hear the voice of the bard

Piping down the valleys wild
Piping songs of pleasant glee
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me,

"Pipe a song about a Lamb";
So I piped with merry chear;
"Piper pipe that song again"--
So I piped, he wept to hear.

"Drop thy pipe thy happy pipe
Sing thy song of happy chear";
So I sung the same again
While he wept with joy to hear.

"Piper sit thee down and write
In a book that all may read"--
So he vanish'd from my sight.
And I pluck'd a hollow reed,

And I made a rural pen,
And I stain'd the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear.

*

Hear the voice of the Bard!
Who Present, Past, & Future sees;
Whose ears have heard
The Holy Word
That walk'd among the ancient trees;

Calling the lapsed Soul
And weeping in the evening dew,
That might controll
The starry pole,
And fallen, fallen light renew!

"O Earth, O Earth, return!
Arise from out the dewy grass;
Night is worn,
And the morn
Rises from the slumberous mass.

"Turn away no more;
Why wilt thou turn away?
The starry floor
The watry shore
Is giv'n thee till the break of day."

~ William Blake (1757-1827), "Introduction: Innocence" and "Introduction: Experience", from Songs of Innocence and Experience, 1794.

Happy Easter to those celebrating. These poems do not actually have anything to do with Easter, but Blake sort of does, and anyway, I like Songs of Innocence and Experience.