The Washer Womans Song

by William Blake

Blake manuscript - Notebook - page 042

Edited text:^[1]

The Washerwoman’s Song

I WASH’D^[2] them out and wash’d them in,
And they told me it was a great sin.

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The original text:^[3]

 
The Washer Womans Song

I washd them out & washd them in
And they told me it was a great Sin

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Notes

1. The Poetical Works of William Blake, including the unpublished French Revolution together with the Minor Prophetic Books and Selections from The Four Zoas, Milton & Jerusalem; edited with an introduction and textual notes by John Sampson, Hon. D.Litt. Oxon., 1862–1931. London, New York: Oxford University Press, 1908.
2. Possibly a reference to Blake’s manner of using water-colour; cp. the allusion to ‘water’ in the preceding epigram.
3. "The Complete Poetry & Prose of William Blake", ed. by David V. Erdman, Anchor Books, 1988, p. 510.