"Introduction" to Songs of Innocence

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 chear, 

Piper pipe that song again— 

So I piped, he wept to hear.

Drop thy pipe thy happy pipe 

Sing thy songs of happy chear, 

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 vanish'd from my sight. 

And I pluck'd a hollow reed.

And I made a rural pen, 

And I stain'd the water clear, 

And I wrote my happy songs 

Every child may joy to hear

~ William Blake