Nurse's Song (Innocence)

William Blake 1757 (Soho) – 1827 (London)



When voices of children are heard on the green
And laughing is heard on the hill,
My heart is at rest within my breast
And everything else is still

Then come home my children the sun is gone down
And the dews of night arise
Come come leave off play, and let us away
Till the morning appears in the skies

No no let us play, for it is yet day
And we cannot go to sleep
Besides in the sky, the little birds fly
And the hills are all covered with sheep

Well well go & play till the light fades away
And then go home to bed
The little ones leaped & shouted & laugh'd
And all the hills echoed

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 14, 2023

37 sec read
243

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXA XBCB CDXD CXXX
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 591
Words 124
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4

William Blake

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

All William Blake poems | William Blake Books

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