Page:The poetical works of William Blake; a new and verbatim text from the manuscript engraved and letterpress originals (1905).djvu/171

 Songs of Experience 129 The weeping child could not be heard, 17 The weeping parents wept in vain ; They strip'd him to his little shirt, And bound him in an iron chain ; And burn'd him in a holy place, 21 Where many had been burn'd before : The weeping parents wept in vain. Are such things done on Albion's shore ? They] And MS. Book st rdg. del. 19, 20 They. . . chain] They bound the httle ivory limbs In a cruel iron chain MS. Book xst rdg. del. ai And. . . place] They burn'd him in a holy fire MS. Book xst rdg. with first and last words del. and changed to above. 24 Are. . . shore ?] Such things are done on Albion's shore MS. Book ist rdg. altered as above. Swinb. comments {Essay, p. i26 'To the surprising final query, "Are such things done on Albion's shore ? " one is provoked to respond, " On the whole, not, as far as we can see" ; but the "Albion " of Blake's verse is never this weaving and spinning country of our working days ; it is rather some in- scrutable remote land of Titanic visions, moated with silent white mist instead of solid and sonorous surf, and peopled with vague pre-Adamite giants, si'mbolic of more than we can safely define or conceive.' Infant Sorrow My mother groan'd, my father wept, i Into the dangerous world I leapt ; Helpless, naked, piping loud, Like a fiend hid in a cloud. Struggling in my father's hands, 5 Striving against my swadling bands, Bound and weary, I thought best To sulk upon my mother's breast. Engraved upon a single plate, the original of which is among the number reprinted by Gilchrist {Life, ii. end). Compare the much fuller form of this song found on p. 113 (reversed) of the MS. Book, only the first two stanzas of which were engraved by Blake for the Songs of Experience. The complete poem will be found among 'Poems from the Rossetti MS. Book' (x). Rh