Songs Of Innocence: Introduction

William Blake 1757 (Soho) – 1827 (London)



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 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 pluck'd 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.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 11, 2023

37 sec read
259

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB XCDC XCDC EXEX DCXC
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 561
Words 123
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

William Blake

William Blake was an English poet, painter and printmaker. more…

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