Page:The Poems of William Blake (Shepherd, 1887).djvu/17

 WITH BLAKE'S "SONGS OF INNOCENCE."

, dear child, these songs of one whose Muse For happy children piped her sweetest lays, Nor deem'd their suffrages her lightest praise Who hold Heaven's kingdom as their proper dues. And wilt thou with the lyric gift refuse His thanks, whose drooping spirits thou couldst raise By airy gestures, graceful as a fay's Dancing at eve in shady avenues?

With rapt delight I see you ponder long The gentle words of one so pure of blame, Who loved the right, who scorn'd and loathed the wrong: O future heiress of his double fame, Whose smile, whose look, nay, even whose very name Recalls the sunny land of art and song. R. H. S.1869.