Words by William Blake, Music by Willy Grigg

Auguries of Innocence By William Blake edit by Willy Grigg 3/12/26

To see a world in a grain of sand
Hold infinity in your hand
Find a heaven in a wild flower,
Live eternity in an hour.
A robin redbreast in a cage
Puts all Heaven in a rage.
A dog starv’d at his master’s gate
Predicts the ruin of the state.

A horse misus’d upon the road
Calls to Heaven for human blood.
Each outcry of the hunted hare
A fibre from the brain does tear.
The game cock clipp’d and arm’d for fight
Does the rising Sun affright.
Every wolf’s and lion’s howl
Raises from Hell a human soul.

He who respects the infant’s faith
Triumphs over Hell and Death.
The child’s toys and the old man’s reasons
Are the fruits of the two seasons.
The questioner, who sits so sly,
Shall never know how to reply.
He who replies to words of doubt
Doth put the light of Knowledge out.

The strongest poison ever known
Came from Caesar’s laurel crown,
Nought can deform the human race
Like to the armour’s iron brace.
When gold and gems adorn the plow
To peaceful arts shall Envy bow.
He who doubts from what he sees
Will ne’er believe, do what you please.

Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born.
Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight.
Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.
We are led to believe a lie
When we see not thro’ the eye

Which was born in a night
to perish in a night,
When the Soul slept in / beams of light.
And while the soul was so inclined
nothingness filled up the mind
God appears and God is light
To those poor souls who dwell in night,
But does a human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day.