Auguries of Innocence

AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE INTRODUCTION
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In A Nutshell
Get ready to go on a Magical Mystery Tourbecause that's what William Blake's "Auguries of Innocence"
provides. But don't worryit's strictly drug-free. (Blake was pretty straight-edge, though you might not
have thought so, based on the poem.)
Blake died in 1827, but "Auguries of Innocence" wasn't published until 1863, when it dropped on the world
with all the force of a posthumously released Michael Jackson album. Well, okay, maybe it
wasn't quite that popularbut people were getting more interested in Blake at the time. During his own
life, Blake had been a starving artist, thanks to the fact that everyone thought he was a kook. He had to
struggle on the fringes of societylike one of those artists in public parks who sells cool, far-out, spraypainted pictures of unicorns flying in outer space. But by the time the middle of the nineteenth century
rolled around, people were ready to accept all Blake's quirks and mystical visions. His poetry was the kind
of thing that cool, elite poets and artists were intolike those people who get way into an indie band
before anybody else has heard of it.
Blake's had a big influence on hippies and rebellious rock stars and poets like Jim Morrison and Allen
Ginsberg. But Blake wasn't puffing the magic dragon or trippin' on goofball pills or whatever it is that those
guys were doing. His visions were beamed into his head naturallyit was just the way he was. But Blake
wasn't, like everyone in his time assumed, "insane." He just saw things differently, and "Auguries of
Innocence" explains how, especially in its famous opening lines: "To see a world in a grain of sand / And
heaven in a wildflower / Hold infinity in the palm of your hand / And eternity in an hour."
In a way, this is a key to the rest of Blake's poemseven the most difficult, like his Prophetic Books (they
make Ulysses look like a cake-walk). It's a good place to start. Blake believed that the tiniest part of
realitylike a grain of sand or a wildflowercould, if viewed with imagination and energy, suddenly
reveal profound truths about the entire cosmos. (It's sort of similar to an idea from a recent book by the
Dalai Lama, entitled The Universe in a Single Atom.) So "Auguries" lets people get used to Blake's
method, which he uses in all of his other works: his ability to see huge metaphors and visions hidden in
the little, everyday things.
WHY SHOULD I CARE?
Get your magnifying glasses ready, because we're about to "see a world in a grain of sand." [Several
hours later] Yeah, we recognize staring at these grains of sand is getting sort of boring. Maybe we
should turn on one of those Real Housewives shows or something
But nowe need to give you a reason to read "Auguries of Innocence," which talks about seeing "a world
in a grain of sand." That magnifying glass thing was just a diversion. Apparently, you can't really do this
with a magnifying glass. You need to use what exasperated parents once called "the imagination"
specifically, when they would yell at us for spending too much time playing Donkey Kong Country for
Super-Nintendo (this was back in archaic Stonehenge times).
You see, when William Blake wrote this poem, he was trying to get people to see reality in a new way.
"Kind of like Google Glass?" you ask. Perhaps. But Blake really wanted people to see the world not just
as a bunch of stupid trees and houses and cars and people all standing or driving around or walking or
being boring. In Blake's view, reality isn't just boring and stupid.
To paraphrase a poet (okayactually, Insane Clown Posse), there's magic up in this world. Blake agrees.
He thinks a little thing like a leaf falling from a tree, or a robin in a cage, or a guy wielding a baseball bat
and screaming at a bunch kids to get off his lawnall of these things can reveal great truths and bits of
wisdom. You just have to change your perspective, use a little imagination, see how things can be
symbols for other things. That's what poetry's all about, right?
Even if you're not enticed by Blake's poetic and mystical revelations, you should at least stick around for
the comically strange images. For instance, Blake says in one part of the poem that a man who annoys
an ox will not ever be loved by a womanwhich is meant to be a metaphor, but it's also just weird fun.
(Though we're also kind of worriedwe made an ox, like, really mad this one time. Will we never find
love?)
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AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE: TEXT OF THE POEM
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To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
A Robin Red breast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven in a Rage.
A dove house fill'd with doves & Pigeons
Shudders Hell thro' all its regions.
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.
A Skylark wounded in the wing,
A Cherubim does cease to sing.
The Game Cock clipp'd and arm'd for fight
Does the Rising Sun affright.
Every Wolf's & Lion's howl
Raises from Hell a Human Soul.
The wild deer, wand'ring here & there,
Keeps the Human Soul from Care.
The Lamb misus'd breeds public strife
And yet forgives the Butcher's Knife.
The Bat that flits at close of Eve
Has left the Brain that won't believe.
The Owl that calls upon the Night
Speaks the Unbeliever's fright.
He who shall hurt the little Wren
Shall never be belov'd by Men.
He who the Ox to wrath has mov'd
Shall never be by Woman lov'd.
The wanton Boy that kills the Fly
Shall feel the Spider's enmity.

He who torments the Chafer's sprite
Weaves a Bower in endless Night.
The Catterpillar on the Leaf
Repeats to thee thy Mother's grief.
Kill not the Moth nor Butterfly,
For the Last Judgement draweth nigh.
He who shall train the Horse to War
Shall never pass the Polar Bar.
The Beggar's Dog & Widow's Cat,
Feed them & thou wilt grow fat.
The Gnat that sings his Summer's song
Poison gets from Slander's tongue.
The poison of the Snake & Newt
Is the sweat of Envy's Foot.
The poison of the Honey Bee
Is the Artist's Jealousy.
The Prince's Robes & Beggars' Rags
Are Toadstools on the Miser's Bags.
A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the Lies you can invent.
It is right it should be so;
Man was made for Joy & Woe;
And when this we rightly know
Thro' the World we safely go.
Joy & Woe are woven fine,
A Clothing for the Soul divine;
Under every grief & pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.
The Babe is more than swadling Bands;
Throughout all these Human Lands
Tools were made, & born were hands,
Every Farmer Understands.
Every Tear from Every Eye

Becomes a Babe in Eternity.
This is caught by Females bright
And return'd to its own delight.
The Bleat, the Bark, Bellow & Roar
Are Waves that Beat on Heaven's Shore.
The Babe that weeps the Rod beneath
Writes Revenge in realms of death.
The Beggar's Rags, fluttering in Air,
Does to Rags the Heavens tear.
The Soldier arm'd with Sword & Gun,
Palsied strikes the Summer's Sun.
The poor Man's Farthing is worth more
Than all the Gold on Afric's Shore.
One Mite wrung from the Labrer's hands
Shall buy & sell the Miser's lands:
Or, if protected from on high,
Does that whole Nation sell & buy.
He who mocks the Infant's Faith
Shall be mock'd in Age & Death.
He who shall teach the Child to Doubt
The rotting Grave shall ne'er get out.
He who respects the Infant's faith
Triumphs over Hell & Death.
The Child's Toys & 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 the Armour's iron brace.

