Thursday Afternoon Wholly Open Thread

David Axelrod - Holy Thursday

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HOLY THURSDAY
From "Songs of Innocence"
~ William Blake

'T was on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,

The children walking two & two, in red & blue & green,

Grey-headed beadles walk'd before,

with wands as white as snow,

Till into the high dome of Paul's

they like Thames' waters flow.

O what a multitude they seem'd,

these flowers of London town!

Seated in companies they sit

with radiance all their own.

The hum of multitudes was there,

but multitudes of lambs,

Thousands of little boys & girls

raising their innocent hands.

Now like a mighty wind

they raise to heaven the voice of song,

Or like harmonious thunderings

the seats of Heaven among.

Beneath them sit the aged men,

wise guardians of the poor;

Then cherish pity,

lest you drive an angel from your door.

HOLY THURSDAY
From "Songs of Experience"
~ William Blake

Is this a holy thing to see

In a rich and fruitful land,

Babes reduc'd to misery,

Fed with cold and usurous hand?

Is that trembling cry a song?

Can it be song of joy?

And so many children poor?

It is a land of poverty!

And their sun does never shine,

And their fields are bleak & bare,

And their ways are fill'd with thorns:

It is eternal winter there.

For where-e'er the sun does shine,

And were-e'er the rain does fall,

Babe can never hunger there,

Nor poverty the mind appall.