I laid me down upon a bank | I laid me down upon a bank

I laid me down upon a bank

Language: English

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.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827), written 1793, appears in Notebook [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by George Antheil (1900 - 1959), "I laid me down upon a bank", 1948, from Songs of Experience, no. 7 [sung text not yet checked]
by Jack Hamilton Beeson (b. 1921), "I laid me down upon a bank", 1945, from Three Blake Songs, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
by Peter Dickinson (b. 1934), "I laid me down", 1957, first performed 1959 [ tenor, horn, clarinet, and bassoon ], from Five Blake Songs, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
by David Andross Farquhar (1928 - 2007), "I laid me down", 1947-9 [ voice and piano ], from Blake Songs, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
by John Linton Gardner (1917 - 2011), "I laid me down upon a bank", op. 138 no. 2 (c1977) [ double chorus of mixed chorus a cappella ], from Nine poems from the note-book (1793) of William Blake, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by Bernard Sidney Garte (1923 - 1953), "The original sin", c1946 [ voice and piano ], from Eight Songs of William Blake, no. 5, note: the sung text begins with stanza 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by (Peter) Alexander Goehr (b. 1932), "I laid me down upon a bank", op. 17 no. 2 (1964), published c1965 [ mixed chorus a cappella ], from Five Poems and an Epigram of William Blake, no. 2, London : Schott [sung text not yet checked]
by Gerard Schürmann (b. 1928), "I laid me down upon a bank", 1956, published 1996-7, from Six Songs of William Blake, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
by David Ferguson Shaw (b. 1926), "Poem: laid me down upon a bank", 1968 [ SATB chorus a cappella ], from Three Blake Poems, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 141