From Auguries of Innocence
by William Blake (1757-1827)
 
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour
A Robin Red breast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven in a Rage
A Dove house filled with Doves & Pigeons
Shudders Hell through all its regions
A dog starved at his Masters Gate
Predicts the ruin of the State
A Horse misused upon the Road
Calls to Heaven for Human blood
Each outcry of the hunted Hare
A fibre from the Brain does tear
A Skylark wounded in the wing
A Cherubim does cease to sing
The Game Cock clipped & armed for fight
Does the Rising Sun affright
Every Wolfs & Lions howl
Raises from Hell a Human Soul
The wild deer, wand’ring here & there
Keeps the Human Soul from Care ….
He who shall hurt the little Wren
Shall never be beloved by Men
He who the Ox to wrath has moved
Shall never be by Woman loved
The wanton Boy that kills the Fly
Shall feel the Spiders enmity ….
Kill not the Moth nor Butterfly
For the Last Judgment draweth nigh
Man was made for Joy & Woe
And when this we rightly know
Thro the World we safely go
Joy & Woe are woven fine
A Clothing for the soul divine
Under every grief & pine
Runs a joy with silken twine


 
Auguries of Innocence is a poem by the Romantic poet, artist, and mystic William Blake. The full poem runs to 132 lines—a powerful, cryptic, even hypnotic litany of aphoristic lines, mostly couplets. Blake never published the poem, and it did not appear in print until 1866. But it is quintessentially Blakean in its surprising, sometimes shocking, juxtapositions and contradictions.
 
“Auguries of Innocence.” An “augury” is an omen, a sign, and “innocence” is one of the central concerns of Blake’s poetry. Probably his best-known poems are the Songs of Innocence and Experience. In Blake’s work, innocence and experience are not opposites. They are more like states of being. Innocence is characterized by freedom and abundance; experience is associated with repression, injustice, and tyranny. In Blake’s world, Innocence enjoys; Experience exploits. “Auguries of Innocence” gives us a clear sense of how humans can destroy or damage innocence.
 
The first lines of the poem are justly famous:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour

Everything matters, no matter how small. One grain of sand, one moment in time, offer us glimpses of whole worlds—of eternity. If we have the eyes to see it, there is heaven in a wildflower. Blake is perhaps recalling the words of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel: “Notice how the flowers grow….  not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of them.” Jesus took little things seriously—and so does Blake.
 
The portion of the poem Scott read has a long sequence of couplets about animals. Robins, doves, pigeons, dogs, horses, rabbits, skylarks, cocks, wolves, lions, deer, oxen, spiders, moths, butterflies—Blake turns his attention to each of these creatures, and laments the cruelty done to them by human beings. When they are caged, hunted, neglected, or abused, it really matters: “A Robin Red breast in a Cage / Puts all Heaven in a Rage.” “A Skylark wounded in the wing / A Cherubim does cease to sing.” These creatures that don’t matter much to human beings matter immensely in heaven.
 
In Blake’s ecology, our cruelty to animals has consequences in our ability to care for one another. “he who the Ox to wrath has moved / Shall never be by woman loved.” “A dog starved at his master’s gate / Predicts the ruin of the State.” If we do not care for these creatures, we cannot truly care for each other. Our individual relationships, and our societal relationships, are damaged.
 
Blake does not speak only of the harm we do to creation. He also sees creation as fruitfully bound up with our life—even our salvation. “Every Wolfs & Lions howl / Raises from Hell a Human Soul.” “The wild deer, wand’ring here & there / Keeps the Human Soul from Care.” When animals are free to be themselves – wolves and lions howling, deer wandering at will – human beings are free, too, emotionally and spiritually. For Blake, innocence is not blank, but rich and fruitful.
 
For Blake, the moral and spiritual dimensions of human existence are inextricably bound up with the rest of the natural world. All of life is a balance between “Joy & Woe”—in fact, these realities are inextricably connected, woven together. When we are cruel to other creatures, we tip the balance; we destroy the innocence of the world.
 
Pope Francis has written:

“His response to the world around him was so much more than intellectual appreciation or economic calculus, for to him each and every creature was a sister united to him by bonds of affection…  Such a conviction cannot be written off as naive romanticism, for it affects the choices which determine our behavior. If we approach nature and the environment without this openness to awe and wonder, if we no longer speak the language of fraternity and beauty in our relationship with the world, our attitude will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on their immediate needs. By contrast, if we feel intimately united with all that exists, then sobriety and care will well up spontaneously.”

In these words from Laudato Si, Pope Francis is talking about St. Francis of Assisi. But the same could be said of William Blake. Not unlike St. Francis’ Canticle of the Sun, Blake’s Auguries of Innocence demands an examination of conscience from each of us, because how we treat the creatures we share this planet with matters, here and hereafter.
 
 
For further exploration:
https://www.blakearchive.org/
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-blake