When Gold & Gems adorn the Plow
To peaceful Arts shall Envy Bow.
A Riddle or the Cricket's Cry
Is to Doubt a fit Reply.
The Emmet's Inch & Eagle's Mile
Make Lame Philosophy to smile.
He who Doubts from what he sees
Will ne'er believe, do what you Please.
If the Sun & Moon should doubt
They'd immediately Go out.
To be in a Passion you Good may do,
But no Good if a Passion is in you.
The Whore & Gambler, by the State
Licenc'd, build that Nation's Fate.
The Harlot's cry from Street to Street
Shall weave Old England's winding Sheet.
The Winner's Shout, the Loser's Curse,
Dance before dead England's Hearse.
Every Night & every Morn
Some to Misery are Born.
Every Morn & 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.
God Appears & God is Light
To those poor Souls who dwell in the Night,
But does a Human Form Display
To those who Dwell in Realms of day.
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AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE SUMMARY
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The plot of this poem is er, there is no plot. And that's not just some Zen wisdom straight out The
Karate Kid Part III. We mean, there actually isn't too much of a plot or really even an order to this poem.
Most Blake scholars agree that "Auguries" is really just a bunch of different couplets Blake collected
together and put into no particular orderaside from the beginning and the end part. There's a kind of
overarching order, but it's pretty vague. So, are you ready for some vagueness? We definitely are.
The beginning of the poem is the key to everything that follows (like yourLittle Orphan Annie decoder pin):
"To see a world in a grain of sand / And heaven in a wildflower / Hold infinity in the palm of your hand /
And eternity in an hour." (Blake means that you can find universes of meaning and revelation hidden
inside the smallest things.)
After that, some animals show up. And keep showing up. There are a lot of animals in this poem, and
they're all being used to make some sort of greater point about the universe or human injustices or
wisdom or lots of stuff. Each one of the animals in these couplets is like that "world in a grain of sand."
It's not just Pooh Bear fun-time hourthis is serious. Robins are being caged, atheist owls are flying
around, roosters are getting ready to fight each otherand they all symbolize stuff and have greater
implications. Not every couplet has an animal in itsome are just bits of sagely advice, some meditate on
reason and doubt.
At the end, though, Blake's poem stops being so hodgepodge. He gets real spiritual, and discusses how
God appears to people in different situations and what human suffering and joy are all about. He leads
the reader through symbols ("auguries") pointing toward a state of spiritual innocencea direct
description of that enlightened state of being.
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LINES 1-4 SUMMARY
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Get out the microscope, because were going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 1-4
And Eternity in an hour.
Blake's speaker gives us a handy key to the rest of the poem in these first four lines. In a
nutshellor, in Blake's own words, "in a grain of sand"it provides the greater theme and
message of the poem, compressed down to bite-size: a crunchy wisdom nugget. They're cryptic,
mystical lines.
He is suggesting that the entire universe can be a contained in a grain of sand in a spiritual way
it's not that you would literally see the entire world by looking, physically, at a grain of sand or
something. It's more that a glimpse of something tiny can provoke you to imagine something
really bigtons of images can come pouring in. According to Blake, that's the whole point of
a metaphor. That's what it does.
A wildflower can contain a heaven because the beauty of a flower is(for Blake) a piece of heaven,
and it can make you imagine or visualize that better and more beautiful world. Also, a grain of
sandis a world in miniature, because it's a tiny piece of a world, of earth. The little parts reflect the
big things that they're parts of.
The speaker keeps playing with this idea of big things contained in small things. Fitting infinity in
the palm of your hand seems like a contradictionsince infinity is endless and the palm of your
hand isn't. The same thing goes for fitting eternity into an hour. But the speaker doesn't think
infinity is endless space or eternity is endless time. He thinks they're part of the "Eternal Now," so
to speakyou really enter eternity and infinity if you get into a state of poetic imagination in the
present moment. (It's like The Daily Show's"Moment of Zen"kind of.) Blake's compadre Emily
Dickinson meant the same thing when she wrote, "Eternity is comprised of Nows." Far out, right?
Unlike the rest of the poem, these first four lines are different. They're written in ballad meter (four
beats in one line, then three in the next)like "Amazing Grace," the Gilligan's Island theme song,
and a billion Emily Dickinson poems. They're in a quatrain, toowhereas everything else is
a couplet in iambic tetrameter (like iambic pentameter, but with four feet instead of five). Don't
worry about this alphabet soup of terms, though. For all the explanations, see the"Form and
Meter" section.
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LINES 5-8 SUMMARY
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Lines 5-6
Puts all Heaven in a Rage.
How many birds are in cages all over the world? The answer is: a lot. It's a pretty everyday sort of
thing. Most people probably don't think this is particularly horrible, though plenty of animal rights
activists would beg to differ. One on the one hand, the speaker seems to be on the animal rights'
people's sidebut he also might have a little more going on than an enthusiasm for the rights of
birds.
The caged bird is a tiny example of injusticeof someone wrecking someone else's freedom. But
the speaker argues that these tiny injustices have bigger, cosmic consequences. That's why
heaven itself gets in a rage: a small example of freedom being crushed is really an example of
freedom getting crushed everywhere, on a global or universal scale, and with human beings and
not just animals. It's like what Martin Luther King Jr. said, "An injustice anywhere is an injustice
everywhere." Our speaker couldn't agree more.
Heaven in this case is made up of the powers that control the universea higher, divine world,
not the sky-and-clouds heaven.
The rhyme here directly connects heaven's "rage" with its source, the "cage."
Also, now we're in full iambic tetrameter mode at this point. For more on this, see the "Form and
Meter" section.
Lines 7-8
A dove house fill'd with doves & Pigeons
Shudders Hell thro' all its regions.
Basically, we're still in the same territory as in the last lines. Birds are being imprisonedunjustly.
But this time, it's not heaven that's being upsetit's hell.
When Jesus dies during the crucifixion (in the Gospel of Matthew's telling of the story) it causes
earthquakes to break out and it opens tombs. Blake isn't necessarily making this reference when
he talks about the imprisoned doves causing hell to shudder (since hell is, metaphorically, under
the earth)but he is suggesting that suffering (any kind of suffering, whether it's doves, robins,
dogs, people, or whoever) causes the same kind of universal reaction. It's a diss to Mama Earth
herself, and even hell is disturbed.
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LINES 9-12 SUMMARY
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Lines 9-10
Predicts the ruin of the State.
Now, we go from the bird-world to canines, although we're still vibing on the animal theme. Also,
we're not talking about freedom being crushed anymore, specifically. The speaker's focused on
attacking good, old-fashioned cruelty. People starving dogsthat's pretty low.
In the same way that the caged robin is a symbol for freedom being crushed anywhere and
everywhere in the world, the starving dog is a symbol of cruelty and injustice. Even though this is
just one dog, its owners' neglectful and probably evil attitude is a tiny piece of the neglectful and
uncaring nature found throughout society. They will also doom that societywhich is why they
predict "the ruin of the State."
(There's probably some personal politics going on here too, with Blake attacking the British
political state of his own time.)
Lines 11-12
A Horse misus'd upon the Road
Calls to Heaven for Human blood.
Like the dog from the last two lines, the horse is another example of victimhood and the
consequences of pointless cruelty the world over.
Also, in the same way that the robin's cage puts heaven in a rage, the horse's ill-treatment calls
for vengeance from the higher powers of the heavenly world against human beings. The abused
horse is a living example of the twisted nature of human beingsthe way they've become warped
into cruelty when they should be feeling pity and mercy.
Form note here: You may think that rhyme scheme that's been holding up till now (check
out "Form and Meter") is broken with these lines. Back in the poetic day, though, words were
pronounced differently ("again," for example, was pronounced with a long "A" vowel sound). So,
it's more than likely that "road" and "blood" might have been a perfect rhyme in Blake's own time.
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LINES 13-16 SUMMARY
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Lines 13-14
Each outcry of the hunted Hare
A fibre from the Brain does tear.
The speaker's still in animal rights activist mode. Like the dog and the horse that came before it
(and, really, the robin and the dovessince humans imprisoned them, too), the hunted hare is
yet another sterling example of typical human cruelty. And like all those other critters, it is a
"world in a grain of sand"since its plight is the plight of anyone who gets unfairly pursued,
tracked down, and killed.
Why the hare's cries tear fibers out of a brain is a tougher question (sounds painful). One way to
think of it is that the cruel things people do help make them less human. In Blake's view, it's only
genuinely human to do things that involve "Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love"but to slaughter
peopleor haresis something else.
Hence, being cruel takes something away from youit tears fibers off your brain, the body part
that contains your sense of identity. If you lose too many pieces, you can end up becoming
another mindless killersort of like Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men. You'd be more of a
demon or an all-destroying robot than a person.
And here's a question: why does Blake capitalize the words he capitalizes? Think about this when
you look at the other lines in the poem, toothen check out "Form and Meter."
Lines 15-16
A Skylark wounded in the wing,
A Cherubim does cease to sing.
Now, it's back to birds. A skylark is, of course, a bird. But a Cherubim (technically, "Cherubim" is
supposed to be plural, but Blake doesn't use it that way) is an angeland not just a cherub of the
small, naked, cupid variety. They've traditionally been pictured in ways that are a little
more intense, with books and animals and wings popping out all over.
Blake emphasizes that a skylark getting injured isn't just some non-eventit matters, it has real
significance. It causes an angelic being to fall silent, probably from sympathizing with its pain.
Like Blake wrote in "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell," "All that lives is holy."
The passage also might allude to the Bible (Blake's favorite book).Matthew 10:29 reads: "Are not
two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your father's
care." If an injured or dead sparrow is important to God, the speaker implies, maybe we should
take the smallest forms of suffering more seriously.
Additionally, take a look at the brief alliteration between "wounded" and "wing." We have more to
say about that in "Sound Check."
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LINES 17-20 SUMMARY
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Lines 17-18
The Game Cock clipp'd and arm'd for fight
Does the Rising Sun affright.
Yeah, it's another birdthis time, a rooster. And the poem continues on the same "world in a
grain of sand" theme: an apparently little thing has a bigger impact or resonance or significance.
Whereas the wounded skylark made an angel fall mute, the rooster, armed for cockfighting,
scares the sun itself.
In this case, though, the rooster brings together a bunch of things we've already seen before.
Freedom being crushed? Check. Cruelty? Check. Suffering? Check. Violence? Check. The
human capacity for evil (since humans organize cockfights)? Check!
The victimized ready-to-fight rooster puts pain and human wickedness front and center. No
wonder he's freaking the sun outespecially since the sun's rising, waking up from a long night
and expecting to look on a fine, fresh world without all these horrors infesting it.
Lines 19-20
Every Wolf's & Lion's howl
Raises from Hell a Human Soul.
We're still in Woodland Critter Fun Time Hour. But this one's a little different from the couplets
that came before it. It's not an example of someone doing something cruel to an animal (unless
some human is doing something to the wolves and lions, making them howl), rather it's an
example of animals doing some pretty typical animal stuffnamely, howling.
But this howling has a cosmic effect: it's raising human souls up from hell. So, that puts it more in
line with all these other animal coupletsa seemingly little thing having a bigger implication.
Blake didn't believe in eternal hell, so he uses "hell" here to mean a state of mind, a state of
suffering. The outburst of energy, or of life-force, or of imagination that these howls symbolize can
help yank people's souls out of this state (or, at least, that's one interpretation).
"Howl" and "soul" are likely another example of an old-timey rhyming pair. (Also, there's a
similarity between "howl" and "hell" that adds something, sound-wise, to the poem. Check
out "Sound Check" for the details.)
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LINES 21-24 SUMMARY
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Lines 21-22
Keeps the Human Soul from Care.
Like the last couplet, this one isn't really about animal suffering. While the howling lions and
wolves symbolize some sort of power that could free souls from hell, the wandering deer
symbolizes the carefree, lighthearted part of people: very chillaxed.
"Care" here means the problems that we have to deal with in daily lifeyou only have to "take
care" if something bad or distressing might happen to you. The free deer in the woods doesn't
need to take precautions.
He or she just keeps rollinglike Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski. (The deer abides)
It's also another "world in a grain of sand" moment because the deer is given a pretty mighty task:
saving humans from their own tendency to get lost in little worries and difficulties.
Plusthere's an internal rhyme here with "deer" and "here." Check out "Form and Meter" for
more.
Lines 23-24
The Lamb misus'd breeds public strife
And yet forgives the Butcher's Knife.
Ah, now we're back to familiar ground: animal abuse. You might've thought you were finished with
that topic.
But you aren't. On the one hand, the lamb is another victim of human violenceand its
mistreatment leads to the whole society getting torn by strife. It's karma, poetic justice.
But, here, Blake is also uniting the image of an ordinary, everyday lamb getting slaughtered with
the image of Jesus, the Lamb of God, dying for the sins of humankind. This is part of the reason
why the lamb asks for the butcher's knife (or the butcher himself) to be forgiven: Jesus asks for
his executioners' forgiveness when he's dying on the cross. In Luke 23:34, he says, "Father,
forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."
But there's an interesting contradiction here: even though the lamb forgives the butcher, the crime
still affects the society as a whole. On the one hand, there's forgivenessbut there's still a kind of
injustice too, since cruelty can only makes things worse.
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LINES 25-28 SUMMARY
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Lines 25-26
Has left the Brain that won't believe.
Now, we're still dealing with an animaljust not one that's being abused or tortured. Maybe this
comes as a relief?
The bat is still "a world in a grain of sand," thoughit's more than what it first appears to be.
Particularly, it symbolizes a thought (or something) emerging from the mind of an unbeliever.
Blake was a Christianthough a very unorthodox oneand didn't take too kindly to atheism, as
this couplet makes clear.
Maybe Blake chose bats because they're usually considered spooky or because they're said to
be blind (even though no bats really are totally blind; but the idea makes sense, since being an
unbeliever, in Blake's view, would make you blind to spiritual realities). Whatever the reason,
we're supposed to imagine this bat flying out of an atheist's mindwhich you might picture as
some sort of attic or crumbling tower that only has old junk and bats in it. Could it be that the bat
symbolizes a doubt flying out from this skeptical mind?
Also, is there any greater symbolism to the fact that the bat is flitting around at "close of Eve"? It's
a classically eerie time of day, but Blake could also be suggesting that the bat's unbelieving
attitude is something that leads toward a deeper darkness or a state of mental decline.
Lines 27-28
Speaks the Unbeliever's fright.
Even though scholars say that these couplets were (more or less) randomly gathered together by
Blake from his notebooks, you can still see how there's a kind of order. Like, right herehe's
talking about an owl and atheism, right after talking about a bat and atheism. He's not done riffing
on flying, nocturnal animals that symbolize not believing in God.
How does the owl sound like it's speaking "the Unbeliever's fright"? It seems like this "fright" is a
kind of cosmic, existential despair. You're worried that there's no higher purpose, nothing out
there in the dark. Maybe Blake's thinking that the owl's cry of "Hoo!" sounds like a question,
"Who?" The owl might be wondering who, in the night, is responsible for creating the world. (Of
course, "the Unbeliever's fright" can also be expressed through undeniably catchy pop rock.)
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LINES 29-32 SUMMARY
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Lines 29-30
He who shall hurt the little Wren
Shall never be belov'd by Men.
This should seem pretty familiar. Injuring birds is badthis is yet another point in the animal
rights zone. It's a theme Blake has harped on before.
Overall, the takeaway is: if you're cruel to birds, you're probably not going to inspire real affection
among other human beings either. Little acts of cruelty indicate bigger truths about someone's
character or personality.
Lines 31-32
Shall never be by Woman lov'd.
This is a weird onethough it's still related to the mistreatment of animals, like so many couplets
before it.
The famous British writer G.K. Chesterton thought it was one of Blake's most ridiculous lines, and
made fun of "the idea that the success of some gentleman in the society of ladies depends upon
whether he has previously at some time or other slightly irritated an ox" (source).
But is it really that nuts? Is Blake actually talking about something specifically related to oxen? It
seems that Blake might simply be saying that if you start trouble where there shouldn't be any
like in the peaceful world of oxenpeople won't like you. It'll wreck your characterin this case,
impacting some dude's ability to charm women.
Note that the previous couplet had to do with how men wouldn't like you if you went around
hurting wrensthis one switches up the genders and the animals.
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LINES 33-36 SUMMARY
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Lines 33-34
Shall feel the Spider's enmity.
This is pure poetic justicekarma, the law of cause and effect. What you do comes back to get
you.
In this case, the word "wanton" means that the boy is cruel in a totally unprovoked way. He's just
ripping the wings off flies for recreation, to pass the time after school. The kid is like some sort of
young Jack the Ripper in training. But he's going to get his.
Blake is toying with the idea that the boy, as punishment for torturing flies, will be reincarnated as
a fly and get killed by a spider. Blake doesn't necessarily think that this, specifically, is going to
happen. But he does think that wrathful and cruel people are bound to fall victim to wrath and
cruelty: the universe is going to fling it back at them.
Lines 35-36
He who torments the Chafer's sprite
Weaves a Bower in endless Night.
A "chafer" is a buga scarab beetle, specifically. Since Blake thinks that even bugs and worms
have God in them, someone who tortures a bug seems kind of awful, in his eyes. He's covered
the bases with cruelty to birds and mammalsnow he's going down into the insect world. This
couplet, the one before it, and the two after it all deal with bugs in some way.
Blake says it's wrong to torment the chafer's "sprite." This does not mean that this person would
be torturing a refreshing, carbonated beverage in a green plastic bottle, belonging to a certain
scarab beetle. A "sprite" is a legendary creaturean elf-like beingbut it comes from the Latin
word for spirit ("spiritus"). So, Blake means that you shouldn't torment the soul or spirit of the
beetle, since that's the part that belongs to and is part of God.
By committing acts of cruelty toward the souls of bugs, a person is weaving "a Bower in endless
Night." A "bower" is a shelter made from tree branches and vines woven togetherso, cruel
actions create a home in "endless night," a world of hellish loneliness. Cruelty seals you in with
your own egotism, since acting cruelly demonstrates that you don't care about anyone else.
Of course, the night might be endless, but not the time you'll spend in it. Blake says that the souls
of living things are what's eternal, not the time they spend in different states of being. Hell, for
him, is more of a state of mindif you find animal cruelty pretty entertaining, you're
probably already in hell, as far as Blake's concerned. He leaves the possibility of making a 180
and becoming more compassionate totally wide open.
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LINES 37-40 SUMMARY
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Lines 37-38
The Catterpillar on the Leaf
Repeats to thee thy Mother's grief.
This is tough. Blake was always neck-deep in the Bible. It was his favorite book, and without
constantly having the Bible in mind the way he did, it's impossible to figure this one out. (Even if
you areconstantly thinking about the Bible, it's still probably really difficult.)
In this case "thy Mother" is actually the mother of all humankind (according to the Bible's version
of events): Eve. A snake (or, the Devil), as almost everyone knows, tricks Eve into eating an
apple, then it's chaos and suffering and confusion for humanity from there on out.
So what does this have to do with a caterpillar? Well, it's complicated. But try this on for size: as
Blake understood the Eden story, after Eve and Adam eat from the apple (which is a symbol of
"the knowledge of good and evil") they fall from a higher spiritual realm that Blake calls
"Innocence" into the world of "Experience": the messed-up world we all live in.
The caterpillar repeats Eve's grief at eating the apple, because it's trapped in the world of
experienceinstead of being a spiritual being living in a better world, it's just another caterpillar,
one in a trillion, hustling to get by.
Also, it's destructive, since it eats leaves and flowers to survive.
Weird? You bet, but does it make sense? If you look at everything else Blake ever wrote, it does.
Lines 39-40
Kill not the Moth nor Butterfly,
For the Last Judgement draweth nigh.
This couplet isn't too different from those we've seen before. It also deals with insects, like the
three that came before it, and it's also attacking animal cruelty.
In the same way that the boy who kills the fly ends up learning what it's like to be attacked (and
probably killed) by a spider, this couplet says that people who go around slaughtering moths and
butterflies are at the risk of experiencing "The Last Judgment." They're going to need to pay for
their sins.
This also fits in with the "world in a grain of sand" thingbutchering butterflies might, in the grand
scheme of things, seem like small potatoes. But, according to Blake, it's causing the Last
Judgment to come downit's bringing about the end of the world. Blake means this in
a metaphorical waycruelty is going to bring cruelty back against you (like in the couplet about
the boy killing the fly).
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LINES 41-44 SUMMARY
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Lines 41-42
He who shall train the Horse to War
Shall never pass the Polar Bar.
We're still dealing with animals here, but this time not with directcruelty to animals exactly. No
one is, apparently, torturing this horseit's just being trained to fight, like humans do. But, in
Blake's eyes, this is a crime, because it's twisting a peaceful part of naturehorsestoward a
destructive end.
One of Blake's biggest fans, the critic Foster Damon, claims that the "polar bar" line
references The Odyssey, where humans are said to enter the underworld through a gate in the
north. (Blake also talks about a gate in the north leading to the spiritual world in his poemThe
Book of Thel.)
So, using Damon's idea, Blake means that, if you're messing with nature and turning peaceful
animals or things toward violence, you're not going to get to enter the spiritual world.
Also, this is another case where the rhyme is probably based on old-time pronunciation ("war"
and "bar").
Lines 43-44
The Beggar's Dog & Widow's Cat,
Feed them & thou wilt grow fat.
Now, Blake is switching things around a little. Instead of saying something like, "He who Punches
a Pig in the Face / Never shall Finish the Stockcar Race" (not that that's a real one), he's putting
a positive spin on things.
Feeding animals belonging to people who are in tough situations (beggars and widows) will help
you make sure that you're well-fed. In the same way that cruelty comes back at you, generosity
rebounds back too. You "reap what you sow," in other words.
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LINES 45-48 SUMMARY
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Lines 45-46
The Gnat that sings his Summer's song
Poison gets from Slander's tongue.
Imagine this: you're a gnat. You're just chilling out, making gnat noises, singing, hovering over a
field with a bunch of gnat buddies. Then, somewhere on planet Earth, someone slanders
someone elsethey talk smack, false smack. If you knew about it, it would ruin your songyou'd
buzz out-of-key, in an upset way.
That's basically the picture Blake's presenting us with. It's yet another "world in a grain of sand"
moment.
Disrupting a tiny gnat's song reflects something bigger: slander, a lie told about someone
(probably, someone who's trying to do good).
Note, yet again the modern trouble we'd have making "song" rhyme with "tongue." It worked for
Blake, though.
Lines 47-48
The poison of the Snake & Newt
Is the sweat of Envy's Foot.
You know the drill by this point: a little thing from nature, like snake or newt poison (there are
poison newts out there), reflects a bigger human issue, like the emotion of envy. Yepit's the
"world in a grain of sand" repeated all over again.
Also, note that we're not talking about birds, mammals, or insects this time. We're dealing with
reptiles and amphibians. So Blake seems pretty determined to use examples with all the animal
kingdom.
Also, the sweat is from "Envy's Foot" (ew) for a simple reason: foot sweat is gross and so is
envy.
Again, we have some old-time rhyme with "newt" and "foot."
Note: most of these couplets involve a metaphor of some kind. In this one, the metaphor is really
directly stated because Blake says that the poison "is" the "sweat of Envy's Foot."
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LINES 49-52 SUMMARY
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Lines 49-50
The poison of the Honey Bee

