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Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Songs of Experience: The Clod and The Pebble


'Love seeketh not itself to please,

Nor for itself hath any care,

But for another gives its ease,

And builds a heaven in hell's despair.'


So sung a little clod of clay,

Trodden with the cattle's feet,

But a pebble of the brook

Warbled out these metres meet:


'Love seeketh only Self to please,

To bind another to its delight,

Joys in another's loss of ease,

And builds a hell in heaven's despite.'