A Little Girl Lost. Songs of Experience. William Blake. 1908. The Poetical Works

William Blake (1757–1827). The Poetical Works. 1908.

Songs of Experience

A Little Girl Lost


Children of the future age,
Reading this indignant page,
Know that in a former time,
Love, sweet Love, was thought a crime!

In the Age of Gold,	5
Free from winter’s cold,
Youth and maiden bright
To the holy light,
Naked in the sunny beams delight.

Once a youthful pair,	10
Fill’d with softest care,
Met in garden bright
Where the holy light
Had just remov’d the curtains of the night.

There, in rising day,	15
On the grass they play;
Parents were afar,
Strangers came not near,
And the maiden soon forgot her fear.

Tired with kisses sweet,	20
They agree to meet
When the silent sleep
Waves o’er heaven’s deep,
And the weary tired wanderers weep.

To her father white	25
Came the maiden bright;
But his loving look,
Like the holy book,
All her tender limbs with terror shook.

‘Ona! pale and weak!	30
To thy father speak:
O! the trembling fear.
O! the dismal care,
That shakes the blossoms of my hoary hair!’