The Happy Piper

Piping down the valleys wild,Piping songs of pleasant glee,On a cloud I saw a child,And he laughing said to me:“Pipe a song about a Lamb!”So I piped with merry cheer.“Piper, pipe that song again”;So I piped: he wept to hear.“Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;Sing thy songs of happy cheer!”So I sang the same again,While he wept with joy to hear.“Piper, sit thee down and writeIn a book that all may read.”So he vanish’d from my sight,And I pluck’d a hollow reed,And I made a rural pen,And I stain’d the water clear,And I wrote my happy songsEvery child may joy to hear.

Piping down the valleys wild,Piping songs of pleasant glee,On a cloud I saw a child,And he laughing said to me:“Pipe a song about a Lamb!”So I piped with merry cheer.“Piper, pipe that song again”;So I piped: he wept to hear.“Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;Sing thy songs of happy cheer!”So I sang the same again,While he wept with joy to hear.“Piper, sit thee down and writeIn a book that all may read.”So he vanish’d from my sight,And I pluck’d a hollow reed,And I made a rural pen,And I stain’d the water clear,And I wrote my happy songsEvery child may joy to hear.

Piping down the valleys wild,Piping songs of pleasant glee,On a cloud I saw a child,And he laughing said to me:

Piping down the valleys wild,

Piping songs of pleasant glee,

On a cloud I saw a child,

And he laughing said to me:

“Pipe a song about a Lamb!”So I piped with merry cheer.“Piper, pipe that song again”;So I piped: he wept to hear.

“Pipe a song about a Lamb!”

So I piped with merry cheer.

“Piper, pipe that song again”;

So I piped: he wept to hear.

“Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;Sing thy songs of happy cheer!”So I sang the same again,While he wept with joy to hear.

“Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;

Sing thy songs of happy cheer!”

So I sang the same again,

While he wept with joy to hear.

“Piper, sit thee down and writeIn a book that all may read.”So he vanish’d from my sight,And I pluck’d a hollow reed,

“Piper, sit thee down and write

In a book that all may read.”

So he vanish’d from my sight,

And I pluck’d a hollow reed,

And I made a rural pen,And I stain’d the water clear,And I wrote my happy songsEvery child may joy to hear.

And I made a rural pen,

And I stain’d the water clear,

And I wrote my happy songs

Every child may joy to hear.

William Blake.


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