Songs of Innocence Introduction by William Blake

Songs of Innocence

by William Blake

Project Blake mosaic 1 The Piper
Photographed by Flickr.com user “grahamc99”
on March 27, 2010.
[This is from a series of mosaics, based on Blake’s works, that were done by
Southbank Mosaics in London.]
Creative Commons License

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 cheer.
“Piper, pipe that song again;”
So I piped: he wept to hear.

“Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;
Sing thy songs of happy cheer!”
So I sang 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.