Is the Artist's Jealousy.
An artist is like a honeybee because they both create sweet, good things: art and honey. So the
sting or poison of a honeybee is like the artist's dark side. Although artists are doing something
nice, they can't help getting jealous about other artists.
There are actually two ways you can take this couplet, and they both make a lot of sense (though
one might make a little more). If the "poison" of the bee is a reference to its sting, then it means
the artist's jealousywhich can be pride over his/her work, or jealousy of someone else's work
is something that can either defend that artist or injure other people.
But if it's not a reference to the sting, and it's a poison that actually poisons the bee and wrecks
its ability to create honey, then Blake means that jealousy is something that ruins the artist's
ability to work. Both make sense, but maybe we lean toward that first interpretation.
Lines 51-52
Are Toadstools on the Miser's Bags.
This is another straight-up metaphor. The robes and rags "are" the toadstools. And this couplet
doesn't have anything to do with animals.
Also, this one is pretty tough. We get that Blake is saying something negative about the prince's
robes and beggar's rags, since he's saying that they're toadstools. And being a miser isn't usually
a good thing. But in what sense are the robes and rags really like toadstools on a miser's bag?
It's sort of a puzzle, though it definitely has a solution.
First of all: princes are rich and misers are poor. Yet both of their kinds of clothing are being
compared to toadstoolsfungus. And where's that fungus growing? It's growing on a miser's
bagsthe bags of someone who hoards money and doesn't use it, especially not for charity.
So, Blake might be saying that the miserliness of human beingstheir greed and attachment to
money instead of what money can beused forhelps cause inequality. Some people are wearing
robes, and others are wearing rags. If people had a more generous spirit and saw themselves as
part of a greater human family, this probably wouldn't be happening.
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Lines 53-54
Beats all the Lies you can invent.
Suddenly, Blake snaps out of metaphor mode. This couplet is more of a proverba
catchy little saying, a maxim, an aphorism.
"A truth that's told with bad intent" is worse than any kind of lie, because some lies can
be well-intentioned, possibly even helpful. There's such a thing as a "white lie," in
Blake's view. But if someone's using a truth for an evil purposethat's obviously bad,
not only because of its effect, but because it makes the truth seem corrupted, too. You
can use a lie to help the truth, and you can use a truth to damage the truth. It's sort of a
paradox.
What would be an example? Maybe stomping all over someone's dreamlike saying,
"You'll never get to be a professional ping pong champion!" It might be truebut what's
the point, aside from hurting someone's feelings?
Lines 55-58
It is right it should be so;
Thro' the World we safely go.
Don't expect perfect happiness, Shmoopers. Then again, don't expect total misery.
Expect a mixture of both, says Blake, and you'll have the right perspective on life. You'll
be able to get through it without feeling utterly cheated.
Also, joy and suffering seem to exist as a complementary pairyou can't have one
without the other.
Note that he's still using couplets, but these four lines are all part of the same
argumentunlike any of the couplets that have come before, except for the first four
lines of the poem (the opening "grain of sand" part).
He's also still in proverb mode like in the last couplethe's not referencing any critters.
The fact that he keeps the same rhyme through all four lines demonstrates that these
are four lines that hang togetherthey're not like the couplets from before.
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LINES 59-62 SUMMARY
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Get out the microscope, because were going through this

