7 William Blake Poems to Read and Enjoy

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One of the most famous poets of the 19th century, William Blake was also an engraver, painter, and visionary who worked hard to change the mindsets of people and society at large. While he was alive, his work was largely ignored or dismissed, but in later years, he came to be considered a leader in English poetry.

Instead of being a mystic living in isolation, Blake worked right in the middle of the action: in the lively days of the metropolis of London, putting him right in the midst of political and social change. This atmosphere played a significant role in his writing.

Poems by William Blake to Ponder

If you are not familiar with William Blake’s writings, here are some of his best poems to get you thinking. Some of them are also great poems to learn by heart, so you can reflect on them time and time again!

1. The Lamb

This is one of Blake’s most famous poems for children, but still contains important insights into religion and belief in God that adults can relate to as well:

Little Lamb who made thee 
         Dost thou know who made thee 
Gave thee life and bid thee feed. 
By the stream and o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice! 
         Little Lamb who made thee 
         Dost thou know who made thee 

         Little Lamb I’ll tell thee,
         Little Lamb I’ll tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb: 
He is meek and he is mild, 
He became a little child: 
I a child and thou a lamb, 
We are called by his name.
         Little Lamb God bless thee. 
         Little Lamb God bless thee.

2. The Divine Image

This poem shows Blake’s commitment to themes of transcendence and his belief in a God of love and mercy.

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;
Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell
There God is dwelling too.

3. The Garden of Love

Blake is an expert at conjuring up images of an innocent childhood, an example of which is seen in this poem:

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 turn’d to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore. 

And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be:
And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars, my joys and desires.

4. The Little Boy Lost

Another poem that’s popular among children, Blake paints a picture that any child can imagine and dread:

Father, father, where are you going
       O do not walk so fast.
Speak father, speak to your little boy
       Or else I shall be lost,

The night was dark no father was there
       The child was wet with dew.
The mire was deep, and the child did weep
       And away the vapour flew.

5. The Tyger

One of Blake’s most famous poems, The Tyger uses the old English spelling of the modern word tiger:

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 seize the fire?

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

6. Introduction to the Songs of Innocence

Blake published The Songs of Innocence in 1789, originally created as illuminated books, with the poet himself engraving, hand-printing, and coloring in the images:

Piping down the valleys wild 
Piping songs of pleasant glee 
On a cloud I saw a child. 
And he laughing said to me. 

Pipe a song about a Lamb; 
So I piped with merry chear, 
Piper pipe that song again— 
So I piped, he wept to hear.

Drop thy pipe thy happy pipe 
Sing thy songs of happy chear, 
So I sung the same again 
While he wept with joy to hear 

Piper sit thee down and write
In a book that all may read— 
So he vanish’d from my sight. 
And I pluck’d a hollow reed. 

And I made a rural pen,
And I stain’d the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear

7. Introduction to the Songs of Experience

Songs of Experience was Blake’s sequel to “Songs of Innocence,” containing 26 poems and published in 1794. Here is the introduction to the collection:

Hear the voice of the Bard!
Who Present, Past, and Future sees 
Whose ears have heard, 
The Holy Word, 
That walk’d among the ancient trees. 

Calling the lapsed Soul 
And weeping in the evening dew: 
That might controll, 
The starry pole; 
And fallen fallen light renew!

O Earth O Earth return!
Arise from out the dewy grass;
Night is worn,
And the morn
Rises from the slumberous mass.

Turn away no more: 
Why wilt thou turn away 
The starry floor 
The watry shore 
Is giv’n thee till the break of day. 

Reading William Blake’s Poems

Reading William Blake’s poems can be a refreshing addition to your days. So whether you are personally interested in poems or not, you may want to consider adding poetry reading once in a while, to spice things up in your reading list.

Reading the works of famous poems will also help you enrich your own writing, especially if you want to grow in writing poetry.

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