Page:The poetical works of William Blake; a new and verbatim text from the manuscript engraved and letterpress originals (1905).djvu/202

160 vi A Cradle Song Sleep ! Sleep ! beauty bright, i Dreaming o'er the joys of night ; Sleep ! Sleep ! in thy sleep Little sorrows sit & weep. Sweet Babe, in thy face 5 Soft desires I can trace, Secret joys & secret smiles, Little pretty infant wiles. As thy softest limbs I feel, 9 Smiles as of the morning steal O'er thy cheek, & o'er thy breast Where thy little heart does rest. O ! the cunning wiles that creep 13 In thy little heart asleep. When thy little heart does wake Then the dreadful lightnings break, MS. Book, p. 114. Obviously written as the contrary of the ' Cradle Song' in the Songs of Innocence ; but never engraved by Blake. DGR and all later editors include this poem among the Songs of Experience, in most cases with explanatory note. This song, as the line drawn below it shows, at first con- sisted of stanzas i, 3, 4. Stanza 2 was then added and a second boundary line drawn, while still later Blake added the final stanza and numbered the whole in their present order. -4 Sleep. . . weep] The two couplets were written in reverse order, Blake indicating the change by prefixed numerals. 2 Dreaming. . . night] Thou shalt taste the joys of night MS. Book 1st rdg. del. o'er] in all edd. 4 Little. . . weep] Thou wilt every secret keep MS. Book 15/ rdg. del. ; Canst thou any secret keep ibid. 2nd rdg. del. 8 Little. . . wiles] Such as burning youth beguiles MS. Book 15^ rdg. del. 9 As etc.' Yet a little while the moon Silent. . . MS. Book abandoned opening of this stanza. feel] touch MS. Book st rdg. del. ; stroke ibid. 2nd rdg. del. 10 steal] broke ibid, ist rdg. del. 12, 15 does] doth all edd. lightnings] light shall all edd. {