Ah ! Sun Flower
Ah, Sun-flower! weary of time, i
Who countest the steps of the Sun ;
Seeking after that sweet golden clime,
Where the traveller's journey is done ;
Where the Youth pined away with desire, 5
And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow,
Arise from their graves, and aspire
Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.
Not in the MS. Book. Engraved on the same plate as the preceding
and following song.
3 clime] prime DGR.
The Lilly
The modest Rose puts forth a thorn, i
The humble Sheep a threat'ning horn ;
While the Lilly white shall in Love delight,
Nor a thorn, nor a threat, stain her beauty bright.
Engraved on the same plate as the two preceding songs, from the first
rough draft without title on p. 109 (reversed) of the MS. Book. In its
present form this beautiful little poem might more fitly rank as a Song of
Innocence than a Song of Experience ; but the first draft, with its successive
alterations as seen in the MS. Book, shows that Blake originally conceived
it in its ' contrary state.' Beginning by writing —
' The rose puts envious . . .'
he felt that ' envious ' did not express his full meaning, and deleted the last
three words, writing above them ' lustful rose,' and finishing the line with
the words ' puts forth a thorn.' He then went on —
' The coward sheep a threat'ning horn ;
While the lilly white shall in love delight,
And the lion increase freedom & peace.'
at which point he drew a line under the poem to show that it was finished.
On a subsequent reading he deleted the last line, substituting for it —
- The priest loves war, & the soldier peace,'
but here, perceiving that his rime had disappeared, he cancelled this line also, and gave the poem an entirely different turn by changing the word
- lustful ' to ' modest,' and ' coward ' to ' humble,' and completing the quatrain
(as in the engraved version) by a fourth line simply explanatory of the first three.
