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The greatest poems by William Blake selected by Dr Oliver Tearle
William Blake (1757-1827) is one of the key figures of English Romanticism, and a handful of his poems are universally known thanks to their memorable phrases and opening lines.
Blake 🌹frequently spoke out against injustice in his own lifetime: slavery, racism, poverty, and the corruption of those in power.
In this post we’ve chosen what we consider to be ten of the best William Blake poems, along with links to each of them.
1. ‘Jerusalem’.
The hymn called ‘Jerusalem’ is surrounded by misconceptions, legend, and half-truths. Blake wrote the words which the composer Hubert Parry later set to music, but Blake didn’t call his poem ‘Jerusalem’, and instead the famous words that form the lyrics of the hymn are merely one part of a longer poem, a poem which Blake called Milton. The poem has been read as a satire of the rampant jingoism and Christian feeling running through England during the Napoleonic Wars, and has even been described as anti-patriotic, despite the patriotic nature of the hymn it inspired. It features the famous, rousing lines:
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon Englands mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On Englands pleasant pastures seen!
And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?
Bring me my Bow of burning gold:
Bring me my arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!
I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In Englands green & pleasant Land.
| 「エルサレム」 古代 あの足が イングランドの山の草地を 歩いたというのか 神の聖なる子羊が イングランドの 心地よい牧草地にいたなどと 神々しい顔が 雲に覆われた丘の上で輝き ここに エルサレムが 建っていたというのか こんな闇のサタンの 工場のあいだに | 我が燃える黄金の弓を 渇望の矢を 群雲の槍を 炎の戦車を 与えよ! 精神の闘いから ぼくは一歩も引く気はない この剣をぼくの手のなかで 眠らせてもおかない ぼくらがエルサレムを 打ち建てるまで イングランドの 心地よいみどりの大地に |
2. ‘London’
This is one of Blake’s finest poems. In ‘London’, Blake describes the things he sees when he wanders through the streets of London: signs of misery and weakness can be discerned on everyone’s face. Every man’s voice – even the cry of every infant, a child who hasn’t even learnt to talk yet – conveys this sense of oppression. It’s as if everyone is being kept in slavery, but the manacles they wear are not literal ones, but mental – ‘mind-forg’d’ – ones. The poem has been interpreted as a response to the French Revolution, and Blake’s wish that Englanders would follow suit and rise up against the authorities and power structures which tyrannised over them.
I wander thro’ each charter’d street,
Near where the charter’d Thames does flow.
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every Man,
In every Infants cry of fear,
In every voice: in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear
How the Chimney-sweepers cry
Every blackning Church appalls,
And the hapless Soldiers sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls
But most thro’ midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse
(The spelling given in the above version is the spelling in Blake’s original.)
| ロンドン わたしはロンドンの巷を歩く 傍らにはテムズが流れる そして出会う人の顔ごとに 弱々しさと苦悩を読み取る あらゆる人のあらゆる叫びに あらゆる子どもの泣き声に あらゆる声に あらゆる呪詛に 私は宿業にさいなまれた声を聞く | 煙突掃除の子どもたちが泣いても どんな教会も助けてはくれない 不幸な兵士たちのため息は 宮殿の壁を血に染めてうつろう 真夜中の巷でわたしが聞くのは 若い身空で売奴となった女の呪い 呪いは幼子の涙を吹き飛ばし 新婚の団欒も疫病で滅ぼす |
3. ‘The Sick Rose’.
This little poem seems to be very straightforward, but its meaning remains elusive. Is the worm that destroys the rose a symbol of death? By contrast, roses are often associated with love, beauty, and the erotic. In Blake’s poem we get several hints that such a reading is tenable: the rose is in a ‘bed’, suggesting not just its flowerbed but also the marriage bed; not only this, but it is a bed of ‘crimson joy’, which is not quite as strong a suggestion of sex and eroticism as ‘scarlet joy’ would have been, but nevertheless bristles with more than simple colour-description.
