The Project Gutenberg eBook of Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience,
by William Blake

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Title: Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience

Author: William Blake

Release Date: December 25, 2008 [eBook #1934]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND SONGS OF
EXPERIENCE***

Transcribed from the 1901 R. Brimley Johnson edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

SONGS OF INNOCENCE and SONGS OF EXPERIENCE

BY WILLIAM BLAKE

london: r. brimley johnson.
guildford: a. c. curtis.

mdcccci.

SONGS OF INNOCENCE
	Page
Introduction	1
The Shepherd	3
The Echoing Green	4
The Lamb	6
The Little Black Boy	7
The Blossom	9
The Chimney-Sweeper	10
The Little Boy Lost	12
The Little Boy Pound	13
Laughing Song	14
A Cradle Song	15
The Divine Image	17
Holy Thursday	19
Night	20
Spring	23
Nurse’s Song	25
Infant Joy	26
A Dream	27
On Another’s Sorrow	29
SONGS OF EXPERIENCE
Introduction	33
Earth’s Answer	35
The Clod and the Pebble	37
Holy Thursday	38
The Little Girl Lost	39
The Little Girl Found	42
The Chimney-Sweeper	45
Nurse’s Song	46
The Sick Rose	47
The Fly	48
The Angel	50
The Tiger	51
My Pretty Rose-Tree	53
Ah, Sunflower	54
The Lily	55
The Garden of Love	56
The Little Vagabond	57
London	58
The Human Abstract	59
Infant Sorrow	61
A Poison Tree	62
A Little Boy Lost	63
A Little Girl Lost	65
A Divine Image	67
A Cradle Song	68
The Schoolboy	69
To Tirzah	71
The Voice of the Ancient Bard	72

page 1SONGS OF INNOCENCE

INTRODUCTION

Piping down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me:

‘Pipe a song about a Lamb!’
So I piped with merry cheer.
‘Piper, pipe that song again.’
So I piped: he wept to hear.

‘Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;
Sing thy songs of happy cheer!’
So I sung the same again,
While he wept with joy to hear.

‘Piper, sit thee down and write
In a book, that all may read.’
So he vanished from my sight;
And I plucked a hollow reed,

And I made a rural pen,
And I stained the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear.

Songs of Innocence, and Songs of Experience

SONGS OF INNOCENCE and SONGS OF EXPERIENCE

SONGS OF INNOCENCE

SONGS OF EXPERIENCE

page 1SONGS OF INNOCENCE

INTRODUCTION