A/n: I know that we're not supposed to post poetry, but whatever. Here's the poem that the story is based on, and it's one of my favorites.
Auguries of Innocence
By William Blake
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 redbreast in a cage
Puts all heaven in a rage.
A
dove-house filled with doves and pigeons
Shudders hell through all
its regions.
A dog starved at his master's gate
Predicts the
ruin of the state.
A horse misused 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 clipped and armed for
fight
Does the rising sun affright.
Every wolf's and lion's
howl
Raises from hell a human soul.
The wild deer wandering
here and there
Keeps the human soul from care.
The lamb misused
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 beloved by men.
He who the ox to wrath has moved
Shall
never be by woman loved.
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 caterpillar on the
leaf
Repeats to thee thy mother's grief.
Kill not the moth nor
butterfly,
For the Last Judgment draweth nigh.
He who shall
train the horse to war
Shall never pass the polar bar.
The
beggar's dog and widow's cat,
Feed them, and thou wilt grow
fat.
The gnat that sings his summer's song
Poison gets from
Slander's tongue.
The poison of the snake and newt
Is the sweat
of Envy's foot.
The poison of the honey-bee
Is the artist's
jealousy.
The prince's robes and beggar's 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 and woe;
And when this we rightly know
Through
the world we safely go.
Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing
for the soul divine.
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with
silken twine.
The babe is more than swaddling bands,
Throughout
all these human lands;
Tools were made and born were hands,
Every
farmer understands.
Every tear from every eye
Becomes a babe in
eternity;
This is caught by females bright
And returned to its
own delight.
The bleat, the bark, bellow, and 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
armed with sword and 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 labourer's hands
Shall buy and
sell the miser's lands,
Or if protected from on high
Does that
whole nation sell and buy.
He who mocks the infant's faith
Shall
be mocked in age and 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 and death.
The child's
toys and the old man's reasons
Are the fruits of the two
seasons.
The questioner who sits so sly
Shall never know how to
reply.
He who replies to words of doubt
Doth put the light of
knowledge out.
The strongest poison ever known
Came from
Caesar's laurel crown.
Nought can deform the human race
Like to
the armour's iron brace.
When gold and gems adorn the plough
To
peaceful arts shall Envy bow.
A riddle or the cricket's cry
Is
to doubt a fit reply.
The emmet's inch and 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 and 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 and
gambler, by the state
Licensed, 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 and every morn
Some
to misery are born.
Every morn and every night
Some are born to
sweet delight.
Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to
endless night.
We are led to believe a lie
When we see not
through the eye
Which was born in a night to perish in a
night,
When the soul slept in beams of light.
God appears, and
God is light
To those poor souls who dwell in night,
But does a
human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day.