The Sick Rose
O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
| 病めるバラ（壺齋散人訳） 病気のバラよ 見えない虫が夜にまぎれて 嵐のような羽音をたてつつ お前のところに飛んでくるや 緋色に輝き喜びに満ちた お前の花びらを ベッドにしたのだ 虫の暗くてひそかな愛が お前の命を滅ぼしたのだ | 病めるばら（土居光和訳） おお ばらよ おまえは病んでいる！ 嵐の吼(ほ)える 夜中に飛ぶ 目に見えぬ虫が おまえのねどこを見付けた── くれないのよろこびの── そして その虫の暗い 秘められた愛は お前のいのちを滅ぼす。 | |
病める薔薇 (長尾高弘訳） おお、薔薇よ、病める美。 嵐の夜、うなる風に 飛ばされてきた 目に見えない虫が お前の深紅の歓びに酔い 住みついてしまった。 彼の暗いひそかな愛が お前の命を確実に奪う。 | 佐藤春夫「田園の憂鬱」 （或いは「病める薔薇（そうび）」）の 「おお、薔薇（そうび）！ 汝病めり！」は ブレイクのこの詩の写しです。 |
「大いなる赤き竜と日をまとう女」でお馴染み（？）
英国の詩人、画家、銅版画ウィリアム・ブレイクの「病める薔薇」の訳
4. ‘A Poison Tree’.
Blake originally gave ‘A Poison Tree’ the title ‘Christian Forbearance’. It begins:
I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow.
The speaker of the poem tells us that when he was angry with his friend he simply told his friend that he was annoyed, and that put an end to his bad feeling. But when he was angry with his enemy, he didn’t air his grievance to this foe, and so the anger grew.
The implication of this ‘poison tree’ is that anger and hatred start to eat away at oneself: hatred always turns inward, corrupting into self-hatred.
This powerful and curious little poem is about the power of anger to become corrupted into something far more deadly and devious if it is not aired honestly. The enemy may have stolen the apple (and trespassed on the speaker’s property – he ‘stole’ into his garden, after all), but he was deceived into thinking that something deadly and poisonous (the speaker’s anger) was something nice and tasty (the apple).
A Poison Tree
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I watered it in fears.
Night and morning with my tears:
And I sunned it with smiles.
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night.
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine.
And he knew that it was mine.
And into my garden stole.
When the night had veild the pole;
In the morning glad I see;
My foe outstretchd beneath the tree.
| 毒の木 友達に腹がたっても 怒りはやがておさまるもの だが敵に腹がたつと 怒りは決しておさまらない 朝な夕な入念に 涙でもって水をやり ほくそ笑みと欺瞞でもって 怒りを暖め育めば | 怒りは日ごとに大きくなり やがて見事なりんごの実がなる 敵は輝くりんごを見ると それが私のものだと知って 夜の帳が下りるのを待ち 私の庭に盗み入ったが 憎い敵は夜明けとともに りんごの木の下でのびているのだ |
5. ‘The Tyger’.
Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
The opening line of this poem, ‘Tyger! Tyger! burning bright’, is among the most famous lines in all of William Blake’s poetry.
Accompanied by a painting of an altogether cuddlier tiger than the ‘Tyger’ depicted by the poem itself, ‘The Tyger’ first appeared in the 1794 collection Songs of Experience, which contains many of Blake’s most celebrated poems. The Songs of Experience was designed to complement Blake’s earlier collection, Songs of Innocence (1789), and ‘The Tyger’ should be seen as the later volume’s answer to ‘The Lamb’ (see below).
Framed as a series of questions, ‘Tyger Tyger, burning bright’ (as the poem is also often known) sees Blake’s speaker wondering about the creator responsible for such a fearsome creature as the tiger. The fiery imagery used throughout the poem conjures the tiger’s aura of danger: fire equates to fear. Don’t get too close to the tiger, Blake’s poem seems to say, otherwise you’ll get burnt.
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!
When the stars threw down their spears
And water’d heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
| 虎 虎よ虎よ、赤々と輝き燃えている夜の森で 如何なる不死の手があるいは眼が その恐ろしい均整をつくり得たのか 如何なる海の深淵であるいは天上で おまえの眼の炎が燃えたのか 如何なる翼で彼はあえて高く 舞い上がり 如何なる手であえてその火をつかんだのか そして如何なる肩が、如何なる技が おまえの心臓の腱をねじり得たのか そしておまえの心臓が鼓動し始めたとき 如何なる恐ろしい手が、 如何に恐ろしい足を | 如何なる金鎚で、如何なる鎖で 如何なる炉の中におまえの脳髄が あったのか 如何なる鉄床で、 如何なる恐ろしい握力が その破壊的な恐怖をあえて握りしめたのか 星々がやりを投げ下ろし 天を涙でぬらしたとき 彼はおまえを見て微笑んだのか 子羊をつくった彼が おまえをつくったのか 虎よ虎よ赤々と輝き燃える 夜の森で 如何なる不死の手あるいは眼が あえてその恐ろしい均整を つくったのか |
6. ‘The Clod and the Pebble’.
