Sound the Flute! Now [it's]1 mute. Birds delight Day and Night. Nightingale In the dale, Lark in Sky, 2 Merrily, Merrily Merrily to welcome in the Year. Little Boy, Full of Joy; Little Girl, Sweet and small. Cock does crow, So do you. Merry voice Infant noise Merrily Merrily to welcome in the Year. Little Lamb Here I am, Come and [lick My white neck]3. Let me pull Your soft Wool. Let me kiss Your soft face. Merrily Merrily [we]4 welcome in the Year.
Eight Songs of William Blake
Song Cycle by Bernard Sidney Garte (1923 - 1953)
1. Spring  [sung text not yet checked]
Text Authorship:
- by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "Spring", appears in Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Innocence, no. 15, first published 1789
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View original text (without footnotes)Confirmed with William Blake, Songs of Innocence, 1789.
1 MacNutt: "'tis"2 Dougherty adds: "Out of sight"
3 MacNutt: "play/ Hours away"
4 MacNutt: "to"
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]
2. The sunflower  [sung text not yet checked]
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):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Ah ! tournesol !", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- SPA Spanish (Español) (Elisa Rapado) , copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
3. Love's secret  [sung text not yet checked]
Never seek to tell thy love Love that never told [can]1 be; For the gentle wind does move Silently, invisibly. I told my love, I told my love, I told her all my heart, [Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears]2 -- Ah, she [doth]3 depart. Soon as she was gone from me [A traveller came by]4 Silently, invisibly -- [He took her with a sigh]5.
Text Authorship:
- by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "Love's Secret"
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View original text (without footnotes)1 Stöhr: "shall"
2 Stöhr: "Trembling between hope and fear"
3 Stöhr: "did"
4 Stöhr: "A boy chanced going by"
5 Leoni: "O, was no deny"
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Johann Winkler
4. The wild flower's song  [sung text not yet checked]
As I wander'd the forest, The green leaves among, I heard a wild flower Singing a song: "I slept in the dark In the silent night, I murmur'd my fears And I felt delight. "In the morning I went As rosy as morn To seek for a new Joy, But I met with scorn."
Text Authorship:
- by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "The wild flower's song", from Life, Vol. II, first published 1863
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]5. The original sin  [sung text not yet checked]
I laid me down upon a bank, Where Love lay sleeping; I heard among the rushes dank Weeping, weeping. Then I went to the heath and the wild, To the thistles and thorns of the waste; And they told me how they were beguiled, Driven out, and compelled to the chaste. I went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen; A Chapel was built in the midst, Where I used to play on the green. And the gates of this Chapel were shut And "Thou shalt not," writ over the door; So I turned to the Garden of Love That so many sweet flowers bore. And I saw it was filled with graves, And tombstones where flowers should be; And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds, And binding with briars my joys and desires.
Text Authorship:
- by William Blake (1757 - 1827), written 1793, appears in Notebook
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]6. A divine image  [sung text not yet checked]
Cruelty has a human heart, And Jealousy a human face, Terror the human form divine, And Secrecy the human dress. The human dress is forgèd iron, The human form a fiery forge, The human face a furnace seal'd, The human heart its hungry gorge.
Text Authorship:
- by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "A divine image", written 1791-4, possibly intended for Songs of Experience
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Researcher for this page: Ted Perry7. From the Preface to Milton  [sung text not yet checked]
And did those feet in ancient time Walk upon England's mountains green? And was the holy Lamb of God On England's pleasant pastures seen? And did the Countenance divine Shine forth upon our clouded hills? And was Jerusalem builded here Among those dark Satanic mills? Bring me my Bow of burning gold: Bring me my Arrows of Desire! Bring me my Spear! Oh, Clouds unfold! Bring me my Chariot of Fire. I will not cease from Mental Fight, Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand, Till we have built Jerusalem In England's green and pleasant Land!
Text Authorship:
- by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "And did those feet in ancient time", written c1804, appears in Milton, a Poem in Two Books, from the preface
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Und schritten jene Füße einst", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- SPA Spanish (Español) (Aminta Iriarte) , "Jerusalén", copyright © 2003, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Aminta Iriarte
8. The divine image  [sung text not yet checked]
To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love All pray in their distress; And to these virtues of delight Return their thankfulness. For Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love Is God, our Father dear, And Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love Is man, His child and care. For Mercy has a human heart, Pity a human face, And Love, the human form divine, And Peace, the human dress. Then every man, of every clime, That prays in his distress, Prays to the human form divine, Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace. And all must love the human form, In heathen, Turk, or Jew; When Mercy, Love and Pity dwell There God is dwelling too.
Text Authorship:
- by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "The divine image", appears in Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Innocence, no. 12, first published 1789
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Thomas F. Schubert) , "Das Ebenbild Gottes", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- RUS Russian (Русский) [singable] (Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov) , "Божественное подобие", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission