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William Blake

1757-1827

1789 | William Blake, Auguries Innocence in Poems of William Blake, edited by William Yates (London & New York, 1893); Online at Google Books.

Auguries of Innocence

A Robin Redbreast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven in a Rage;

A dove-house filled with doves and pigeons
Shudders hell through all its regions.

A dog starved at his master's gate
Predicts the ruin of the state.

The game-cock clipt and armed for fight;
Does the rising sun affright;

A horse misused upon the road
Calls to heaven for human blood.

Every wolf's and lion's howl
Raises from hell a human soul;

Each outcry of the hunted Hare
A fibre from the brain does tear;

A skylark wounded in the wing;
Doth make a cherub cease to sing.

He who shall hurt the little wren
Shall never be beloved by men;

He who the ox to wrath has moved
Shall never be by woman loved;

He who shall train the horse to war
Shall never pass the Polar Bar.

The wanton boy that kills the fly
Shall feel the spider's enmity;

He who torments the chafer's sprite
Weaves a bower in endless night.

The caterpiller on the leaf
Repeats to thee thy mother's grief;

The wild deer, wandering here and there,
Keeps the human soul from care;

The lamb misus'd breeds public strife,
And yet forgives the butcher's knife;

Kill not the moth nor butterfly,
For the last judgment draweth nigh.

The beggar's dog and widow's cat,
Feed them & thou wilt grow fat.

Every tear from every eye
Becomes a babe in eternity;

The bleat, the bark, bellow, and roar,
Are waves that beat on heaven's shore.

1789 | William Blake, The Fly in Songs of Innocence in Poems of William Blake, edited by William Yates (London & New York, 1893); Online at Google Books.

Songs of Innocence

The Fly

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

1789 | William Blake, "Book of Thel," in Life of William Blake, with Selections from His Poems and Other Writings, by Alexander Gilchrist enlarged ed. (London, 1880); Online at Google Books.

Book of Thel

Everything that lives
Lives not alone, nor for itself.

That God would love a worm, I knew, and punish the evil foot

1790 | William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell in Poems of William Blake, edited by William Yates (London & New York, 1893); Online at Google Books.

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

One law for the lion and ox is oppression.

1793 | William Blake, "I Have Said to the Worm Thou Art My Mother and My Sister," plate 17 from For Children: The Gates of Paradise [1793]. See also, William Blake, "The Keys of the Gate," and "Plate 16" in Life of William Blake, by Alexander Gilchrist enlarged ed. (London, 1906); Online at Google Books.

For Children: The Gates of Paradise

I Have Said to the Worm, Thou Art My Mother and Sister

1793 | William Blake, Visions of the Daughters of Albion in The Prophetic Books in Poems of William Blake, edited by William Yates (London & New York, 1893); Online at Google Books.

Visions of the Daughters of Albion

And trees, and birds, and beasts, and men behold their eternal joy.
Arise, you little glancing wings, and sing your infant joy!
Arise, and drink your bliss; for every thing that lives is holy.

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William Blake, Works [including many illuminated books and engravings] Online at The William Blake Archive.

William Blake, Poetical Works of William Blake, edited by John Sampson (Oxford, 1905); Online at Google Books. [Excellent source for publication histories and edition comparisons.]