IDEAS OF GOOD AND EVIL An incomplete collection not made up into a volume by Blake. The date seems to range from 1794 till nearly 1800. No single piece can be stated with certainty to have been destined for it, and the contrasts were not sorted in pairs. The following were most probably to have been reserved for selection: DAYBREAK To find the Western Path Sweet morning leads me on; The war of swords and spears Exhales on high; The sun is freed from fears MAMMON (GILCHRIST'S TITLE) THE TWO THRONES (MR. YEATS'S TITLE) I ROSE up at the dawn of day. Pray'st thou for riches? Away! away! I said, 'This sure is very odd, 'I have mental joys and mental health, I've a wife that I love and that loves me, 'I am in God's presence night and day, The Accuser of Sins by my side does stand, For my worldly things God makes him pay, "Then if for riches I must not pray, 'He says, if I don't worship him for a god, RICHES SINCE all the riches of this world May be gifts from the devil and earthly kings, The countless gold of a merry heart, OPPORTUNITY He who bends to himself a joy If you trap the moment before it's ripe, NIGHT AND DAY SILENT, silent Night, For, possessed of Day, Why should joys be sweet Nor with sorrows meet? But an honest joy THE WILL AND THE WAY I ASKED a thief to steal me a peach: I asked a lithe lady to lie her down: As soon as I went, An Angel came. He winked at the thief, And smiled at the dame; And, without one word spoke, BARREN BLOSSOM I FEARED the fury of my wind Would blight all blossoms fair and true, And my sun it shined and shined, And my wind it never blew. But a blossom fair or true Was not found on any tree; CUPID WHY was Cupid a boy, For he shoots with his bow And a girl shoots with her eye, Then to make Cupid a boy |