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Home: Poetry: William Blake: The Little Girl Lost
| THE LITTLE GIRL LOST |
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a poem by William Blake
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- In futurity
- I prophetic see
- That the earth from sleep
- (Grave the sentence deep)
- Shall arise, and seek
- For her Maker meek;
- And the desert wild
- Become a garden mild.
- In the southern clime,
- Where the summer's prime
- Never fades away,
- Lovely Lyca lay.
- Seven summers old
- Lovely Lyca told.
- She had wandered long,
- Hearing wild birds' song.
- "Sweet sleep, come to me
- Underneath this tree;
- Do father, mother, weep?
- Where can Lyca sleep?
- "Lost in desert wild
- Is your little child.
- How can Lyca sleep
- If her mother weep?
- "If her heart does ache,
- Then let Lyca wake;
- If my mother sleep,
- Lyca shall not weep.
- "Frowning, frowning night,
- O'er this desert bright
- Let thy moon arise,
- While I close my eyes."
- Sleeping Lyca lay
- While the beasts of prey,
- Come from caverns deep,
- Viewed the maid asleep.
- The kingly lion stood,
- And the virgin viewed:
- Then he gambolled round
- O'er the hallowed ground.
- Leopards, tigers, play
- Round her as she lay;
- While the lion old
- Bowed his mane of gold,
- And her breast did lick
- And upon her neck,
- From his eyes of flame,
- Ruby tears there came;
- While the lioness
- Loosed her slender dress,
- And naked they conveyed
- To caves the sleeping maid.
| "The Little Girl Lost" is reprinted from Songs of Innocence and Experience. William Blake. London: Basil Montague Pickering, 1866. |
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