by William Blake
"Love seeketh not itself to please,
__Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives it ease,
__And builds a heaven in hell's despair."
So sang a little clod of clay,
__Trodden with the cattle's feet,
But a pebble of the brook
__Warbled out these metres meet:
"Love seeketh only Self to please,
__To bind another to its delight,
Joys in another's loss of ease,
__And builds a hell in heaven's despite."
First published in 1794 in the Songs of Experience section of Blake's masterpiece Songs of Innocence and Experience.
A reading of William Blake's "The Clod and the Pebble":
William Blake's illustrated page of his "The Clod and the Pebble" from his Songs of Innocence and Experience:
