English Literature

CHAPTER IX. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE

(1700-1800)

such a combination of the grewsome and the ridiculous as
is packed up in "Tam o’ Shanter." With the exception of these
two, the longer poems add little to the author’s fame or to our
own enjoyment. It is better for the beginner to read Burns’s
exquisite songs and gladly to recognize his place in the hearts
of a people, and forget the rest, since they only sadden us and
obscure the poet’s better nature.

WILLIAM BLAKE (1757-1827)

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.

"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.^173

Of all the romantic poets of the eighteenth century, Blake
is the most independent and the most original. In his earli-
est work, written when he was scarcely more than a child, he
seems to go back to the Elizabethan song writers for his mod-
els; but for the greater part of his life he was the poet of inspi-
ration alone, following no man’s lead, and obeying no voice

(^173) Introduction,Songs of Innocence.