poem line-by-line.
Lines 59-62
Runs a joy with silken twine.
Blake continues on the "Joy and Woe" theme. These four lines are rubbing elbows with
the four lines that came before them for a reason.
But what Blake's saying in this case might be a little harder to understand. Why are joy
and woe "woven fine"? And why are they the hot, new Urban Outfitters garb that the
Soul is wearing?
Well, since humans (and all living things, according to Blake) have souls, their
experiences in the world become like a kind of clothing. Like people say, "It builds
character"joy and woe wrap the soul in experience, giving it a unique character and
identity. They make it an individual.
So, the idea that joy and woe are like threads weaving together a garment is a strange
and unexpected metaphor. It's the kind of interesting, left-field thing Blake specializes in.
The last two lines help prop up a point made in the last section: joy and grief are
complementary. You can't have one without the other. A joy is somehow hidden under
every grief, waiting to balance it out and harmonize it. The fact that joy is made of "silken
twine" indicates the high quality, Versace-level elegance and subtlety of joy as an
emotion.
Note how Blake uses the similar sounds of "woe" and "woven" for an effect. Check
out "Sound Check" for all the goods.
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LINES 63-66 SUMMARY
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poem line-by-line.
Lines 63-64
Throughout all these Human Lands.
Blake is stating something obvious: a baby isn't the same as the blankets he or she is
wrapped in. Everybody knows this, Blake saysno one in any "human land" is going to
deny this. So, Blake means to suggest, why don't people think that humans are more
than what they physically appear to be?
As a radical Christian, Blake believed that there's such a thing as a spiritual body or
"imaginative body"the body in which Christ was resurrectedbut that it's different from
the physical body, and is really the same thing as the soul. Blake liked to call the
physical body a "vegetable body," meaning that it grew out of the earth and would
eventually decay back into it. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
He talks smack against people who he thinks are distorting Christianity, writing in his
masterwork, Jerusalem: "I know of no other Christianity and of no other Gospel than the
liberty both of body and mind to exercise the Divine Arts of ImaginationImagination,
the real and Eternal World of which this Vegetable Universe is but a faint shadow, and in
which we shall live in our Eternal or Imaginative Bodies, when these Vegetable Mortal
Bodies are no more."
In this little couplet, he's basically making the same pointthat humans are spiritual
beings and not just physical thingsbut in a much shorter, less elaborate way.
Lines 65-66
Tools were made, & born were hands,
Every Farmer Understands.
These lines continue the rhyme from the last two lineswhich probably indicates that
we're meant to connect them, or read them together.
The last couplet was talking about how babies are more than (and, actually, totally
different from) the swaddling bands they're wrapped inimplying that humans are also
more than the physical beings they merely appear to be. They're spiritual beings, and
reality itself is spiritual.
This couplet continues with that themeit draws an analogy with a simple fact that
everyone agrees with: "Tools were made, & born were hands." Almost no one is going to
object to thata hammer isn't typically the child of a mother and father hammer, and an
actual human hand is usually attached to a human who was born to human parents.
So, what's the point? Is Blake just stating conventional wisdom that everybody already
knows? Nope. This is the analogy he's making. In the same way that hands were born
and tools were made, the inner selves or souls of humans are bornthey're created
from the spirit. But the outer selves of humans, the bodies and brains that go out into the
world, are a part of naturethey were "made" by nature, and they'll ultimately
disintegrate back into it, decaying to dirt. They're like "tools" the spirit uses to live and
work.
Blake's suggesting that it's funny that every farmer knows thisbut people don't usually
see the spiritual nature of reality, or understand what it's all about.
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LINES 67-70 SUMMARY
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poem line-by-line.
Lines 67-70
And return'd to its own delight.
These might be the toughest lines yet: it's hard to understand them without knowing
anything about Blake's greater vision of reality and mythology.
Blake's saying that, whenever you feel real sympathy or sadness and shed a tear, that
tear creates something ("Becomes a Babe in Eternity") that, in the spiritual world, will
become a realitythe thing you were sad about or felt sympathy for will eventually be
made right or fixed: "return'd to its own delight." What we hope for or dream about on
planet Earth becomes real in "Eternity."
The weirdest part is the bit about how the "Babe" gets "caught by Females bright" before
being made into a reality in the eternal world. The "Females bright" are good,
mythological figureslike the Graces from Greek Mythology or a more positive version
of the Fates. Their job is to keep reality functioning correctlyto make sure that there's
joy on the other side of every pain.
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LINES 71-74 SUMMARY
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poem line-by-line.
Lines 71-72
Are Waves that Beat on Heaven's Shore.
Now, we're finally back to animalsor, at least, to animal noises.

This is another weird, transcendental, left-field couplet. It's sort of related to the four lines
that came before it, though: Blake is saying that the emotions and powers at work on
Earth reverberate in Eternity or heaven (or something like that). What happens in the
world has an effect in the Beyond.
Or, he could be saying that the passions and terrors of this worldwhich
are symbolized by the animal noisesare like a tumultuous ocean. But heaven exists
beyond thatit's the safety of the shore.
Or, he could really mean both of those things at once.
There's some alliteration in this couplet, too ("The Bleat, the Bark, Bellow"). Also, we get
a sort of internal rhyme with "bleat" and "beat." Check out "Sound Check" for more.
Lines 73-74
Writes Revenge in realms of death.
This couplet is pretty dark, since it deals with child abuse. The baby who gets beat with a
rod (think stick or switch) causes a cosmic reaction to happen: the person who hit the
baby (probably a parent) will get punished in death, experiencing the same pain that
they'd caused in life. The baby will get revenge, payback.
On the other hand, you can read the last line as meaning that the baby will die and "write
revenge in realms of death" in the afterlife, preparing punishment for the abuser. But the
first interpretation probably makes more senseit's to the point.
This is a "world in a grain of sand" moment: a horrible but common eventchild abuse
causes a reaction in eternity, or the beyond.
Again, this couplet includes another rhyme ("beneath" and "death") that isn't a rhyme
today.
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LINES 75-78 SUMMARY
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poem line-by-line.
Lines 75-76
Does to Rags the Heavens tear.
The beggar's rags tear the heavens into rags in the same way that "the robin redbreast
in a cage" puts "heaven in a rage." Little things contain bigger thingsthe devil is in the
details. It's the "world in a grain of sand" all over again.
In this case, a small example of poverty and suffering tears apart the sky itself. All of
reality is taking part in the beggar's suffering, just like with the robin at the beginning.
Lines 77-78
The Soldier arm'd with Sword & Gun,
Palsied strikes the Summer's Sun.
Blake was opposed to the British Empirehe didn't think that Britain had any business in
controlling other countries. In fact, he supported the American Revolution for that
reason. So, he has a bee in his bonnet about the military.
It's not that Blake thinks soldiers are bad people (though he did have a run in once with a
drunken soldier, who later accused Blake of treason), it's more that he views the soldier
in this couplet as the pawn of other forces.
Even though the soldier is armed with a sword and a gun, he's "palsied"meaning
paralyzed or afflicted with uncontrollable movements. This probably means that the
soldier doesn't have any free will. He's the servant of those commanding him, of the
people who are in charge of the Empire.
In this state of paralysis, the soldier's striking the suna pretty big target (and another
"world in a grain of sand" moment). Blake's probably suggesting that what the Empire is
doing is a similarly blasphemous trespass against the nature of reality: if you strike the
sun, you might damage the light that warms the entire globe.
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LINES 79-84 SUMMARY
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poem line-by-line.
Lines 79-80
The poor Man's Farthing is worth more
Than all the Gold on Afric's Shore.
The poor man's farthing (just a quarter of a penny in the old British currency system) is
worth more than all the gold on the African shore ("Afric" is the same as Africain case
that wasn't clear) because it's worth more to him. Just like people say "Beauty is in the
eye of the beholder," Blake's saying that value is in the eye of the beholder, too.
This shows how much importance Blake gave to the imagination. For him, the
imagination is the power that shapes reality. If you take it away, you don't really have
anythingexcept for maybe chaos. But the imagination can make even an almost
worthless piece of money worth something real (if you need it badly enough).
Also, for the poor man, this farthing might be the difference between life and death,
might get him someone's leftover crust when he'd otherwise starve. He needs it more
than the colonialists who are trying to get that African gold.
Lines 81-84
One Mite wrung from the Labrer's hands
Shall buy & sell the Miser's lands:
Or, if protected from on high,
Does that whole Nation sell & buy.
This continues with the currency theme from the last couplet. This time, Blake's saying
that the tiniest amount of money a worker earns ("One Mite") is, ultimately, enough to
buy and sell all the land owned by a rich miser.
Is this true?
Since a miser, by definition, just sits around and doesn't create anything or do anything
with his or her money, a worker has more power because his or her money actually
stands for somethingitsymbolizes the work, the creative activity. Also, there are a lot
more workers than there are misersgiving them strength in numbers.
The tiny amount of money they earn is worth more, too, because they value it more than
the miser does, in a way. The fact that it's earned makes it valuable.
If the government will protect the money its workers earn, says Blake, making sure
they're not getting ripped off and that no one unfairly reduces their wages, the power of
that money will be enough to control the entire nation.
As a fan of democracy and a secret opponent of the monarchy, Blake thinks that having
a decent amount of money will eventually help the workers get more powerthey'll have
the most say in how the country is run.
(Since democracy did grow more powerful in England, and workers increasingly won
more rights, Blake was actually pretty prophetic here.)
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LINES 85-88 SUMMARY
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poem line-by-line.
Lines 85-86
Blake takes a quick detour from politics and economics back to spirituality. If someone
makes fun of the simple faith of a childor, apparently, infantthey're setting
themselves up for a rude awakening. Basically: they're going to grow old, and weak, and
die.
Of course, that's going to happen to everyone, so how is it a punishment specifically
designed for atheists?
Well, in Blake's way of seeing things, it's worse for atheists or skeptics because they
presumably don't believe in an eternal soul or eternal world. "Age and Death" sting more
because there's nothing beyond themdeath gets the final say. But if you believe in an
eternal reality, they're not that bad, because there's something beyond them.
We also get another imperfect rhyme here ("Faith" and "Death")by modern standards,
at least.
Lines 87-88
This couplet runs on the same theme as the last onefaith vs. non-belief. In this case,
Blake is still chiding atheistsbut he doesn't actually believe in an eternal hell (which he
says numerous times in his notebooks) and doesn't think an atheist won't really be able
to get out of the grave.
What Blake is doing is joking about the unbeliever's own beliefs. Someone who doesn't
believe in an eternal reality actually doesbelieve that they won't get out of the "rotting
Grave," because death is final. Blake is saying that, if you have this skeptical mindset,
being trapped eternally in a rotting grave is, as far as your imagination is concerned, a
real possibility. Your own belief system is your "punishment," in a way.
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LINES 89-92 SUMMARY
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poem line-by-line.
Lines 89-90
Triumphs over Hell & Death.
This couplet is the opposite of the two that came before it. Those were talking about the
negative consequences of non-belief, but this one's praising faith.
It's not that Blake thinks that unquestioningly believing something is totally great. It's
more that he views faith as something essential to human beings. If someone tramples
on an infant's faith, they're crushing something fundamentally human. But if someone
respects it, then that person is headed in the right direction.
They "triumph over hell and death" because death isn't a genuine reality for them
anymore (and, in Blake's view, hell is just a state of mind). They've put their faith in this
eternal order, this eternal reality.
Also, this couplet repeats the same odd rhyme from lines 85-86.
Lines 91-92
The Child's Toys & the Old Man's Reasons
Are the Fruits of the Two seasons.
Kids like to play with toys and older people like to play with ideas (though it's fair to say
that that's not always true)that's what Blake's saying. But he's also drawing
an analogy between the two. Old philosophers fiddle around with ideas the same way
kids fiddle around with toysyou move from messing around with the physical world to
messing around with the intellectual world.
The toys and reasons are, metaphorically, "the Fruits of the Two seasons" because
they're the ways people enjoy themselves in those two time periods.
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LINES 93-96 SUMMARY
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poem line-by-line.
Lines 93-94
The Questioner, who sits so sly,
Shall never know how to Reply.
Blake was extremely frustrated with people who tried to pick holes in spiritual things
like his own visions of the spiritual world, for instancebut had no answers themselves.
In other poems, he talks about the "idiot questioner," who casually asks skeptical
questions without any interest in or desire for a real answer.
He's doing the same thing here. This mini-battle-rap is attacking people who only know
how to ask questions (even smart questions) but who have no idea what's actually going
on, or how life should be lived, or whether there's a spiritual world, etc.
This couplet doesn't use any metaphors or anything, by the wayit's just a philosophical
opinion (or, diss).
Lines 95-96
Doth put the Light of Knowledge out.
This one picks up where the last couplet left off. If you do reply to the "idiot questioner's"
idiot questions, you're not doing anything constructive. The questioner has no interest in
spiritual realities or the soul or God or any of that stuffhe or she is just interested in
asking questions and casting doubt. That's the questioner's jamand Blake's not
blaming him/her for it. He just thinks that's a totally useless way to spend your time.
By trying to answer these questions and doubts, Blake thinks that you're putting "the
light of knowledge out" because you're not contributing to the development of real
knowledge in any way. You're not convincing anybody, and you're just pouring your time
down the drain. It would be worth your time to do something better: to talk to people with
an open mind or to, say, write epic poems about the existence of the spiritual realm (like
Blake).
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LINES 97-100 SUMMARY
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poem line-by-line.
Lines 97-98
Came from Caesar's Laurel Crown.
The American diplomat Henry Kissinger once said, "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac."
Maybe sobut, according to Blake, it's also poison (poison, we tell ya!).
The desire for absolute power ultimately ruins and destroys the people who get it, says
Blakeeither they get assassinated like Caesar or they become monstrous tyrants like
Stalin and Hitler. Either way, it's terrible.
The Romans used the "laurel crown" to crown victorious conquerors (like Caesar), by
the way. But it's also used in a peaceful way, to crown people who've been victorious in
other pursuitslike the arts. (Blake thinks that imagination, art, and spirituality are a
pretty strongantidote to the poison of power.)
The word "laureate" (as in "poet laureate" or "Nobel laureate") is a reference to these
laurels. Bay laurels (the kind typically used) aren't really poisonous eitherpeople
frequently use them to flavor pasta sauce. (Mmm pasta.)
Also, "known" and "crown" form another imperfect rhyme to our modern ears.
Lines 99-100
Nought can deform the Human Race
Like the Armour's iron brace.
This is another anti-militarism couplet, like the couplet of lines 77-78 (and sort of like the
one just before at 97-98, since Caesar was the leader of a military empire). But it also
has secret, inner depths.
The basic meaning is pretty clear: when the human race gets dressed up to go on a
killing spree, it looks deformed. We're not at our best when we're in destruction mode.
According to Blake, what makes us truly human isn't our ability to conquer and destroy,
but to create and love (this is the subject of the next couplet, after this one). So, the
"Armour's iron brace" deforms in that sense.
But the armor is also a good metaphor for what human selfishness and greed dothey
seal you off from reality and wrap you in a personal cocoon. It prevents you from being
open to whatever realityespecially spiritual realitymight be there.
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poem line-by-line.
Lines 101-102
To peaceful Arts shall Envy Bow.
Blake just finished arguing that war deforms the human race. On the other hand,
peaceful arts reveal what's really most human about us. The plow is a good symbol of
these arts because it's creative: it helps call up plants from the earth, which then go onto
nourish people.
So, argues Blake, when people start viewing peaceful artslike agriculture, or art and
poetry (the things that Blake does)as themain things humans do, then adorning them
with gold and gems (i.e., funding them), envy itself will bow down and let peace reign.
Blake's a little like a PBS fundraiser herehe's an artist and he's arguing that art should
have a more significant and better-funded place in society. You want to see more
episodes of NOVA andDownton Abbey? Then deliver the cash.
Lines 103-104
A Riddle or the Cricket's Cry
Is to Doubt a fit Reply.
This picks up on the same idea as the couplets back in lines 93-94 and 95-96: the
pointlessness of doubting for the sake of doubt. It's not wrong to be critical or
questioning, Blake's saying, but you need to actually be interested in finding out the
answer, as opposed to just stating that there aren't any answers.
But before, Blake didn't really say how you should respond to doubters. He just said that
trying to argue them into seeing the truth is a waste of time. Instead you should drop a
riddle or a mysterious "cricket's cry"kind of like when characters get hit with cricket
noises after making a dumb joke in cartoons and sitcoms. Whip out a good haiku or a
cryptic proverbthat'll show 'em. Maybe saying "A Riddle or a Cricket's Cry / Is to Doubt
a fit Reply" is itself the sort of thing you should say in response. Blake might like that.
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poem line-by-line.
Lines 105-106
The Emmet's Inch & Eagle's Mile
Make Lame Philosophy to smile.
This is one of the more difficult couplets. Like a lot of those surrounding it, it deals with
knowledge and what we can and can't understand about reality.
An "emmet" is an ant, actuallyso it only sees what's very small and close to the
ground. An eagle, on the other hand, can see for miles. In comparison, Blake says that
philosophy is "lame" (even though Blake is sort of a philosopher himself) because it's
just a way of thinking about things, not a way of perceiving them.
The kind of philosophy you have is based on how much information you can take in. For
instance, if humans didn't have a sense of smell, they wouldn't know that scents existed
and wouldn't be able to reason about scents and compare them and so on.
So "lame philosophy" is smiling because it's realizing its own limitationsor, because it
cockily can't see those limitations, orbecause it's realizing how everything depends on
your perspective. The last bit, about everything depending on your own perspective, is
similar to the ideas of the philosopher David Hume, who wrote about the limits of human
knowledge (his life overlapped with Blake's, but Blakebeing more mystical than the
skeptical Humewasn't a fan; he definitely would've found Hume's philosophy "lame").
Lines 107-108
He who Doubts from what he sees
Will ne'er believe, do what you Please.
This is another couplet that goes well with the one before it. The ant and the eagle
both see realitymore or less of it, dependingand that's how they get information.
They don't reason about it, they just see it directly.
They go from the gut.
But a doubterunlike these animalsquestions everything, and isn't left with anything
to hang his or her hat on (except for doubt itself). Blake thought that everything we could
see was, in some way, part of this greater spiritual realityso, he takes it all fairly
seriously and doesn't question its basic sense. Even someone's private fantasies and
dreams are, for Blake, images of reality. He says, "Everything possible to be believed is
an image of truth"but this doesn't mean that some visions and ideas aren't more true
than others.
So, Blake's saying that the doubter can't believe until he or she finally accepts that
there's something beyond doubt, that there are images of truth in the human imagination
and senses.
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poem line-by-line.
Lines 109-110
They'd immediately Go out.
As far as we know, the sun and the moon aren't sitting around thinking about things and
having debates about logic. They just radiate light (or, the moon reflects light, if you want
to get technical).
They don't question the basic existence of some kind of realitytheyare. By saying that
if the sun and moon started to doubt, they'd immediately go out, Blake is saying that
people who get wrapped up in doubting everything lose their ability to really exist.
They're not doing the equivalent of what the moon and sun typically do, which is shine:
they're not painting pictures or practicing medicine or putting out fires or discovering new
planets or tending a garden or picking up garbage or catching fish. They're just
doubtingand that's a total waste of time. It puts out whatever light we have access to.
Lines 111-112
But no Good if a Passion is in you.
This is one of the couplets that doesn't really have a greatermetaphorit's more
proverbial, just a little wisdom to lighten up your day.
Blake is saying that it's good to be passionate about somethinghe, for example, is
obviously really passionate about poetry and art. There's nothing wrong with bringing a
ton of energy and zeal to whatever it is you're into, but you won't be able to do any good
if you're possessed by that desire or energy. If it's in control of you, and you're not in
control of it, only some sort of disaster will result (or, you know, you could just end up
irritating all the people around you).
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poem line-by-line.
Lines 113-114
The Whore & Gambler, by the State
Licenc'd, build that Nation's Fate.
Although Blake had liberal and radical ideas about a lot of things, he apparently wasn't a
huge fan of prostitution and gambling. He was fairly religious, after all.
Blake's other poems (see "London," for example) indicate that he saw prostitution as
something that was forced on women by povertyit wasn't a fun career choice. The
government licensing prostitution just shows that the government tolerates poverty and
doesn't want to work against it. The same goes for gamblinginstead of giving people
good jobs and a decent economy, the government just gives people more opportunities
to get addicted to gambling and throw their money away.
By tolerating corruption on a small scale, with gambling and prostitution, the nation
builds a corrupt state for itself. You could argue that this is a "world in a grain of sand"
thing, since Blake takes a small example of something and says that it's going to affect
the country on a bigger level. Little corruption is big corruption in miniature.
(You could interpret these lines as saying they oppositeif you license prostitution and
gambling, they'll become a decent part of the economy, which will help build the nation's
fate in a positive way. But, peeking just ahead, the next couplet makes it clear that
that'snot what Blake means)
Lines 115-116
Blake's saying basically the same thing he was saying in the last couplet. Prostitution
or the exploitation of poor women by richer menis a symptom of a nation's
destruction.
A "winding sheet" is the sheet wrapped around a dead body when it's being buriedso
"the Harlot's cry" is going to wrap "Old England" in the same way and prepare it for its
doom.
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poem line-by-line.
Lines 117-118
Dance before dead England's Hearse.
This couplet continues the "England biting the dust" theme.

