— 30 —
And in "The Lamb":
"Little lamb, I'll tell thee,
Little lamb, I'll tell thee:
He is callèd by thy name,
For he calls himself a lamb.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Little lamb, God bless thee!
Little lamb, God bless thee!"
Occasionally even a whole stanza is repeated as in "The Tiger", where the first and last are identical.
In 1793 Blake had published another small volume of poetry: "The Gates of Paradise". These verses show the same peculiarities of style as the foregoing, but the thoughts expressed in them are full of bitterness, as far as their meaning can be understood, hidden as they are in a maze of mysticism. These poems together with the Book of Thel form the transition between Blake's lyrical period and his Prophetic Books. When Blake wrote the Prophetic Books he had lived a secluded, lonely life for several years. There had been a time when by the influence of Flaxman the doors of Mrs. Mathew's[1]) drawing-room had been opened for Blake. We hear of social gatherings, where the wits of the day, the modish painters and dramatists united in brillant "conversazione". They are now forgotten these literary luminaries of those days; even their names, should I enumerate them, would sound meaningless. Yet Mrs. Mathew's "salon" was famous then and even visited occasionally by sprightly Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu. Here Blake and his young wife Catherine were regular visitors, and Blake sang his songs to tunes of his own. But Blake's wilful and eccentric character and some grave defects in Catherine's breeding were the cause of Blake's breaking with this circle. In a very bitter satire, "The Island in the Moon", Blake exposes the weaknesses of the different persons who
