ON BLAKE'S "SONGS OF INNOCENCE"
IF thou hast ever heard on a May morn Within a leafy wood the wild birds sing, And felt thy soul take joy in marvelling How in such little creatures could be born That pure melodious concert of the dawn— Then thou dost know the ecstasies that wing From pulse and passion when a dewy thorn Is breaking from a rose-bud blossoming.
Such joy gave he, who sang the innocence Of childhood — Blake, who was more child than man In that grave wonder of his reverence Unto which God revealed the visional plan Of His Eternal Life: —the evidence Smote him as Moses' rod —and music ran.