Six Songs from Blake's Songs of Innocence

SKU:
$10.99
$10.99
Unavailable
per item
2008
15 minutes
19 ​pages
Commissioned by Corinne Morini and premiered by her with the composerat the University of Akron in April 2010

FREE Shipping
 
Piping down the valleys wide,     
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 cheer.  
'Piper, pipe that song again;'
So I piped: he wept to hear. 

'Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe; 
Sing thy songs of happy cheer:' 
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.  
How sweet is the Shepherd's sweet lot!  
From the morn to the evening he strays; 
He shall follow his sheep all the day, 
And his tongue shall be fillèd with praise.  

For he hears the lamb's innocent call, 
And he hears the ewe's tender reply; 
He is watchful while they are in peace, 
For they know when their Shepherd is nigh. 
​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, woolly, 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 callèd 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 callèd by His name. 
    Little Lamb, God bless thee!
    Little Lamb, God bless thee! 
​'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. 
​The little boy lost in the lonely fen, 
Led by the wand'ring light, 
Began to cry; but God, ever nigh, 
Appear'd like his father in white. 

He kissed the child and by the hand led, 
And to his mother brought, 
Who in sorrow pale, thro' the lonely dale, 
Her little boy weeping sought.  
​When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy, 
And the dimpling stream runs laughing by; 
When the air does laugh with our merry wit, 
And the green hill laughs with the noise of it;

When the meadows laugh with lively green, 
And the grasshopper laughs in the merry scene, 
When Mary and Susan and Emily 
With their sweet round mouths sing "Ha, Ha, He!" 

When the painted birds laugh in the shade, 
Where our table with cherries and nuts is spread, 
Come live, and be merry, and join with me, 
To sing the sweet chorus of "Ha, Ha, He!"