After the "Harlot's cry" has wrapped England in its burial shroud, the people who are
winning and losing in this dog-eat-dog society will shout and curse in front of the hearse
that brings England's corpse to its final resting place.
The fact that there are so many exultant winners and bitter losers in the nation shows
that this isn't a place where people are getting a fair shake, exactlythere could be
more equality, humanity, and compassion in the mix.
Lines 119-124

Some are born to Endless Night.
Blake imagines the worldthe physical world and the spiritual worldas a place where
everyone is in either a happy or a sad state of being. But it's not static. People keep
alternating between these states "every Morn & every Night." You might be born to
misery, but the next day you're born to delight.
Again, Blake doesn't believe in an eternal hell, so "Endless Night" is really a state of
being or a state of mind (it's not literally "endless"). It's suffering, to put it simply.
Blake aims for a weird, incantatory effectby repeating "Some are born to sweet
Delight" twice before ending with "Some are born to Endless Night," he heightens the
dream-like feel of this whole process in a really eerie way.
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poem line-by-line.
Lines 125-128

When the Soul Slept in Beams of Light.
Blake recycled some of these lines for a poem entitled "The Everlasting Gospel"which
helps this all make more sense. The relevant part reads:
This life's five windows of the soul

Distorts the Heavens from pole to pole
And leads you to believe a lie
When you see with, not thro' the eye
That was born in a night to perish in a night
When the soul slept in beams of light.
The "five windows of the soul" are the five senses. They're the way the soul experiences
the world. So what Blake's saying in this other poem is the same thing he's saying here:
the physical senses don't give us any real information about realityat least not
aboutspiritual reality.
The truth can only be beheld mystically, or poetically, through the imagination and the
revelations it gives. In order to see what's really going on, you need to see "through"
your eyesusing the soul and imagination that exist behind themand not just "with"
them.
Blake says that the physical eyes were "Born in a Night to Perish in a Night"while the
soul is sleeping "in Beams of Light," since it can never die and has only forgotten its true
identity, believing itself to be a physical body instead of a spiritual being.
The "Born in a Night to Perish in a Night" line is cribbed from the Book of Jonah, where
God describes a bush that shelters Jonah as being "born in a night to perish in a night"
(in the King James Version). Blake uses it to describe everything that's part of the
material worldincluding our own physical eyesand not part of the spiritual world
beyond. You could say that the material world is the same as the "Night" in which the
physical eye exists: it's too dark for it to see the eternal realities.
Lines 129-132
To those who Dwell in Realms of day.
These four lines directly flow from the previous four lines. If the material world we all live
in is the same as the "night" where the poor souls (human beings and other living things)
are dwelling, then God appears to us (according to Blake) as the little bit of light we're
able to receive. God is like the light from the sun, which makes the material world visible
instead of completely dark.
But, Blake says, when you get into the spiritual world (of which Blake had visions), God
doesn't appear as beams of light anymore (which are just a mild reflection of what God
really is), but as the ultimate human being: Jesus (or, Jesus as Blake understood him).
The "realms of day" are the eternal worldthe opposite of the material night world.
Blake also creates the effect of an incantation as the poem endsand in the four lines
just before. He repeats "light" and "night" in a way that has a sort of powerful, possibly
hypnotizing feel as the poem wraps up.
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WORLD IN A GRAIN OF SAND
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Symbol Analysis
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
And Eternity in an hour (1-4)
The first four lines make up the poem behind the poem. These four lines pack the basic point of
the other 128 lines of the poem into a conveniently short space. To illustrate their point, imagine
one of those weird toyswe don't know if they still exista kind of little piece of matter you drop
into a bowl of water. Overnight it blows up into a bigger objecta much larger spongey dinosaur
toy, sayinflated by the water. Well, seeing "a world in a grain of sand" is a bit like thatexcept
the toy is any one of Blake's littlemetaphors listed in this poem, and the water is your mind.
Yeahthe top of your head just flew off.
Basically, the idea is that any little thing in the worlda grain of sand, a wildflowercontains
some sort of greater cosmic truth if you can look at it with enough energy and imagination. A
wildflower is a miniature heaven, a grain of sand is a miniature world and every person and
other living thing, in Blake's view, is a miniature of the Divine Human or "Human Form Divine,"
which he identified with Jesus. Nearly all the metaphors Blake uses in the rest of the poem tend
to be like worlds hidden in grains of sand. A robin in a cage is an example of freedom being
crushed by tyranny in a universal way, for example.
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ANIMALS
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Symbol Analysis
Puts all Heaven in a Rage. (5-6)
Has left the Brain that won't believe. (25-26)
Our "Summary" pages cover the different animal metaphors and show how they unfold. So for
the particular examples you should check them out. But, here, we just want to talk about
animals in general, as symbols. What's the point of using so many animals in so many different
ways? Blake seems to be saying that, if you can be sensitive to things that are happening in the
animal world (a world that people typically consider to be less important than the human world),
you can probably be sensitive to those same things when they happen in the human world. If a
robin getting caged makes heaven angry, what about political prisoners? Isn't all tyranny and
unjust imprisonment kind of awful?
At other times, Blake will use animals to symbolize things about human beings. For instance,
the bat is an animal that symbolizes the thoughts of an unbeliever, in Blake's use of the image.
Ultimately, these animals are our own powers and personalitieskind of like the way in Harry
Potter, the "patronus" spell creates a protective animal spirit-thing that shows something about
the person who casts the spell (that is, if you happen to know what we're talking about).
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PRINCE'S ROBES, BEGGAR'S

