave shall ne’er get out. | |
He who respects the infant’s faith | |
Triumphs over hell and death. | 90 |
The child’s toys and the old man’s reasons | |
Are the fruits of the two seasons. | |
The questioner, who sits so sly, | |
Shall never know how to reply. | |
He who replies to words of doubt | 95 |
Doth put the light of knowledge out. | |
The strongest poison ever known | |
Came from Caesar’s laurel crown. | |
Nought can deform the human race | |
Like to the armour’s iron brace. | 100 |
When gold and gems adorn the plow, | |
To peaceful arts shall envy bow. | |
A riddle, or the cricket’s cry, | |
Is to doubt a fit reply. | |
The emmet’s inch and eagle’s mile | 105 |
Make lame philosophy to smile. | |
He who doubts from what he sees | |
Will ne’er believe, do what you please. | |
If the sun and moon should doubt, | |
They’d immediately go out. | 110 |
To be in a passion you good may do, | |
But no good if a passion is in you. | |
The whore and gambler, by the state | |
Licensed, build that nation’s fate. | |
The harlot’s cry from street to street | 115 |
Shall weave old England’s winding-sheet. | |
The winner’s shout, the loser’s curse, | |
Dance before dead England’s hearse. | |
Every night and every morn | |
Some to misery are born, | 120 |
Every morn and every night | |
Some are born to sweet delight. | |
Some are born to sweet delight, | |
Some are born to endless night. | |
We are led to believe a lie | 125 |
When we see not thro’ the eye, | |
Which was born in a night to perish in a night, | |
When the soul slept in beams of light. | |
God appears, and God is light, | |
To those poor souls who dwell in night; | 130 |
But does a human form display | |
To those who dwell in realms of day. |
Thursday, August 25, 2011
A little Blake today
This poem has been on my mind all day--who better to share it with then all of you?
Labels:
divination,
poetry
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment