APPENDIX TO POETICAL SKETCHES
Song by a Shepherd
Welcome, stranger, to this place,
Where joy doth sit on every bough,
Paleness flies from every face;
We reap not what we do not sow.
Innocence doth like a rose 5
Bloom on every maiden's cheek;
Honour twines around her brows,
The jewel health adorns her neck.
Song by an Old Shepherd
When silver snow decks Sylvio's clothes,
And jewel hangs at shepherd's nose,
We can abide life's pelting storm,
That makes our limbs quake, if our hearts be warm.
Whilst Virtue is our walking-staff, 5
And Truth a lantern to our path,
We can abide life's pelting storm,
That makes our limbs quake, if our hearts be warm.
Blow, boisterous wind, stern winter frown,
Innocence is a winter's gown. 10
So clad, we'll abide life's pelting storm,
That makes our limbs quake, if our hearts be warm.
These songs, which are written, though not in Blake's autograph, upon the fly-leaves of a presentation copy of the Poetical Sketches, dated May 15, 1784, were first printed by R. H. Shepherd in Pickering's reprint of 1868. Besides these, with the title 'Song 2d by a Young Shepherd', is an earlier version of the 'Laughing Song' in the Songs of Innocence.
