The poem
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 chear, Piper, pipe that song again-- So I piped, he wept to hear.
Drop thy pipe thy happy pipe Sing thy songs of happy chear, So I sung 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 stained the water clear, And I wrote my happy songs, Every child may joy to hear.
Is this poem a truly happy poem, or is Blake trying to take the reader on a horrid ride of complete happiness to absolute confussion?
Many of other poems fall into pairs, so that the same situation or problem is seen through the lens of innocence first and then experience. Blake does not identify himself wholly with either view, many poems are dramatic, in the voice of a speaker other than the poet himself. Blake stands outside innocence and experience, in a distanced position from which he hopes to be able to recognize and correct the fallacies of both....