Lyric Poem · Sad

Songs of Innocence: Introduction

by William Blake

Reading room

1Piping down the valleys wild,

2 Piping songs of pleasant glee,

3On a cloud I saw a child,

4 And he laughing said to me:

5"Pipe a song about a Lamb!"

6 So I piped with merry cheer.

7"Piper, pipe that song again;"

8 So I piped: he wept to hear.

9"Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;

10 Sing thy songs of happy cheer!"

11So I sang the same again,

12 While he wept with joy to hear.

13"Piper, sit thee down and write

14 In a book, that all may read."

15So he vanish'd from my sight;

16 And I pluck'd a hollow reed,

17And I made a rural pen,

18 And I stain'd the water clear,

19And I wrote my happy songs

20 Every child may joy to hear.

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“Songs of Innocence: Introduction” by William Blake — quilloak.com/poems/songs-of-innocence-introduction

Quick facts

Poem: Songs of Innocence: Introduction
Poet: William Blake
Length: 20 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Sad, Childhood

Craft notes

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Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 20 lines · 5 quatrains
Line length: Mostly 7-syllable lines.

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Author record: William Blake1757–1827
Source record: PoetryDBSongs of Innocence: Introduction by william-blake, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 8da96b91c6524a14…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Sad Childhood

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