English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 357. Nurse’s Song |
| | | William Blake (1757–1827) |
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| WHEN the voices of children are heard on the green, | |
| And laughing is heard on the hill, | |
| My heart is at rest within my breast, | |
| And everything else is still. | |
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| ‘Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down, | 5 |
| And the dews of night arise; | |
| Come, come, leave off play, and let us away | |
| Till the morning appears in the skies.’ | |
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| ‘No, no, let us play, for it is yet day, | |
| And we cannot go to sleep; | 10 |
| Besides, in the sky the little birds fly, | |
| And the hills are all cover’d with sheep.’ | |
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| ‘Well, well, go and play till the light fades away, | |
| And then go home to bed.’ | |
| The little ones leapèd and shoutèd and laugh’d | 15 |
| And all the hills echoèd. | |
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