A little black thing in the snow,
Crying "weep! weep!" in notes of woe!
"Where are thy father and mother? Say!"--
"They are both gone up to the church to pray.
"Because I was happy upon the heath,
And smiled among the winter's snow,
They clothed me in the clothes of death,
And taught me to sing the notes of woe.
"And because I am happy and dance and sing,
They think they have done me no injury,
And are gone to praise God and his priest and king,
Who make up a heaven of our misery."
The Question and Answer section for The Poems of William Blake is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.
I think the speaker is referring to the stars.
I'm not sure that "normal" is the right word. A young man has killed his brother. We are not told why; the poet has focused his interest on the state of mind of the young man.
The poem is an objective perception of the ethnic conflict that erupted in Sri Lanka in 1983. The poem opens with how media report about the outbreak of ethnic violence in the country. The general civilian life gets disturbed and the tourist...
