Songs of innocence and of experience : shewing the two contrary states of the human soul 1789-1794 / W. Blake

Blake, William, 1757-1827 . Songs of innocence and of experience : shewing the two contrary states of the human soul 1789-1794 / W. Blake
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HOLY THURSDAY

Is this a holy thing to see
In a rich and fruitful land,
Babes reduc'd to misery,
Fed with cold and usurous hand?

Is that trembling cry a song?
Can it be a song of joy?
And so many children poor?
It is a land of poverty!

And their sun does never shine,
And their fields are bleak & bare,
And their ways are fill'd with thorns:
It is eternal winter there.

For where-e'er the sun does shine,
And where-e'er the rain does fall,
Babe can never hunger there,
Nor poverty the mind appall.

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