Introduction (Songs of Innocence)
Introduction (Songs of Innocence)
William Blake
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 chear.
"Piper, pipe that song again;"—
So I piped: he wept to hear.
"Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;
Sing thy songs of happy chear:"
So I sang 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 vanish'd from my sight,
And I pluck'd a hollow reed,
And I made a rural pen,
And I stain'd the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear.
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Songs of Innocence, 1789.
