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

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