Holy Thursday-
Is this a holy thing to see i
In a rich and fruitful land,
Babes reduc'd to misery,
Fed with cold and usurous hand ?
Is that trembling cry a song ? 5
Can it be a song of joy ?
And so many children poor?
It is a land of poverty !
And their sun does never shine, 9
And their fields are bleak & bare.
And their ways are fiU'd with thorns :
It is eternal winter there.
For where- e'er the sun does shine, 13
And where-e'er the rain does fall,
Babe can never hunger there,
Nor poverty the mind appall.
Engraved on a single plate from the fair copy on p. 103 (reversed) of the
MS. Book. This plate is reprinted from an electrotype of the original in
Gilchrist's Life (ii. end).
Fed . . . hand] Fed with a cold usurious hand DGR. 7 And . . .
poor] And so great a number poor MS. Book. 8, 12 It is] 'Tis MS. Book. 13 For] But MS. Book. 15 Babe] Babes Wilk., DGR, WMR, EY. can] should DGR, WMR, EY. A Poison Tree I was angry with my friend : i I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe : I told it not, my wrath did grow. Engraved on a single plate from the copy in the MS. Book (p. 114 reversed). The title, 'Christian Forbearance,' of the MS. (written later in pencil) has been adopted by DGR, WMR, and EY, in preference to that in the engraved version.
A line drawn below this stanza in the MS. Book shows that Blake
originally intended the poem to end at this point.
