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.'

Note:

Beautiful facsimile color paperback editions of Blake's works have been published by Oxford University Press in association with The Trianon Press in Paris.

According to the back of one of those books, "The plates have been printed in 6 and 7-color offset by Fernand Chenot, Imprimerie Moderne du Lion, Paris, on paper especially manufactured to match the tint of that used by Blake."

As stated in my poem "Wedgwood," Blake really did engrave Josiah Wedgwood's 1817 catalog. See Wolf Mankowitz, Wedgwood, London, B.T. Batsford Ltd., 1953.