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Home  »  The English Poets  »  Extracts from Songs of Innocence: Night

Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. III. The Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake

William Blake (1757–1827)

Extracts from Songs of Innocence: Night

THE SUN descending in the west,

The evening star does shine;

The birds are silent in their nest,

And I must seek for mine.

The moon, like a flower

In heaven’s high bower,

With silent delight

Sits and smiles on the night.

Farewell, green fields and happy grove,

Where flocks have ta’en delight;

Where lambs have nibbled, silent move

The feet of angels bright:

Unseen they pour blessing,

And joy without ceasing,

On each bud and blossom,

On each sleeping bosom.

They look in every thoughtless nest,

Where birds are covered warm;

They visit caves of every beast,

To keep them all from harm.

If they see any weeping

That should have been sleeping,

They pour sleep on their head,

And sit down by their bed.

When wolves and tigers howl for prey

They pitying stand and weep,

Seeking to drive their thirst away,

And keep them from the sheep.

But if they rush dreadful

The angels most heedful

Receive each mild spirit

New worlds to inherit.

And there the lion’s ruddy eyes

Shall flow with tears of gold:

And pitying the tender cries,

And walking round the fold,

Saying: ‘Wrath by His meekness,

And by His health sickness,

Are driven away

From our immortal day.

And now beside thee, bleating lamb,

I can lie down and sleep,

Or think on Him who bore thy name,

Graze after thee, and weep.

For, washed in life’s river,

My bright mane for ever

Shall shine like the gold

As I guard o’er the fold.’