POETRY IN LOCKDOWN: 14

William Blake is both the simplest and the most complicated of poets. He often speaks to us in epigrams or formulaic statements, yet he delights in paradox and unexpected conclusions. Blake is one who states his deeply-held beliefs, whether you take them or leave them, but his beliefs are sometimes maddeningly hard to figure out. It’s safe to say they are rarely conventional.

The following is selected from a draft of a poem written in a notebook known as the Pickering Manuscript, possibly around 1803, but not published for 60 years. The first four lines stand alone at the top if the draft. The other 128 lines are couplets dealing first of all with the abuse of nature (“A Robin Red-Breast in a Cage/ Sets all Heaven in a Rage…”) but moving on to statements about the human condition. The third extract is the conclusion of the draft, preceded by a related section a few lines earlier. The imperfect scansion of one line, and the contradictory logic whereby, on the one hand, "man was made for joy and woe" and, on the other, there is a division between those born to sweet delight and those to endless night, tend to show that it is an unfinished or at least unperfected piece.

Auguries of Innocence
by William Blake

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold infinity on the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

            *            *            *

A truth that’s told with bad intent
Beats all the Lies you can invent.
It is right it should be so;
Man was made for Joy & Woe;
And when this we rightly know
Thro’ the World we safely go,
Joy and Woe are woven fine,
A Clothing for the soul divine;
Under every grief & pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.

            *            *            *

Every Night & every Morn
Some to Misery are Born.
Every Morn & every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight,
Some are Born to sweet delight,
Some are Born to Endless Night.
We are led to Believe a Lie
When we see not Through the Eye
Which was Born in a Night to perish in a Night
When the Soul Slept in Beams of Light.
God appears & God is Light
To those poor Souls who dwell in Night,
But does a Human Form Display
To those who Dwell in Realms of day.