‘Love seeketh not itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care, But for another gives its ease, And builds a Heaven in Hell’s despair.’ So sung a little Clod of Clay Trodden with the cattle’s feet …
This poem is about two contrasting ideas of love – the ‘clod’ of clay representing a selfless and innocent kind of love and the ‘pebble’ in a brook symbolising love’s more pragmatic, selfish side.
The Clod and the Pebble
Love seeketh not Itself to please.
Nor for itself hath any care:
But for another gives its ease.
And builds a Heaven in Hells despair.
So sang a little Clod of Clay
Trodden with the cattles feet:
But a Pebble of the brook
Warbled out these metres meet.
Love seeketh only Self to please.
To bind another to its delight:
Joys in anothers loss of ease.
And builds a Hell in Heavens despite.
(We quote the poem with the original spelling and punctuation used by Blake.)
| 土くれと石ころ 愛は自分の楽しみを求めない 愛は自分への気遣いはしない それは他の人に安らぎをもたらし 地獄の絶望の上に天国を 建てようとする | ちっぽけな土くれがそう歌った 牛たちの足に踏みつけられながら でも小川を流れる小石は 土くれとの出会いを避けた 愛は自分自身を楽しませるためのもの 自分の快楽のために他の人はある 他人の不安の中にも喜びはある そして天国にも地獄を作って憚らない |
7. ‘The Little Black Boy’.
Blake published ‘The Little Black Boy’ in 1789 and the poem can be seen in part as an indictment of slavery. Blake’s poem gives a voice to a black boy born into slavery, whose skin is black but, he maintains, his soul is white. ‘White’ here suggests purity and innocence, that central theme in Blake’s poems of 1789.
The Little Black Boy
My mother bore me in the southern wild,
And I am black, but O! my soul is white;
White as an angel is the English child:
But I am black as if bereav’d of light.
My mother taught me underneath a tree
And sitting down before the heat of day,
She took me on her lap and kissed me,
And pointing to the east began to say.
Look on the rising sun: there God does live
And gives his light, and gives his heat away.
And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive
Comfort in morning joy in the noonday.
And we are put on earth a little space,
That we may learn to bear the beams of love,
And these black bodies and this sun-burnt face
Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.
For when our souls have learn’d the heat to bear
The cloud will vanish; we shall hear his voice.
Saying: come out from the grove my love & care,
And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice.
Thus did my mother say and kissed me,
And thus I say to little English boy.
When I from black and he from white cloud free,
And round the tent of God like lambs we joy:
I’ll shade him from the heat till he can bear,
To lean in joy upon our father’s knee.
And then I’ll stand and stroke his silver hair,
And be like him and he will then love me.
| 黒人の少年 僕の母さんは南の土地で僕を生んだ 僕は黒い でも心は白いんだ イギリスの子どもは天使のように白いけれど 僕は黒い 明るさを抜かれたみたいに 母さんは木陰で僕に教えてくれた まだ暑くなる前に木の下に腰掛けると 母さんは僕を膝の上に抱いてキスしてくれた そして東のほうを指差して言ったんだ みてごらん昇る日を 神様はあそこにおられる そして光と暖かさを与えてくださる 花も木も動物たちも人間もみなすべて 朝には安らぎを昼には喜びをもらえるのよ 私たちがちっぽけな場所に 生まれてきたのは 神様の愛の光を受け止めるためなの 私たちの黒い体や日に焼けた顔は 光を受け止めるための日差しの ようなもの | 私たちの心が光の熱に耐えるよう 学んだとき 日差しはいらなくなり 神の声に 召されるでしょう 神はいわれる 我が愛するもの 日差しを離れて来たれ 我が黄金のテントの周りに子羊 のように戯れよ 母さんはこういってキスしてくれた だから僕はイギリスの子どもに 言うんだ 僕たちが皮膚の色から解放されて 神様のテントの周りに子羊のように 戯れるとき 僕が日陰となって神様の光の熱を 和らげ 君が神様の膝にくつろげるようにしてあげる 立ち上がって銀色の髪をなでてもあげる そして僕らは仲良しの友達になるんだ |
8. ‘The Lamb’.