RAGS, AND MISER'S RAGS
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Symbol Analysis
Are Toadstools on the Miser's Bags. (51-52)
Does to Rags the Heavens tear. (75-76)
Blake doesn't have a passion for fashionbut he does bring up this clothingmetaphor twice. In
the first example, rags and robes symbolize inequality (duh), but the rags in the second example
are doing something else: they're tearing apart the heavens. It's still a protest against poverty,
but it's also an example of how a beggar isn't someone you should just ignore or write off. His
rags are causing this massive catastrophe. They're tearing the heavens to pieces. Blake's
challenging people's complacency, suggesting that casual suffering, to which people typically
don't pay attention, has this massive, unseen effect: it's ruining reality itself.
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JOY AND WOE AS CLOTHING

FOR THE SOUL
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Symbol Analysis
Runs a joy with silken twine. (59-62)
So, we've said that Blake wasn't exactly a fashionista. But he's talking about clothes again,
hereso maybe we were wrong. But these are symbolic, metaphorical clothesmaking Blake
a Ralph Lauren of the Mind (if you will). Joy and woe are experiences that the soul "wears"it
hasn't experienced them in the womb, but when it comes into the world, it gets a taste of
happiness and suffering (and then some).
But joy is a fine, subtle emotionwhich is why it's made of a rich fabric like silk. Woe is thick,
coarse outerwear. In context, these lines are related to the discussion of woe and joy that
comes in the lines immediately before them (55-58), expanding on the topic.
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TEARS BECOMING BABES
Symbol Analysis
And return'd to its own delight. (67-70)
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A tear of real joy or sadness is something that will bear fruit in eternity. It's a sign of humanity
and it can only develop into something more substantial and divine. This is what Blake means
by calling it a "babe." The "Females Bright" who catch the babe and return it are mythological
figuresthey're like a positive version of the Fates from Greek Mythology. They're helping to
weave the fabric of human destiny.
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THE INFANT'S FAITH
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Symbol Analysis
Triumphs over Hell & Death. (85-90)
Blake clearly cares a lot about "the infant's faith"people who damage it are quite bad, in his
view, and people who respect it are headed in the right direction. Blake's idea seems to be that
faith is part of human natureit's something a baby or small child just has. So, someone who
damages that, who tries to take this basic trust and bend it toward skepticism, is effectively
ruining humanitymaking humans less human (according to Blake).
Without a belief in an eternal reality, says Blake, you've really got nothing to look forward to
except for old age, sickness, and death. That's what the "mock'd in Age & Death" part and the
"The Rotting Grave shall ne'er get out" part are all about. But, if you respect the infant's faith,
then you triumph over death, since you're headed toward eternity.
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GOLD AND GEMS ON A PLOW
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Symbol Analysis
To peaceful Arts shall Envy bow (101-102)
This one is pretty simple. A plow is the opposite of weaponryit's a peaceful tool, used for
agriculture. So, Blake's saying that when people finally get their act together, they're going to
spend lots of cash and gold and gems on peaceful artsscience, poetry, agriculture, and stuff
like thatand less on war. Envy is a source of conflict, but it will eventually humble itself, and let
the peaceful things that need to happen happen. It's a PBS-style plea for the arts.
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NIGHT AND MORN, MISERY AND DELIGHT
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Symbol Analysis
Some are born to Endless Night. (119-124)
The symbolism here is pretty straightforward"Endless Night" is suffering and misery. But you
can be born to "endless night" when you get up in the morning or when it's late in the evening. It
doesn't matter. It's a state of mind, not the literal time of day. "Sweet Delight" is the opposite
it's a spiritual day-time, full of joy.
Blake is saying that our lives are defined by these shifting states. We go from being sad to
happy and back againthe process doesn't end unlessyou find some way to break out of it.
For Blake, the way to get out is a mystical and artistic practiceyou can visualize the spiritual
world through artwork or actually see it through mystical experiences.
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SEEING "THROUGH" THE EYE
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Symbol Analysis
When the Soul Slept in Beams of Light. (125-128)
If you're seeing "through" your eye, you're approaching your eye as a tool you have. You're
looking through it the same way you'd look through a telescope or a microscope. What you're
really looking with is the spiritwhich is behind the eye and uses it as this tool. That way, you
can see hidden poetic dimensions of realitythe "world in a grain of sand" from the very
beginning.
But, if you just see with your eye, then you're being deluded. Since Blake views the physical
world as an illusiona distorted image of the spiritual worldhe thinks that you can't just take
everything at face value. Real imagination and spiritual power are needed to perceive the
eternal realities that genuinely existlike reading a Where's Waldo book, except with God
instead of Waldo or something.
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GOD AS LIGHT AND AS HUMAN FORM
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Symbol Analysis
To those who Dwell in Realms of day. (129-132)
When Blake says that God appears as "Light" to "poor Souls" who dwell in "Night," he's saying
that God doesn't typically appear to human beings, what with their living in the material world.
The closest thing we have is light from the sunsince it's this warming force that keeps
everything alive.
Even though the sun's pretty amazing, it's just a pale reflection of the power of God. Plus, light
is inhumanit's just an impersonal, natural force. But, says Blake, when you enter the eternal
world, God doesn't appear as a blob of light anymoreinstead, he's a "human," in the sense
that he's this Cosmic Human or "Human Form Divine," which Blake considers to be the same as
Christ. God appears as the being he really issomeone who isn't less than human, and is
infinitely capable of loving and caring for everything that lives.
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ANALYSIS: FORM AND METER
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Iambs in Fours, Iambs in Threes

Iambic pentameter? Don't make us laugh. This poem is written in iambictetrametersurely the
best of all the iambic meters. That's rightyour teachers have been filling your minds with
outrageous lies all this time.
Hajust kidding. Iambic pentameter has a lot to be said for it, no doubt. Some dude named
Shakespeare apparently liked it, which is finebut, here, we're all about Blake. And Blake went
with the tetrameter (at least, in this case). But, what's the difference? What are we even talking
about?
Don't worry, we're going to break it down. An iamb is just two beatslike daDUM. These two
beats equal one poetic foot. So, if you go daDUM five times, that's iambic pentameterfive
iambic feet (penta- means five). Now, if you go daDUM four times, that's iambic tetrameter
four feet (tetra- means four). In other words, iambic pentameter uses five metrical feet, and
iambic tetrameter uses four.
Do we have examples? Oh, yes. We have a vast array of examples (or just this onebut it's
all you need):
Shall never be by Woman lov'd. (31-32)
Hear those four iambs? daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM. (Blake replaces the E in "loved" with
an apostropherendering it "lov'd"just to make sure that you're pronouncing it as one
syllable.)
But the first stanza isn't an iambic tetrameter coupletthe "to see a world in a grain of sand"
part is actually a quatrain (a four-line stanza), written inballad meter. In this case, we're not
counting the strict number of syllablesjust the beats, the emphasized syllables. Try to tap your
foot in time.

And Eternity in an hour. (1-4)
Ballad meter is an extremely common kind of meter, and we think it appears here to allow the
speaker time to set the ground rules for the poem. Before we dive in, we have to get a sense of
this projectto put on our big-picture goggles and see how small things have big
consequences. This choice of meter lets the speaker present his case more formally before
diving into the more sing-song-y meter and rhyme scheme.
Now, about that rhyme scheme: once we're clear of the ABAB introduction of lines 1-4 (where
each letter stands for that line's end rhyme, we move into an even simpler AABBCC pattern
that, coupled with the shift to iambic tetrameter, makes the couplets seem, well, a bit nurseryrhyme-y. Of course, that also fits with this poem, since each couplet seems like a bit of wisdom,
an aphorism to live by, you young whippersnappers, you. Essentially, the poem is announcing a
set of philosophies on life and how it should be lived, and to that end each couplet uses a
simple, memorable form to relay this advice.
One last question you might want to ask when it comes to this poem's form: "What is up with all
that capitalization?" No, there's no set pattern to Blake's use of capital letters here. It seems
most likely the case that he's using capital letters for emphasis, to call attention to words he
wants to pop off the page for his readersno big-picture goggles necessary this time.
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ANALYSIS: SPEAKER
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Since there isn't any narrative thread in this poemit being a scattershot collection
of coupletsthe speaker really isn't different from the actual poet. Usually, it's a bad idea to
confuse a poem's speaker with the poet him- or herself. In this case, though, it's a safe bet that
we're dealing with just Blake, dishing out his unfiltered opinions and insights. But who in the
wide, wide world of sports is this guy?
Blake was a high-powered, passionate, sometimes weird and irascible poet-artist oh, and he
also had mystical visions. The couplets clearly are coming from this kind of strange, amped-up
mind. We get a really good sense of what his ideas are about a number of subjectspoetry,
animal rights, politics, Godbut we're not really put in a place where we're supposed to wonder
if Blake is a reliable speaker or not. He sees himself as a prophet and a sageand the couplets
are meant to feel like they're coming from a position of spiritual authority.
These are two of the lines that best demonstrate how Blake, as the speaker, is both a prophet
and a fairly quirky dude: "He who the ox to wrath has mov'd / Shall never be by woman loved"
(31-32). The writer G.K. Chesterton thought these lines were ridiculous, and basically dismissed
them as goofy nonsense. But they do make a kind of sense. Blake's saying not to cause
problems where there shouldn't be any, or else people won't like you. Yeah, it's sort of simple,
but it makes a point. At other times, we see how far-out and mystical Blake is. Without a
Shmoop-style guide, any reader would probably be lost in space when confronting "Every tear
from every eye / Becomes a babe in eternity" (67-68) right?
We also know that Blake had (for his time) fairly radical politics: he was opposed to the British
Empire, for one thing. At the same time, being a Christian, he was not a fan of gambling nor
legalized prostitution. Yet, he was also a fairly unconventional Christian, who personally has
visions of heavenlike at the end of this poem. In a way, Blake, as a speaker, is attractive
because he's just so different. He's not exactly presenting himself as an everymanto the
contrary, he seems so off-beat and strange that it's not disturbing, just engaging.
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ANALYSIS: SETTING
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Where It All Goes Down

