NCERT Book Class 12 English (kaleidoscope) Poetry 3 Poems by Blake

3
Poems by Blake
William Blake was a poet, painter and engraver.
He abhorred the rationalism and materialism of
his times. What he saw and painted were human
beings beset with evil, yet striving for the divine
within them.
Blake’s lyrics appeared in two sets of volumes:
Songs of Innocence (from which The Divine Image
has been chosen) and Songs of Experience (from
which The Human Abstract has been taken)
representing the two contrary states of the human
William Blake soul. Most of the poems in the first volume have
1757-1827 counterparts in the second.

I
The Divine Image

To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
All pray in their distress;
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is God our father dear,
And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is Man, his child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.