Twas on a Holy Thursday their innocent faces clean
The children walking two & two in red & blue & green
Grey-headed beadles walkd before with wands as white as snow,
Till into the high dome of Pauls they like Thames waters flow
O what a multitude they seemd 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 & 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
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Poet
William Blake
1757–1827
POET’S REGION
England
SCHOOL / PERIOD
Romantic
Subjects
Religion,
Living,
Social Commentaries,
Youth,
Class,
Christianity
Poetic Terms
Rhymed Stanza,
Simile,
Allusion,
Imagery,
Couplet
In his Life of William Blake (1863) Alexander Gilchrist warned his readers that Blake "neither wrote nor drew for the many, hardly for work'y-day men at all, rather for children and angels; himself 'a divine child,' whose playthings were sun, moon, and stars, the heavens and the earth." Yet Blake himself believed that his writings were of national importance and that they could be understood by a majority of men. Far from being . . .
Continue reading this biography
Poem Categorization
SUBJECT
Religion,
Living,
Social Commentaries,
Youth,
Class,
Christianity
POET’S REGION
England
SCHOOL / PERIOD
Romantic
Poetic Terms
Rhymed Stanza,
Simile,
Allusion,
Imagery,
Couplet
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