Holy Thursday (Songs of Innocence) - The Poem

The Poem

‘Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,
The children walking two and two, in red and blue and green,
Grey headed beadles walk’d before, with wands as white as snow,
Till into the high dome of Paul's they like Thames’ waters flow.

Oh what a multitude they seem’d, these flowers of London town!
Seated in companies they sit with radiance all their own.

The hum of multitudes was there, but multitudes of lambs,

Thousands of little boys and girls raising their innocent hands.

Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song,

Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of Heaven among.

Beneath them sit the aged men, wise guardians of the poor;

Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.

William Blake Literary works Early writings Poetical Sketches An Island in the Moon All Religions are One There is No Natural Religion Songs of Innocence and of Experience Songs of Innocence Introduction The Shepherd The Ecchoing Green The Lamb The Little Black Boy The Blossom The Chimney Sweeper The Little Boy lost The Little Boy Found Laughing Song A Cradle Song The Divine Image Holy Thursday Night Spring Nurse's Song Infant Joy A Dream On Another's Sorrow Songs of Experience Introduction Earth's Answer The Clod and the Pebble Holy Thursday The Little Girl Lost The Little Girl Found The Chimney Sweeper Nurse's Song The Sick Rose The Fly The Angel The Tyger My Pretty Rose Tree Ah! Sun-Flower The Lily The Garden of Love The Little Vagabond London The Human Abstract Infant Sorrow A Poison Tree A Little Boy lost A Little Girl Lost To Tirzah The School Boy The Voice of the Ancient Bard Prophetic Books The continental prophecies America a Prophecy Europe a Prophecy The Song of Los Other Tiriel The Book of Thel The Marriage of Heaven and Hell The French Revolution Visions of the Daughters of Albion The Book of Urizen The Book of Ahania The Book of Los The Four Zoas Milton a Poem Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion The Pickering Manuscript Auguries of Innocence The Mental Traveller The Crystal Cabinet Mythology Ahania Albion Bromion Enion Enitharmon Fuzon Grodna Har Leutha Los Luvah Orc Spectre Tharmas Thiriel Tiriel Urizen Urthona Utha Vala Art Paintings and prints Relief etching Engravings for Original Stories from Real Life The Ancient of Days The Night of Enitharmon's Joy Newton Nebuchadnezzar Illustrations for Night Thoughts The Four and Twenty Elders Casting their Crowns before the Divine Throne Illustrations of Paradise Lost A Vision of the Last Judgment Descriptive Catalogue The Great Red Dragon Paintings Pity The Ghost of a Flea Illustrations of On the Morning of Christ's Nativity The Wood of the Self-Murderers: The Harpies and the Suicides Illustrations of the Book of Job Illustrations of The Divine Comedy The Ancients Samuel Palmer Edward Calvert Frederick Tatham George Richmond John Linnell Criticism and scholarship Scholars and critics Peter Ackroyd Donald Ault Harold Bloom S. Foster Damon David V. Erdman Northrop Frye Alexander Gilchrist Geoffrey Keynes Alicia Ostriker Kathleen Raine E. P. Thompson Scholarly works Life of William Blake Fearful Symmetry A Blake Dictionary: The Ideas and Symbols of William Blake Blake: Prophet Against Empire Witness Against the Beast Wikimedia Blake at Wiktionary Blake at Wikibooks Blake at Wikiquote Blake at Wikisource Blake at Commons Blake at Wikinews