Analysis of Introduction to the Songs of Innocence

William Blake 1757 (Soho) – 1827 (London)



Piping down the valleys wild,
   Piping songs of pleasant glee,
 On a cloud I saw a child,
   And he laughing said to me:

'Pipe a song about a Lamb!'
   So I piped with merry cheer.
 'Piper, pipe that song again;'
   So I piped: he wept to hear.

'Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;
   Sing thy songs of happy cheer:!'
 So I sang the same again,
   While he wept with joy to hear.

'Piper, sit thee down and write
   In a book, that all may read.'
 So he vanish'd from my sight;
   And I pluck'd a hollow reed,

And I made a rural pen,
   And I stain'd the water clear,
 And I wrote my happy songs
   Every child may joy to hear.


Scheme ABAB XCDE XCDE FXFX DCXE
Poetic Form Etheree  (30%)
Quatrain  (20%)
Metre 1010101 1011101 1011101 0110111 1010101 1111101 1011101 1111111 1111101 1111101 1110101 1111111 1011101 0011111 1110111 0110101 0110101 0110101 0111101 10011111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 619
Words 127
Sentences 8
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 86
Words per stanza (avg) 24
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

37 sec read
132

William Blake

William Blake was an English poet, painter and printmaker. more…

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