Songs and Proverbs of William Blake

Song Cycle by (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976)

1. Proverb I
(Sung text)

Language: English

The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
The nakedness of woman is the work of God.

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827)

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Proverbi I", copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Proverbe I", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2. London
(Sung text)

Language: English

I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.

How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every black'ning Church appalls,
And the hapless Soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.

But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born Infant's tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "London", appears in Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Experience, no. 18, first published 1794

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Londres", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

3. Proverb II
(Sung text)

Language: English

Prisons are built with stones of Law,
Brothels with bricks of Religion.

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827)

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Proverbi II", copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Proverbe II", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

4. The chimney sweeper [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

A little black thing among the snow,
Crying 'weep 'weep in notes of woe!
Where are thy father and mother? say?
They are both gone up to the church to pray.

Because I was happy upon the hearth,
And smil'd among the winter's snow
They clothed me in the clothes of death,
And taught me to sing the notes of woe.

And because I am happy & dance & sing
They think they have done me no injury,
And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King
Who make up a heaven of our misery.

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "The chimney sweeper", appears in Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Experience, no. 7, first published 1794

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Le ramoneur de cheminée", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

5. Proverb III
(Sung text)

Language: English

The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827)

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Proverbi III", copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Proverbe III", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
SPA Spanish (Español) (Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit) , "Proverbio III", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

6. A poison tree [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I water'd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine.

And into my garden stole
When the night had veil'd the pole,
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretch'd beneath the tree.

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "The poison tree", appears in Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Experience, no. 21, first published 1794

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Un arbre empoisonné", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Ein Giftbaum", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

7. Proverb IV
(Sung text)

Language: English

Think in the morning.
Act in the noon.
Eat in the evening.
Sleep in the night.

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827)

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Proverbi IV", copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Proverbe IV", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

8. The Tyger [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,  
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?  

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?  
On what wings dare he aspire?  
What the hand, dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?  

What the hammer? what the chain,  
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!  

When the stars threw down their spears  
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:  
What immortal hand or eye,  
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "The tyger", appears in Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Experience, no. 12, first published 1794

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "El tigre", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
CHI Chinese (中文) [singable] (Dr Huaixing Wang) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Le tigre", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , "Der Tiger", copyright © 2006, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Thomas F. Schubert) , "Der Tiger", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
RUS Russian (Русский) [singable] (Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov) , "Тигр", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

9. Proverb V
(Sung text)

Language: English

The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
If others had not been foolish, we should be so.

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827)

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Proverbi V", copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Proverbe V", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

10. The fly
(Sung text)

Language: English

Little Fly,
Thy summer's play
My thoughtless hand
Has brush'd away.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance
And drink & sing:
Till some blind hand 
Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life
And strength & breath
And the want 
Of thought is death;

Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "The fly", appears in Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Experience, no. 10, first published 1794

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "La mouche", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
RUS Russian (Русский) [singable] (Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov) , "Мотылёк", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

11. Proverb VI
(Sung text)

Language: English

The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock;
But of wisdom, no clock can measure.
The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time.

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827)

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Proverbi VI", copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Proverbe VI", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

12. Ah, Sun‑flower [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

Ah, Sun-flower! weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the Sun;
Seeking after that sweet golden clime,
Where the traveller's journey is done:

Where the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow,
Arise from their graves and aspire
Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "Ah! Sun-flower! weary of time", appears in Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Experience, no. 14, first published 1794

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

13. Proverb VII
(Sung text)

Language: English

To see a World in a Grain of Sand,
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827), no title, appears in Auguries of Innocence, no. 1

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

14. Every Night and every Morn Sung Text

Note: this is a multi-text setting

Every night and every morn
Some to Misery are Born.
Every Night & every Morn
Some are Born to sweet delight.

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827), no title, appears in Auguries of Innocence, no. 31

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827), no title, appears in Auguries of Innocence, no. 32

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

We are led to believe a lie
When we see not thro' the eye,
Which was born in a night to perish in a night,
When the soul slept in beams of light.

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827), no title, appears in Auguries of Innocence, no. 33

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

God appears, and God is light,
To those poor souls who dwell in night;
But does a human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day.

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827), no title, appears in Auguries of Innocence, no. 34

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

Total word count: 819

Songs and Proverbs of William Blake

Song Cycle by (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976)

1. Proverb I (Sung text)

2. London (Sung text)

3. Proverb II (Sung text)

4. The chimney sweeper [sung text not yet checked]

5. Proverb III (Sung text)

6. A poison tree [sung text not yet checked]

7. Proverb IV (Sung text)

8. The Tyger [sung text not yet checked]

9. Proverb V (Sung text)

10. The fly (Sung text)

11. Proverb VI (Sung text)

12. Ah, Sun‑flower [sung text not yet checked]

13. Proverb VII (Sung text)

14. Every Night and every Morn Sung Text

1. Proverb I
(Sung text)

2. London
(Sung text)

3. Proverb II
(Sung text)

5. Proverb III
(Sung text)

7. Proverb IV
(Sung text)

9. Proverb V
(Sung text)

10. The fly
(Sung text)

11. Proverb VI
(Sung text)

13. Proverb VII
(Sung text)