Holy Thursday: 'Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean

Holy Thursday: 'Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean

Original Text
William Blake, Songs of Innocence (1789). Blake's Illuminated Books, ed. David Bindman (Princeton, NJ: William Blake Trust; London: Tate Gallery, 1991-). See Vol. 2. PR 4142 B46 1991 ROBA.
1'Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,
2The children walking two and two, in red and blue and green,
3Grey-headed beadles walk'd before, with wands as white as snow,
4Till into the high dome of Paul's they like Thames' waters flow.
5O what a multitude they seem'd, these flowers of London town!
6Seated in companies they sit with radiance all their own.
7The hum of multitudes was there, but multitudes of lambs,
8Thousands of little boys and girls raising their innocent hands.
9Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song,
10Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of Heaven among.
11Beneath them sit the aged men, wise guardians of the poor;
12Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.
Publication Start Year
1789
RPO poem Editors
Northrop Frye
RPO Edition
3RP 2.278.
Rhyme