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Home  »  Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse  »  Divine Epigrams

Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.

By William Blake (1757–1827)

Divine Epigrams

 
I
A TEAR is an intellectual thing,
  And a sigh is the sword of an angel king,
And the bitter groan of a martyr’s woe
  Is an arrow from the Almighty’s bow.
 
II
I was angry with my friend:
        5
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
 
III
Mutual forgiveness of each vice
Such are the gates of paradise.        10
 
IV
The door of death is made of gold
That mortal eyes can not behold;
But when the mortal eyes are closed,
And cold and pale the limbs reposed,
The soul awakes, and wondering sees        15
In her mild hand the golden keys.