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Four Songs from William Blake

Song Cycle by Arthur Hinton (1869 - 1941)

1. Spring   [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
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.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "Spring", appears in Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Innocence, no. 15, first published 1789

See other settings of this text.

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 fly  [sung text not yet checked]

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

See other settings of this text.

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]

3. A cradle song   [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Sweet dreams, form a shade
[O'er]1 my lovely infant's head,
Sweet dreams of pleasant streams,
By happy, silent, moony beams.

Sweet Sleep, with soft down
Weave thy brows an infant crown;
Sweet Sleep, angel mild,
Hover o'er my happy child.

Sweet smiles, in the night
Hover over my delight.
Sweet smiles, mother's [smiles]2,
All the livelong night [beguiles]3.

Sweet moans, dovelike sighs,
Chase not slumber from [thy]4 eyes!
Sweet [moans]5, sweeter [smiles]2,
All the dovelike moans [beguiles]3.

Sleep, sleep, happy child:
All creation slept and smiled.
Sleep, sleep, happy sleep,
While o'er thee [thy]6 mother weep.

Sweet babe, in thy face
Holy image I can trace;
Sweet babe, once like thee
Thy maker lay and wept for me,

Wept for me, for thee, for all,
When he was an infant small.
Thou his image ever see,
Heavenly face that smiles on thee --

Smiles on thee, on me, on all,
Who became an infant small,
Infant smiles are his own smiles;
Heaven and earth to peace beguiles.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "A Cradle Song", appears in Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Innocence, no. 11, first published 1789

See other settings of this text.

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Blake: The Complete Poems, ed. by W. H. Stevenson, Third Edition, Routledge, 2007, pages 61-62.

1 Carmichael: "Round"
2 Baxter, Moore, Thomas: "smile"
3 Baxter, Moore, Thomas: "beguile"
4 Baxter, Carmichael, Moore, Thomas: "thine"
5 Baxter, Carmichael, Moore, Thomas: "moans"
6 Baxter: "doth"

Researcher for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

4. I love the jocund dance  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
I love the [jocund]1 dance, 
The softly breathing song, 
Where innocent eyes do glance,
[And where]2 lisps the maiden's tongue.  

I love the laughing vale, 
I love the echoing [hills]3, 
Where mirth does never fail, 
And the jolly swain laughs his fill. 

I love the pleasant cot,
I love the innocent bow'r,
Where white and brown is our lot,
Or fruit in the midday hour. 

I love the oaken seat,
Beneath the oaken tree,
Where all [the old]4 villagers meet,
And laugh [our]5 sports to see. 

I love our neighbors all,
But Kitty, I [better love thee]6;
And love them [I ever]7  shall;
But thou art all to me.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "Song"

See other settings of this text.

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Mitchell: "merry"
2 Mitchell: "Where"
3 Mitchell: "hill"
4 Mitchell: "the"
5 Mitchell: "my"
6 Mitchell: "love thee more"
7 Mitchell: "ever I"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 453
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