The clod and the pebble - wikipedia The clod and the pebble The Clod and the Pebble from Copy L of Songs of Innocence and of Experience held by the Yale Center for British Art. The Clod and the Pebble is a poem from William Blake 's 1794 collection Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Contents 1 The poem 2 Summary 3 Themes 3.1 Love 3.2 Innocence 3.3 Experience 4 Literary Influence 5 References 6 External links The poem Wikisource has original text related to this article : 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 ; 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 another 's loss of ease, And builds a Hell in Heaven 's despite. Summary The Clod and The Pebble is the exemplification of Blake 's statement at the beginning of Songs of Innocence and of Experience that it is the definition of the `` Contrary States of the Human Soul. '' It shows two contrary types of love. The poem is written in three stanzas. The first stanza is the clod 's view that love should be unselfish. The soft view of love is represented by this soft clod of clay, and represents the innocent state of the soul, and a childlike view of the world. The second stanza connects the clod and the pebble. It gives the location of the clod, pleasantly singing his view while being trodden on by a cattle. At the end of the 2nd line the shift in views is signaled by a semicolon. This shift is further emphasized with the use of the word `` But '' at the beginning of the third line. The pebble is meanwhile in the river warbling his view. The final stanza is the pebble 's view of selfish love, and it is set up in a parallel structure to the clod 's stanza on unselfish love. Themes Love Different kinds of love are exemplified in this poem. According to Joseph Heffner the clod singing shows `` his view on love, which connotes a blissful joyfulness '' and he believes that love should be unselfish. The pebble meanwhile has the opposite view that love is in fact selfish. These differing views can also be seen as the difference between masculine and feminine love. Innocence The clod in this poem represents innocence. Its view of love is, according to Joseph Heffner, full of `` childlike innocence. '' The choice of a clod of clay to represent this innocent view of love is significant because it is soft, and this view point is easily squished by life, or in this poem the foot of a cow. The clod also represents innocence because it is made of clay, the same material God used to mold Adam. Experience The pebble, with its solid and hard structure represents being hardened by the experience of love, and has, according to Joseph Heffner has gained authority through that experience. The pebble views love as something that is selfish. It also according to Joseph Heffner the use of the word `` bind '' by the pebble `` suggests a sort of aggressive, violent and masculine view of love. '' Literary influence The last stanza of the poem the pebble 's view of selfish love was used as the epigraph for Evelyn Scott 's 1921 novel The Narrow House. According to Pat Tyler the women in this novel have been `` hardened by her life experiences. Each is solely concerned with her own survival, hardened to the suffering of the others. '' References Jump up ^ `` The Clod and the Pebble '' on Wikisource. ^ Jump up to : Heffner, Joseph. `` The Clod and The Pebble Analysis ''. University of North Carolina. Retrieved 3 April 2015. ^ Jump up to : Kamarzadeh, S. ( 28 July 2014 ). `` Love definition in the words of `` the clod and the pebble '', the romantic poem of William Blake ``. Scientific Journal of Review. Jump up ^ Todhunter, John ( 1889 ). Shelley and the Marriage Question. private circulation only. p. 12. Jump up ^ Tyrer, Pat ( Fall 2005 ). `` '' A Bird Alive in a Snake 's Body `` : The New Woman of Evelyn Scott 's `` The Narrow House '' ``. The Southern Literary Journal. 38 ( 1 ) : 43 -- 61. JSTOR 20078428. External links Comparison of hand painted extant copies of `` The Clod and the Pebble '' available from the William Blake Archive An Annotated Bibliography of interpretations of the poem hide William Blake hide Literary works Early writings Poetical Sketches An Island in the Moon All Religions are One There is No Natural Religion Songs of Innocence and of Experience Songs of Innocence The Shepherd The Ecchoing Green The Lamb The Little Black Boy The Blossom The Chimney Sweeper The Little Boy Lost The Little Boy Found Laughing Song A Cradle Song The Divine Image Holy Thursday Night Spring Nurse 's Song Infant Joy A Dream On Another 's Sorrow Songs of Experience Introduction Earth 's Answer The Clod and the Pebble Holy Thursday The Little Girl Lost The Little Girl Found The Chimney Sweeper Nurse 's Song The Sick Rose The Fly The Angel The Tyger My Pretty Rose Tree Ah ! Sun - flower The Lilly The Garden of Love The Little Vagabond London The Human Abstract Infant Sorrow A Poison Tree A Little Boy Lost A Little Girl Lost To Tirzah The School Boy The Voice of the Ancient Bard A Divine Image ( found only in Copy BB ) Prophetic books The continental prophecies America a Prophecy Europe a Prophecy The Song of Los Other Tiriel The Book of Thel The Marriage of Heaven and Hell The French Revolution Visions of the Daughters of Albion The Book of Urizen The Book of Ahania The Book of Los The Four Zoas Milton Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion The Pickering Manuscript `` Auguries of Innocence '' `` The Mental Traveller '' The Rossetti Manuscript `` Never seek to tell thy love '' Mythology Ahania Albion Beulah Bromion Enion Enitharmon Fuzon Golgonooza Grodna Har Leutha Los Luvah Orc Palamabron Spectre Tharmas Thiriel Tiriel Urizen Urthona Utha Vala Art Paintings and prints Relief etching Engravings for Original Stories from Real Life The Ancient of Days The Night of Enitharmon 's Joy Newton Nebuchadnezzar Illustrations for Night - Thoughts Illustrations of The Grave The Four and Twenty Elders Casting their Crowns before the Divine Throne Illustrations of Paradise Lost A Vision of the Last Judgement Descriptive Catalogue The Great Red Dragon Paintings Pity The Ghost of a Flea Agony in the Garden Illustrations of On the Morning of Christ 's Nativity The Wood of the Self - Murderers : The Harpies and the Suicides Illustrations of the Book of Job Sketches Visionary Heads The Ancients Edward Calvert John Linnell Samuel Palmer George Richmond Arthur Tatham Frederick Tatham Related Catherine Blake ( wife ) Criticism and scholarship Scholars and critics Peter Ackroyd Donald Ault David Bindman Harold Bloom Nancy Bogen Jacob Bronowski S. Foster Damon David V. Erdman Northrop Frye Alexander Gilchrist Geoffrey Keynes Alicia Ostriker Kathleen Raine John Sampson E.P. Thompson W.B. Yeats Scholarly works Life of William Blake Fearful Symmetry Blake : Prophet Against Empire Witness Against the Beast Archives and Collections William Blake Archive Musical Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings ( 1943 ) Ten Blake Songs ( 1958 ) Songs and Proverbs of William Blake ( 1965 ) The Lamb ( 1982 ) Related Blake ( 1983 ) In Lambeth ( 1989 ) Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Clod_and_the_Pebble&oldid=813823770 '' Categories : 1794 poems Songs of Innocence and of Experience Talk Contents About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 5 December 2017, at 12 : 21 ( UTC ). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: when was the clod and the pebble written
Answer: 1794