William Blake (
1757-
1827)
from
Songs of Innocence
Once a
dream did weave a shade
O'er my
Angel-guarded bed,
That an
Emmet lost its way
Where on
grass methought I lay.
Troubled, 'wilder'd, and forlorn,
Dark, benighted, travel-worn,
Over many a tangled spray,
All heart-broken I heard her say:
"O, my children! do they cry?
Do they hear their father sigh?
Now they look abroad to see:
Now return and weep for me.''
Pitying, I drop'd a tear;
But I saw a
glow-worm near,
Who replied: ``What wailing wight
Calls the
watchman of the night?
"I am set to light the ground,
While the
beetle goes his round:
Follow now the beetle's hum;
Little wanderer,
hie thee home.''