Storynory

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( Of course, in modern English, “The Tyger” would be “The Tiger”.)

We present three “songs” by the poet and artist, and Londoner, William Blake (1757-1827). His Songs of Innocence and Experience were intended to be sung, but the melodies are now lost. Many of his poems see the world with the freshness of a child’s eye.

THE TYGER

???Tyger, tyger, burning bright
???In the forests of the night,
???What immortal hand or eye
???Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

???In what distant deeps or skies
???Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
???On what wings dare he aspire?
???What the hand dare seize the fire?

???And what shoulder and what art
???Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
???And, when thy heart began to beat,
???What dread hand and what dread feet?

???What the hammer? what the chain?
???In what furnace was thy brain?
???What the anvil? what dread grasp
???Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

???When the stars threw down their spears,
???And watered heaven with their tears,
???Did he smile his work to see?
???Did he who made the lamb make thee?

???Tyger, tyger, burning bright
???In the forests of the night,
???What immortal hand or eye
???Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

THE FLY

???Little Fly,
???Thy summer’s play
???My thoughtless hand
???Has brushed away.

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

???For I dance
???And drink, and sing,
???Till some blind hand
???Shall brush my wing.

???If thought is life
???And strength and breath
???And the want
???Of thought is death;

???Then am I
???A happy fly,
???If I live,
???Or if I die.

THE LAMB

?????Little Lamb, who made thee
?????Dost thou know who made thee,
???Gave thee life, and bid thee feed
???By the stream and o’er the mead;
???Gave thee clothing of delight,
???Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
???Gave thee such a tender voice,
???Making all the vales rejoice?
?????Little Lamb, who made thee?
?????Dost thou know who made thee?

?????Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee;
?????Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee:
???He is called by thy name,
???For He calls Himself a Lamb
???He is meek, and He is mild,
???He became a little child.
???I a child, and thou a lamb,
???We are called by His name.
?????Little Lamb, God bless thee!
?????Little Lamb, God bless thee!