Since there's no real setting here, we're going to get abstract. So, how about this? The setting
is your mind. Perhaps you weren't expecting that?
This isn't just playing off Blake's reputation as a far-out seer. The basic realization Blake is
trying to get his readers to haveto "see a world in a grain of sand"has to happen in the
mind. Almost all of the couplets are geared towards producing this revelation, showing how a
small example of something can contain the truth about the whole. But, after stating this plainly
at the beginning, Blake leaves his readers to connect the dots throughout the rest of the poem.
At the end, when he reaches the big spiritual epiphanywhere God appears as a fellow human
being to "those who dwell in realms of day" (132)Blake is bringing home the ultimate vision
that he has and that he wants everyone else to be able to have. For Blake, everything is part of
God, but in a higher spiritual way. The suffering animals and suffering humans in the poem (and
the humans who are causing the suffering) are all part of this "Human Form Divine" who
appears to people in "realms of day" (eternity or heaven).
This is really the epiphany that Blake wants to inspire in his readersto see all human and nonhuman forms as part of one Divine Being. And the mind is the setting where that epiphany is
supposed to happen. Dig it.
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ANALYSIS: SOUND CHECK
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At first, "Auguries" can sound kind of like a little kid reciting some sort of proverb in an old-timey
schoolroom. They have an "Early to bed, early to rise / Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and
wise" feel to themthough Blake was way different as a person from pearl-of-wisdom-dropping
folks like Ben Franklin. "A truth that's told with bad intent / Beats all the lies you can invent" (5354) is a decent example of this kind of Blakean wisdom.
What initially sounds like a schoolish, proverbial vibe, though, can start to feel more like a
magical incantation, going along to a steady, insistent drum beat. It begins to seem more
ancient and weirdsomething they might recite in between songs at a Spinal Tap concert. A
good example comes close to the end of the poem:
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. (120-124)
That beat is as heavy as Zeppelin. As for other sonic effects, Blake's occasional slant
rhymes can create an off-kilter, life-out-of-balance feel to our modern ear. In all likelihood, these
were not originally slant rhymes for the accent of his time and place. All the same, we encounter
several nearly-rhyming couplets like "The Babe that weeps the Road beneath / Writes Revenge
in realms of Death." (73-74). And he also throws in the occasional hard-charging alliteration:
"The Bleat, the Bark, Bellow, and Roar / Are Waves that Beat on Heaven's Shore" (71-72).
It's probably fair to say, though, that the poem gets its energy more fromrhythm than from doing
unusual things with vowel sounds and so onBlake doesn't really repeat vowel sounds too
frequently. He shoots for variety. But the driving beat (check out "Form and Meter" for a
breakdown) turns the poem from being a quaint schoolyard chant into something way more
primalsomething ancient priests would recite around a stone altar in a forest.
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ANALYSIS: WHAT'S UP WITH THE TITLE?
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Yeah, we didn't know what an "augury" was either, at first. We thought it was, like, an old-timey
English girl's nameand Blake must have known a bunch of these Augury ladies, and they
were all pretty innocent. Butget this, gangthat explanation is not even remotely correct.
Yeah, we feel bad and kind of horrible for even mentioning it.
So, in pure point of fact, an "augury" is a sign or omen predicting some future event. Since
these are auguries of "innocence," they're pointing toward er, innocence. But Blake's not
talking about the same kind of innocence as Britney Spears in "Oops! I Did It Again." After all,
she said that she was "not that innocent." (Btw, we're dunking our heads in buckets of Clamato
as punishment for bringing up Ms. Spears and Blake at the same time. But it needed to be
done)
Blake is, more likely, talking about the innocence that Adam and Eve experienced in the Garden
of Eden, before they (according to the story) ate the apple and started feeling ashamed of their
naked bodies. Blake is imagining a timein the past, in the future, and even in the present
where human beings can achieve this innocence again, and attain unity with God.
His couplets are meant to point people away from a life of violence and division, and hint at this
bettermore innocentstate of being.
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ANALYSIS: CALLING CARD
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Mystical Visions and Concern for Human (and Animal) Life

Because of the mystical spin, you know this is a Blake poem. Sure, there are other poets who
get pretty spiritualWalt Whitman being a closely related examplebut few claim to have
actual visions and be directly in touch with Eternity. That's probably the thing Blake is best
known for, reallypeople think of him as being either insane or an enlightened seer. (There's
likely enough fodder in "Auguries" for both sides of that debate.)
Here's an example: "The Bleat, the Bark, Bellow, and Roar / Are Waves that Beat on Heaven's
Shore." This is implying that the forces at play in the material worldsymbolized by animal
noisesactually reach out to affect and touch the world of eternity, or heaven. (Yeah, we told
you folks thought he was kooky.)
Also, animals pop-up all the time in Blake's poetry: "The Tyger" and "The Lamb" are classic
examples. He's a poet who is unusually sympathetic to the animal and natural worlds (even
though he also said that Nature was just a grand illusion). Frequently, he uses animals as a way
to say something about humansindirectly, so you can see it in a new way. For instance, in
"Auguries of Innocence" he says, "The poison of the honey bee / Is the artist's jealousy" (49-50).
Blake's always concerned with human sufferingand animal suffering as well. His poems are
rich with compassion, and constantly chastise humans for not being kinder to each other. Blake
really didn't like bullies or anyone who was causing suffering to anyone else, but his method is
(usually) not to totally damn them, but to hold up a mirror. He's trying to give the Great Britain of
his time the chance to get a good look at itself and its flaws, in order to help it to change.
"Auguries" does this constantly. It's classic Blake and one of his most characteristic calling
cards.
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ANALYSIS: TOUGH-O-METER
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(7) Snow Line

Most people who enjoy poetry could probably read "Auguries" and find something to like. Parts
of it are appealingly straightforward: "A dog starv'd at his master's gate / Predicts the ruin of the
state." (9-10). But the poem gets extremely difficult, even impenetrable, at pointsand then the
reader really does need a guide (or needs to have obsessed over Blake for a few years). For
instance, what does "The caterpillar on the leaf / Repeats to thee thy mother's grief" mean? (3738). Yeah, it's strikingbut what's going on? (Psstit's apparently some Garden of Eden thing.)
That's where the scholars and Shmoop pages come in, gang. We're helpful like that.
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ANALYSIS: TRIVIA
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Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge

Blake and his wife, Catherine, used to read Paradise Lost by John Milton together um, in the
nude. (Source.)
Blake once threw a drunk and disorderly soldier out of his yard. The soldier then falsely charged
Blake with treason. (Blake was acquitted.) (Source.)
Blake's contemporary, William Wordsworth (also considered one of the greatest poets in the
language), thought Blake was "mad" but was also more interesting than famous, sane poets like
Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron. (Source.)
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ANALYSIS: STEAMINESS RATING
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Exactly how steamy is this poem?

PG
You can't really say "harlot" in a G-rated poem. But aside from all the references to prostitution,
there's not really any wild and crazy erotic hi-jinks in this poemyou'll have to check out
Blake's "Visions of the Daughters of Albion" for those. (And by today's standards, Blake is still
restrained.) Overall, "Auguries" is a pretty tame poem, really. Of course, you have a lot of
horrific, violent animal abusebut, hey, so does Dumbo. For some reason, you can get away
with violence more than you can get away with sex, as far as ratings go (Jaws was just PG). So
we're going to stick with a solid and respectable PG rating.
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ANALYSIS: ALLUSIONS
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When poets refer to other great works, people, and events, its usually not accidental. Put on
your super-sleuth hat and figure out why.
Literary and Philosophical References:
The Book of Jonah (127)

Blake references the Book of Jonah 4:10 when discussing how the physical eye (and the
material world itself) was "born in a night to perish in a night." In Jonah, the same terms
("came up in a night and perished in a night") are used by God to describe a gourd plant
that shelters Jonah and then dies.
Emmanuel Swedenborg (128-132)

Blake might not actually owe this idea to the Swedish mystic Swedenborg, but scholars
have always pointed out that Blake's idea of God as a Cosmic Human is really close to
(or actually identical with) Swedenborg's idea of God. You can see this reflected at the
end of "Auguries" in lines 128-132.
Pop Culture Inspirations:
"End of the Night" by The Doors

Jim Morrison was a huge Blake fan. In fact, the name "The Doors" comes from another
Blake poem, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell," which talks about cleansing "the doors
of perception." In this track, Morrison quotes Blake's lines from "Auguries" about how
some people are either born "to sweet delight" or "endless night."
"Every Grain of Sand" by Bob Dylan

This '80s song dates from the period when Dylan was writing a lot of religious and
Christian music. This track from the album Shot of Love makes reference to Blake's "to
see a world in a grain of sand," as Dylan tries to see God's power reflected in "every
grain of sand" and "every leaf that trembles."
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris

Harris's serial killer thriller (which was made into a movie starring Ralph Fiennes as the
bad guy) features a villain with a famous William Blake painting (The Red Dragon and
the Woman Clothed with the Sun) tattooed on his back.
Dead Man directed by Jim Jarmusch

This odd, art-house flick takes place in the Wild West and stars Johnny Depp as a
character named "William Blake." He makes friends with a Native American named
Nobody who happens to be a fan of the actual, famous William Blake and likes to quote
his poetry.
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AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE THEME OF INJUSTICE
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There's a ton of injustice going on in "Auguries of Innocence": animal abuse, child abuse,
unlawful empire building the works. And what does Blake think about injustice? Well, he's
against it, obviously. No surprise there. But Blake takes a unique tack against ithe refuses to
accept poverty as an inevitable thing. He imagines a beggar's rags tearing the heavens into
rags: it has dire consequences for the entire world. In Blake's eyes, no one can afford to ignore
an injustice, no matter how small.
Questions About Injustice
1. How does Blake think we should deal with injustice? Does he have a plan?
2. Do you think that things like "a dog starving at his Master's Gate" really do herald the
collapse of society? If so or if not, why?
3. What does Blake think is the punishment for injustice? Is it in this life or after death?
Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devils advocate.
Blake was on ithuman cruelty is the main source of injustice.
Actually, it's human indifference to cruelty that's the main source of injustice.
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AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE THEME OF LIFE, CONSCIOUSNESS, AND EXISTENCE
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Blake likes to get cosmic, and "Auguries of Innocence" is no exception. We see tears turning
into babies and God metamorphosing from beams of light into a human. But aside from the
trippy special effects, Blake is really concerned with what makes us truly human. He's
concerned with the way we see things. If we see them with a lot of imagination, energy, and
love (and "see a world in a grain of sand"), we're becoming more divine, more fully human. But if
we don't, and instead dull our perceptions, that's a recipe for insensitivity and cruelty. Life, for
Blake, is a matter of heightening our consciousness of reality in order to become more
compassionate. He's into "raising awareness"but in a literal way.
Questions About Life, Consciousness, and Existence
1. How does Blake think humans can learn to "see a world in a grain of sand / And heaven
in a wildflower"? What's his method?
2. What do you think Blake would say the meaning of life is, based on "Auguries of
Innocence"?
3. Does Blake explain why some humans suffer and others experience joy? Does he think
that there's some sort of poetic justice that makes everything eventually work out?
Chew on This
The meaning of life is to raise the consciousness of humanity. And there you have it.
Actually, the meaning of life is to try to have compassion for people. (Psstthese aren't
contradictory statements.)
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AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE THEME OF SPIRITUALITY
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Blake's obviously spiritual"Auguries of Innocence" references life after death, Eternity, and
God at different points. But his spirituality isn't very familiar: he has a unique interpretation of the
Bible and of Jesus. Blake also tends to put a lot of emphasis on the role of imagination in
spirituality. For him, art and literature can put people in direct contact with eternal realities.
They're ways of looking "through" the eye and not "with" it (i.e., using the spirit to look at reality).
Questions About Spirituality

