Evening star., 1925-08-14
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

OF all the poets. none exercises a
more perennial fascination than Viii
liam Blake, the tuneful mystic.
Every year new life or "interpre-
tation" of Blake is issued, some of the
volumes being very abstruse in their
erudition
Most of us, happily, can enjoy Blake
without delving in the symbolism
which enwraps his work 1t is enough
Tor us that his words sing and recall
to us quite fresh images of fairyland.
Who is not familiar with the in
PRODUCTION to the Songs of Inno-
cence?"
Piping down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee.
And he laughing said to me:
Pipe a song about a Lambl'
so | piped with merry cheer
Piper pipe that song again
so l piped; he wept To hear
Drop thy pipe. thy happy pipe
Sing thy songs OF happy cheer 80
So / sung the same again.
While he wept with Joy to hear.
Piper, cit thee down. and write
In book that all may read "
So he vanished from my sight:
And l pluclIed hollow reed.
And ] made rural pen,
And stained the water clear.
And wrote my happy songs
Every child may JOY to hear.
No one. | believe, who ever reads
that poem through Will ever forget it,
there is something so magical, so
fresh and clean about it, lingering in
the mere words as dew does among
roses.
The ability to put into production
more than the words say. TO evoke
6n 4
that mingle with the images which
the writer gives him. is the sign of
the master writer.
In such a poem as the above Blake
achieves this happy result. There is
more there than the words say. There
is music there, and all the long train
attending the love of children, so en-
wrapped with the human heart
We accept gladly the fact that the
child was on a cloud. Let Grass ma
terialists inquire how and why the in
fant was so reposing, in defiance of
all laws of gravitation. We acknowl-
edge that the child was on the cloud.
because Blake put him there, and also
because ii ought to be a prerogative
of children Gf il is not to repose on
clouds at will
We rejoice with the child as the
Piper pipes his song about Lamb.
CAS- we will see later. Blake capital
iZed this word because IL was sym
bolical of Jesus) Perhaps that may
help to explain why the child wept TO
hear this happy. sad song.
Then the celestial child ordered
certainly with cherubic smile) the
poet TO sit down and write his songs,
so that countless generations might
read them. which the poet immedi-
ately did.
How could any one refuse? So the
child vanished from his sight, and he
plucked a hollow reed. and he made a
rural pen, and he stained the clear
water, and he wrote his happy song
every child may joy to hear
The word and" rings in those lines
like some clear silver bell heard amid
dew and clouds, tinkling as fairy bells
might be supposed to chime on soft
necks of shadow sheep browsing in
heavenly meadows.
The world is better for such ina ges
such beautiful, impossible happenings
caught for so long as books may last
on an imperishable page.
The Lamb is another of Blake s
immortal things, containing a quality
impossible to explain in words !
would like to watch some so-called
| ''rough-neCk" read this poem to his
little child and have him tell me after
ward that it was anything but great