The Little Vagabond
Dear Mother, dear Mother, the Church is cold, But the Ale-house is healthy & pleasant & warm: Besides I can tell where I am use’d well, Such usage in heaven will never do well.
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (excerpt)
In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy. Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead. The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. Prudence is
The Two Songs
I heard an Angel Singing When the day was springing: “Mercy, pity, and peace, Are the world’s release.” So he sang all day Over the new-mown hay, Till the sun went down, And the
The Book of Urizen: Chapter VIII
1. Urizen explor’d his dens Mountain, moor, & wilderness, With a globe of fire lighting his journey A fearful journey, annoy’d By cruel enormities: forms Of life on his forsaken mountains 2. And his
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
The Argument. Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burdend air; Hungry clouds swag on the deep Once meek, and in a perilous path, The just man kept his course along The vale
If It Is True What the Prophets Write
If it is true, what the Prophets write, That the heathen gods are all stocks and stones, Shall we, for the sake of being polite, Feed them with the juice of our marrow-bones? And
To Nobodaddy
Why art thou silent & invisible Father of jealousy Why dost thou hide thyself in clouds From every searching Eye Why darkness & obscurity In all thy words & laws That none dare eat
The Book of Urizen (excerpts)
CHAPTER 1 Lo, a shadow of horror is risen In Eternity! Unknown, unprolific, Self-clos’d, all-repelling: what demon Hath form’d this abominable void, This soul-shudd’ring vacuum? Some said “It is Urizen.” But unknown, abstracted, Brooding,
The Song of Los
AFRICA I will sing you a song of Los. the Eternal Prophet: He sung it to four harps at the tables of Eternity. In heart-formed Africa. Urizen faded! Ariston shudderd! And thus the Song
My Spectre Around Me
My spectre around me night and day Like a wild beast guards my way. My emanation far within Weeps incessantly for my sin. A fathomless and boundless deep, There we wander, there we weep;
The Book of Urizen: Chapter II
1. Earth was not: nor globes of attraction The will of the Immortal expanded Or contracted his all flexible senses. Death was not, but eternal life sprung 2. The sound of a trumpet the
The French Revolution (excerpt)
Thee the ancientest peer, Duke of Burgundy, rose from the monarch’s right hand, red as wines From his mountains; an odor of war, like a ripe vineyard, rose from his garments, And the chamber
Spring
Sound the Flute! Now it’s mute. Birds delight Day and Night Nightingale In the dale Lark in Sky Merrily Merrily Merrily to welcome in the Year Little Boy Full of joy, Little Girl Sweet
Blind Man's Buff
When silver snow decks Susan’s clothes, And jewel hangs at th’ shepherd’s nose, The blushing bank is all my care, With hearth so red, and walls so fair; ‘Heap the sea-coal, come, heap it
The Shepherd
How sweet is the Shepherd’s sweet lot, From the morn to the evening he strays: He shall follow his sheep all the day And his tongue shall be filled with praise. For he hears