Piping down the valleys wild from Songs of Innocence

By William Blake

Piping down the valleys wild,     

Piping songs of pleasant glee,     

On a cloud I saw a child,     

And he laughing said to me:     

“Pipe a song about a Lamb!”     

So I piped with merry cheer.     

“Piper, pipe that song again;”     

so I piped: he wept to hear.     

“Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;    

Sing thy songs of happy cheer.”     

So I sang the same again,     

While he wept with joy to hear.     

“Piper, sit thee down     

and write in a book that all may read.”     

So he vanished from my sight,     

And I pluck’d a hollow reed,     

And I made a rural pen,     

And I stain’d the water clear,     

And I wrote my happy songs     

Ev’ry child may joy to hear.