| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | X. The Pity of It
The Land of Dreams | | By William Blake (1757–1827) |
| | | AWAKE, awake, my little boy! | |
| Thou wast thy mother’s only joy; | |
| Why dost thou weep in thy gentle sleep? | |
| Awake! thy father does thee keep. | |
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| ‘O, what land is the Land of Dreams, | 5 |
| What are its mountains, and what are its streams? | |
| O father! I saw my mother there, | |
| Among the lilies by waters fair. | |
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| ‘Among the lambs, clothèd in white, | |
| She walked with her Thomas in sweet delight. | 10 |
| I wept for joy, like a dove I mourn; | |
| O! when shall I again return?’ | |
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| Dear child, I also by pleasant streams | |
| Have wander’d all night in the Land of Dreams; | |
| But tho’ calm and warm the waters wide, | 15 |
| I could not get to the other side. | |
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| ‘Father, O father! what do we here | |
| In this land of unbelief and fear? | |
| The Land of Dreams is better far, | |
| Above the light of the morning star.’ | 20 | | | |
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