Page:The poetical works of William Blake; a new and verbatim text from the manuscript engraved and letterpress originals (1905).djvu/201

Rh {{smaller block|this stanza shows, the poem originally ended. Later he added a fifth stanza : — {{float center| {{nr|[17]}}{{'}}Down [at first And down] pourd the heavy rain Over the new reap'd grain, And Mercy & Pity & Peace descended; The Farmers were ruined & harvest was ended{{'}} }} and again indicated the completion of the poem by a fresh terminal line. This stanza Blake afterwards deleted. Lastly follow several attempts at a new stanza, the final form of the only completed couplet of which reads :

{{float center| {{nr|[21]}}'And Miseries' increase Is Mercy, Pity, Peace'; }}

the rejected readings, which are not very legibly written, being : —

{{float center| 'And Mercy Pity _& del.] Peace {? Joy'd) at their increase {? With) Poverty's Increase Are And by distress increase Mercy, Pity, Peace By Misery to increase Mercy, Pity, Peace.' }} Swinb. (p. 147) re-arranges and prints ll. [17], [18], [21], and [22] as his last stanza: —

{{float center| 'Down poured the heavy rain Over the new-reaped grain ; And Misery's increase Is Mercy, Pity, Peace."' }} DGR prints as his third stanza II. 9-14, 1. 5 of ' The Human Abstract ' version (Songs of Experience) and ll. [21], [22] (slightly altered) : —

{{float center| 'I heard a Devil curse Over the heath and the furze: "Mercy could be no more If there were nobody poor, And Pity no more could be If all were happy as ye: And mutual fear brings Peace. Misery's increase Are Mercy, Pity, Peace"'; }} concluding, as a separate couplet, with ll. 15, 16 : —

{{float center| 'At his curse the sun went down, And the heavens gave a frown. }}

WMR, EY, and WBY follow DGR. {{gap}}EY however, in their 'Notes to the Poetical Sketches, Songs, &c.' iii. p. 97, print the poem as it is found in the MS. Book, their readings of the partially illegible words being rather different from mine.}}