1. How does Blake's conception of God and the spirit differ from mainstream Christianity?
How is it similar?
2. Blake celebrates the "infant's faith" since he thinks a belief in God is essential to humans
(we do it automatically, for the most part). Do you agree with this idea, or do you think
religions are something we learn?
3. Why does Blake say that God appears as "beams of light" to the souls living in darkness
but as a human to those who live in "realms of day"?
Chew on This
The human imaginationwhen it's inspiredcan provide insight into higher realities. It can
even understand things that reason can'tfar out.
Sorry to harsh your buzz, gang, but the human imagination isn't a better source of knowledge,
and reason is the only sure way of gaining knowledge.
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AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE THEME OF SUFFERING
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This theme is closely related to the first theme, "Injustice," since making people suffer is a pretty
common form of injustice. For Blake, suffering didn't come into existence until humanity fell from
Edenwhich was a higher spiritual state of being (as opposed to, you know a literal garden).
After that, humans had to live in the natural world and deal with old age, sickness, and death.
But Blake's goal in "Auguries of Innocence" is to show people another way of being that exists
above that. He's interested in escaping from the consequences of timelike death and aging
and sufferingand re-entering an eternal reality (the same Eden from which humanity fell).
Questions About Suffering
1. What is the purpose of suffering in Blake's eyes? Is it an important and potentially
meaningful part of life?
2. Does Blake have a solution to suffering? If so, what? What parts of the poem give you
your ideas?
3. Does Blake think animal suffering is as bad as human suffering? Or does he give
humans priority? How can you tell?
4. Does Blake think that God suffers along with humanity? If so, does that help to justify or
explain suffering? What parts of the poem give you your ideas?
Chew on This
Turn that pained grimace upside-down. Suffering is helpful because it spurs us into thinking and
considering our condition.
Nah, no silver linings herekeep moving. Suffering is useless and we'd be better off without it.
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AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE THEME OF WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE
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In "Auguries of Innocence," Blake really wants wisdomand he wants to give it out to other
people, too (free of charge, even). For him, wisdom has to do with understanding what you can
and can't know, and what the limitations of human beings are. He thinks that humans can get
insight into the spiritual world, but they're held back by their entrapment in a physical body and
in the natural world. More importantly, they're held back by their sense of self-doubt and the fact
that they don't trust their imaginations. Presumably, wisdom is supposed to help people get over
these hurdles and attain something better.
Questions About Wisdom and Knowledge
1. What do you think the wisest thing Blake says in "Auguries" is? Why?
2. What does wisdom (or Blake's kind of wisdom) help you to do (or not do)?
3. What does Blake have against doubt? Does he think it's ever good to doubt (since he's
probably not saying you should believe absolutely everything)?
4. What do you think about doubt? Do you think it's very useful or should it be used
sparingly? Why do you think so?
Chew on This
There are no limits to the wisdom and knowledge we can havenone.
Eh, not so fast there Mr. Optimistic. There are a ton of limits to the wisdom and knowledge we
can have, since we rely on our senses and our intellectswhich might be totally wrong.
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AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE INJUSTICE QUOTES
See more famous quotes from poetry
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How we cite our quotes: (Line)

Quote #1
Puts all Heaven in a Rage. (5-6)
This is the first of Blake's animal coupletsand it sets the pattern for the rest. A small example
of a bird suffering and losing its freedom really reflects all suffering and the death of all freedom.
It's enough to tick heaven off.
Injustice
Quote #2
Predicts the ruin of the State. (9-10)
Like the robin one, this couplet shows how a smaller example of cruelty can reflect greater
sufferings. If the relationship between a dog and its master gets this bad, it probably means that
the master isn't treating the humans who work for him very well either. The whole social order
might fall into revolutionor pure tyranny.
Injustice
Quote #3
Shall never be by Woman lov'd. (31-32)
This one might seem sillybut Blake's saying that, if you're in the habit of picking on innocent
animals, you're probably not going to appear very lovable to humans either.
Injustice
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Quote #4
Shall feel the Spider's Enmity (33-34)
This one's interesting. Blake is implying that there's some kind of karmic law at work in the
universeif you kill flies, you're going to find out what it's like to die as a fly. Even though there's
suffering in the world, there's also justice.
Injustice
Quote #5
Writes Revenge in realms of death. (73-74)
This couplet is about human suffering, specificallyunlike the other couplets, which mostly deal
with animal suffering. Like the one about the boy killing flies, this couplet also implies that
there's some kind of cosmic justice at work in the universe: the abused baby will be avenged.
Injustice
Quote #6
Dance before dead England's Hearse. (115-118)
This one is more about social injustice than specific individual examples. The plight of poor
women who've been forced into prostitution and of losing gamblers will eventually help run
England into the ground, and destroy the nation.
Injustice
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AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE LIFE, CONSCIOUSNESS, AND EXISTENCE QUOTES

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Quote #1
And Eternity in an hour. (1-4)
These lines provide the key to the rest of the poem. Blake wants you to take its advice, and look
for big realities hidden in small images.
Life, Consciousness, and Existence
Quote #2
Keeps the Human Soul from Care. (21-22)
A carefree human soul is kind of like a wild deersince the deer doesn't have any greater
obligations, it's free to go where it wants to go. Unlike the robin in a cage at the beginning of the
poem, the deer is an image of freedom.
Quote #3
Runs a joy with silken twine. (59-62)
Joy and woe are like clothing for the soul because they're experiences that it puts on when it
enters the world. Joy is made of "silken twine" because it's like the fine Under Armor that lies
beneath a coarse layer of outerwear (woe).
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Quote #4
But no Good if a Passion is in you. (111-112)
Blake doesn't want people to be driven by passionhe wants them to drive it, and to stay in
control. You should use passion, but not be used by it.
Quote #5
Some are born to Endless Night. (119-124)
People are passing through different states all the time in this world, says Blake. They could be
headed from joy back to suffering, or through suffering back to joy. (He might be implying that
joy will only be permanent in eternity.)
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UGURIES OF INNOCENCE SPIRITUALITY QUOTES

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Quote #1
Throughout all these Human Lands. (63-64)
In a coded way, Blake is saying that the soul is more than the physical body, just like a baby is
more than the swaddling bands that wrap around him/her.
Spirituality
Quote #2
Triumphs over Hell & Death. (85-90)
Since Blake sees faith as being a basic part of human beings, destroying faith makes people
less human, whereas supporting it helps make them more human.
Spirituality
Quote #3
When the Soul Slept in Beams of Light. (125-129)
The material world is like a nightmare that the soul is havingit deludes itself into believing the
nightmare is real by trusting too much in its physical senses. Blake wants people to try to reach
beyond those five senses.
Spirituality
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Quote #4
To those who Dwell in Realms of day. (129-132)
In the material world, God doesn't really appear, except in a distorted form as the light that
comes from the sun and makes things visible. But, in heaven or eternity (the "realms of day"),
God appears as a living human reality.
Spirituality
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AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE SUFFERING QUOTES

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Quote #1
A Skylark wounded in the wing
A Cherubim does cease to sing. (15-16)
When a bird gets wounded, an angel gets hurt toothat's what Blake is saying. Since "all that
lives is holy" (in the words of Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"), a bird is as important
in God's eyes as a human or an angel.
Suffering
Quote #2
The Caterpillar on the leaf
Repeats to thee thy Mother's grief. (37-38)
This is a complicated oneapparently, the caterpillar reminds people of Eve, the "Mother" of
humanity, whose sin in eating the forbidden fruit led humanity to fall from Eden. For Blake, the
fall from Eden caused the creation of the natural world (which is really an illusion) and the
descent of the spirit into lower life forms (like caterpillars, which feed off the natural world).
Suffering
Quote #3
Thro' the World we safely go. (56-58)
If you're not expecting everything to be sunshine and roses, you'll have a better timeyou'll be
prepared for suffering and won't have a lot of faulty expectations.
Suffering
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Quote #4
And return'd to its own delight. (67-70)
This is another complex mini-poem in itself, but basically it's saying that suffering is eventually
redeemed. Sorrow will give birth to delight, at some point.
Suffering
Quote #5
Are Waves that Beat on Heaven's Shore. (71-72)
This might mean that the cries of suffering and anger experienced on earth lead to some sort of
reaction in heavenprobably redemption.
Suffering
Quote #6
Came from Caesar's Laurel Crown. (97-98)
Blake is restating the old principle that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the desire for
power is particularly poisonous.
Suffering
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AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE QUOTES
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Quote #1
The Bat that flits at close of eve
Has left the brain that won't believe.
Speaks the Unbeliever's fright. (25-26)
Blake uses a bat and an owl as symbols for the minds and thoughts of unbelievers because
they're nocturnal creatures. They're stuck in the darkness of the material world and don't have
access to the light of the spirit or of imagination.
Wisdom and Knowledge
Quote #2
Beats all the Lies you can invent. (53-54)
It's worse to use a truth for false purposes than it is to just tell a lie. Not only does it cause harm,
it corrupts the truth in the process. On the other hand, you might tell a lie for a basically positive
reason.
Quote #3
Doth put the Light of Knowledge out. (95-96)
For Blake, there's no point in arguing with someone who's a professional doubter, since they
don't really want to be convinced. You'll just end up doubting your own convictions if you fall into
this kind of argument.
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Quote #4
A riddle or the cricket's cry
Is to doubt a fit reply. (103-104)
Blake suggests that, instead of getting into an unproductive argument with someone who's not
interested in being convinced, you might as well drop a riddle on your interrogator.
Quote #5
The emmet's inch and eagle's mile
Make lame philosophy to smile. (105-106)
Since the emmet (or ant) is close to the ground and the eagle's far above it, Blake's saying that
discussing the limits of perception is something that's making philosophy feel a little
overconfident. (After all, philosophy itself can't lead to new perceptions, but can only reason
about preexisting onesthat's why it's "lame.")
Quote #6
They'd immediately Go out. (109-110)
The sun and moon are too busy doing their thingradiating and, in the moon's case, reflecting
lightto be distracted by a lot of trivial doubts that don't lead anywhere. Maybe, implies Blake,
humans should be doing the same?
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AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE QUESTIONS
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Bring on the tough stuff - theres not just one right answer.
1. What does seeing "a world in a grain of sand" really mean? Is it a mystical thing, or is it
simpler and more ordinary? Could it be both? Why do you think so?
2. Why does Blake use so many animals in this poem? Is he just a big animal rights fan, or
is it something else?
3. What is Blake saying about spirituality vs. skepticism? Is he closer to someone with a
secular viewpoint in some ways? Or are his views pretty strictly religious?
4. Is there any kind of overarching order in this poem (even though it's basically made of
scraps that were put together from Blake's notebooks)? Do we end up somewhere
different from where we were at the beginningdoes Blake intend us to be wiser?
5. What is Blake's approach to spirituality? How does he want people to start acting and
seeing things?
6. What is Blake's attitude toward society as a whole? Does he think it could be organized
differently? If so, in what ways does the poem suggest he'd change things?
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Auguries of Innocence

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AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE INTRODUCTION

WHY SHOULD I CARE?

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To see a World in a Grain of Sand

Shall feel the Spider's enmity.

Every Tear from Every Eye

Like the Armour's iron brace.