Lyric Poem · Sad

The Angel

by William Blake

Reading room

1I dreamt a dream! What can it mean?

2And that I was a maiden Queen

3Guarded by an Angel mild:

4Witless woe was ne'er beguiled!

5And I wept both night and day,

6And he wiped my tears away;

7And I wept both day and night,

8And hid from him my heart's delight.

9So he took his wings, and fled;

10Then the morn blushed rosy red.

11I dried my tears, and armed my fears

12With ten-thousand shields and spears.

13Soon my Angel came again;

14I was armed, he came in vain;

15For the time of youth was fled,

16And grey hairs were on my head.

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“The Angel” by William Blake — quilloak.com/poems/the-angel

Quick facts

Poem: The Angel
Poet: William Blake
Length: 16 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Sad, Peace, Love

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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: 16 lines · 4 quatrains
Line length: Mostly 7-syllable lines.

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Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record: William Blake1757–1827
Source record: PoetryDBThe Angel 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 0100848915949fa4…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Sad Peace Love

The Angel

Quick facts

How this poem works

A traceable edition

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