The Divine Image
The Divine Image
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.
1To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
2All pray in their distress;
3And to these virtues of delight
4Return their thankfulness.
5For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
6Is God, our father dear,
7And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
8Is Man, his child and care.
9For Mercy has a human heart,
10Pity a human face,
11And Love, the human form divine,
12And Peace, the human dress.
13Then every man, of every clime,
14That prays in his distress,
15Prays to the human form divine,
16Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.
17And all must love the human form,
18In heathen, Turk, or Jew;
19Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell
20There God is dwelling too.
Publication Start Year
1789
RPO poem Editors
Northrop Frye
RPO Edition
3RP 2.279.
Rhyme
Form