The Little Vagabond - The Poem

The Poem

Dear mother, dear mother, the Church is cold;
But the Alehouse is healthy, and pleasant, and warm.
Besides, I can tell where I am used well;
Such usage in heaven will never do well.

But, if at the Church they would give us some ale,
And a pleasant fire our souls to regale,
We’d sing and we’d pray all the livelong day,
Nor ever once wish from the Church to stray.

Then the Parson might preach, and drink, and sing,
And we’d be as happy as birds in the spring;
And modest Dame Lurch, who is always at church,
Would not have bandy children, nor fasting, nor birch.

And God, like a father, rejoicing to see
His children as pleasant and happy as He,
Would have no more quarrel with the Devil or the barrel,
But kiss him, and give him both drink and apparel.

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
  • Nancy Bogen
  • 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
Archives and Collections
  • William Blake Archive
Wikimedia
  • Blake at Wiktionary
  • Blake at Wikibooks
  • Blake at Wikiquote
  • Blake at Wikisource
  • Blake at Commons


Read more about this topic:  The Little Vagabond

Famous quotes containing the word poem:

    It has been played once more. I think you exist only
    To tease me into doing it, on your level, and then you aren’t there
    Or have adopted a different attitude. And the poem
    Has set me softly down beside you. The poem is you.
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)

    A poem should be equal to:
    Not true.

    For all the history of grief
    An empty doorway and a maple leaf.
    Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982)