Infant Sorrow (Notebook)

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For works with similar titles, see Infant Sorrow.

Notebook, p. 113, reversed. See also: Songs and Ballads

634934Notebook 13. Infant Sorrow (Notebook)William Blake
Notebook 13 - Infant Sorrow

INFANT SORROW

My mother groand! my father wept.
Into the dangerous world I leapt:
Helpless, naked, piping loud;
Like a fiend hid in a cloud.

5 Struggling in my fathers bands:
Striving against my swadling bands:
Bound and weary I thought best
To sulk upon my mothers breast.

When I saw that rage was vain
10 And to sulk would nothing gain
Turning many a trick or wile
I began to soothe & smile

And I grew day after day
Till upon the ground I stray
15 And I grew night after night
Seeking only for delight

And I saw before me shine
Clusters of the wandring vine
And beyond a mirtle tree
20 Stretchd its blossoms out to me

But a Priest [My Father] with holy look
In his hand a holy book
Pronouncd curses on his head
Who the fruit or blossoms shed

25 I beheld the Priest by night
He embracd my mirtle bright
I beheld the Priest by day
Where beneath my vine he lay

Like a serpent in the night
30 He embracd my mirtle bright
Like a serpent in the day
Underneath my vine he lay

So I smote him & his gore
Staind the roots my mirtle bore
35 But the time of youth is fled
And grey hairs are on my head

This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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