Date: Tue, 28 Nov 1995 09:29:34 -0800
From: Ralph Dumain <rdumain-AT-igc.apc.org>
Subject: HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILLIAM BLAKE


SONGS OF INNOCENCE: INTRODUCTION
       by William Blake
     Born 28 November 1757

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.

------------------------------
Happy birthday, William Blake!

I wept to hear.
I wept to hear.

(R. Dumain, 28 November 1995)


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