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Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Songs of Innocence: Introduction


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 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 vanished from my sight;

And I plucked a hollow reed,


And I made a rural pen,

And I stained the water clear,

And I wrote my happy songs

Every child may joy to hear.

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