Little Lamb who made thee Dost thou know who made thee Gave thee life & bid thee feed. By the stream & o’er the mead; Gave thee clothing of delight, Softest clothing wooly bright; Gave thee such a tender voice, aking all the vales rejoice! Little Lamb who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee?
So begins the counterpoint poem to ‘The Tyger’, or rather, ‘The Tyger’ is the ‘experience’ version of this ‘innocence’ poem. The lamb is a well-known symbol for Jesus Christ, and Blake draws on this association in this poem, telling the lamb that it was its namesake, the Lamb (i.e. the Lamb of God) who made the lamb, along with all living things. The composer John Tavener set ‘The Lamb’ to music.
The Lamb
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
By the stream & o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
Little Lamb who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Little Lamb I’ll tell thee,
Little Lamb I’ll tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb God bless thee.
Little Lamb God bless thee.
| 子羊 可愛い可愛い子羊ちゃん 誰がお前を作ったの？ そんなに可愛く生き生きと 小川や野原を歩き回って 誰がお前にふさふさと やわらかい毛皮をかぶせたの？ 誰が谷間に響き渡る 愛らしい声を贈ったの？ 可愛い可愛い子羊ちゃん 誰がお前を作ったの？ | 可愛い可愛い子羊ちゃん 私が教えてあげましょう お前の名前で呼ばれてる 主こそがお前を作ったの 主はおとなしく温和な方 小さな子として生まれるの 私は子ども お前は子羊 私たちはみな主の子ども 可愛い可愛い子羊ちゃん 神様の祝福がありますように |
9. ‘The Garden of Love’.
In this poem, Blake’s speaker goes into the Garden of Love and finds a chapel built on the spot where he used to play as a child. The gates of the chapel are shut, and commandments and prohibitions are written over the door. The garden has become a graveyard, its flowers replaced by tombstones. This idea of love starting out as a land of liberty and promise but ending up a world of death and restriction is expressed very powerfully through the image of the garden:
The Garden of Love
I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen:
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.
And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And Thou shalt not writ over the door;
So I turn’d to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore.
And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be:
And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars, my joys & desires.
| 愛の園 心はずませ 愛の園に出かけてみたら 見たことのない光景に出会った いつも遊んでた広場の上には 教会の建物が建っていたんだ 教会の門は閉じられていて 立ち入り禁止と書いてあるんだ 仕方なく花壇のほうへ引き返し すずしい木陰を探そうとしたら | そこは墓地に変わっていたんだ 花のかわりに 墓石が並び 牧師たちが 見張りをしている 僕は茨で縛られたように 悲しい気持になったんだ |
10. ‘Never seek to tell thy love’.
This untitled poem, written in around 1793, would have to wait 70 years to see publication, when the Pre-Raphaelite poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti included it in his edition of Blake’s poems in 1863. The poem suggests that sometimes it’s best not to confess one’s love but to keep it secret. In one manuscript version of the poem, the first line actually reads ‘Never pain to tell thy love’, but many subsequent editors have altered ‘pain’ to ‘seek’.
Never seek to tell thy love
Love that never told can be
For the gentle wind does move
Silently invisibly
I told my love I told my love
I told her all my heart
Trembling cold in ghastly fears
Ah she doth depart
Soon as she was gone from me
A traveller came by
Silently invisibly
O was no deny
| 「愛を語ってはならない」 （壺齋散人訳） 決して愛を語ってはならない 愛とは語られることの出来ないもの やさしい風がそよぐときも 静かに 見えないようにそよぐように それなのに私は 愛を語った 心のうちをあの人に語った 震えながら おののきながら でも彼女は去ってしまった | 彼女が私を去ってすぐに 一人の旅人が通りがかった 静かに 人に気づかれないように 旅人は彼女を連れていたのだった |
If you’re looking for a good edition of Blake’s work, we recommend the affordable Oxford Selected Poetry (Oxford World’s Classics)
Continue your odyssey into the world of Romanticism with our pick of Coleridge’s best poems, our analysis of Shelley’s ‘Ozymandias’, and the curious story behind Wordsworth’s ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’.
Image: Watercolour portrait of William Blake by Thomas Phillips, 1807; Wikimedia Commons.
