Page:Life of William Blake 2, Gilchrist.djvu/96

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
74
SELECTIONS FROM BLAKE'S WRITINGS.

I love to rise on a summer morn,
When birds are singing on every tree;
The distant huntsman winds his horn,
And the skylark sings with me:
O what sweet company!


But to go to school in a summer morn,—
Oh! it drives all joy away;
Under a cruel eye outworn,
The little ones spend the day
In sighing and dismay.


Ah! then at times I drooping sit
And spend many an anxious hour;
Nor in my book can I take delight,
Nor sit in learning's bower,
Worn through with the dreary shower.


How can the bird that is born for joy
Sit in a cage and sing?
How can a child, when fears annoy,
But droop his tender wing,
And forget his youthful spring?


O father and mother, if buds are nipp'd,
And blossoms blown away;
And if the tender plants are stripp'd
Of their joy in the springing day,
By sorrow and care's dismay,—