"The Angels May Quote From It..."

I admire William Blake for being both an artist and poet. He illustrated his own texts by engraving copper plates and then finishing each page by hand with watercolors. He claimed to have learned this technique from his dead brother in a vision! My favorite poem of Blake's is his introduction to "Songs of Innocence".

William Blake's illustration for the introduction to "Songs of Innocence" 

William Blake's introduction to "Songs of Innocence"

In case you're having trouble reading from the picture above, here is the same poem:

Introduction to the Songs of Innocence

by William Blake

Piping down the valleys wild 

Piping songs of pleasant glee 

On a cloud I saw a child. 

And he laughing said to me. 

Pipe a song about a Lamb; 

So I piped with merry chear, 

Piper pipe that song again— 

So I piped, he wept to hear.

Drop thy pipe thy happy pipe 

Sing thy songs of happy chear, 

So I sung the same again 

While he wept with joy to hear 

Piper sit thee down and write

In a book that all may read— 

So he vanish'd from my sight. 

And I pluck'd a hollow reed. 

And I made a rural pen,

And I stain'd the water clear,

And I wrote my happy songs

Every child may joy to hear

This is not the type of poem I'm usually drawn to. I think the reason it resonated with me was because when I first read it in 2001, I had recently become a father. Below is the journal entry I wrote after reading this poem for the first time:

A journal entry I wrote about Blake's introduction from when I was in college in 2001.

I love that there is a sense of progress from selfishness to selflessness in this poem. It begins with the piper playing music only for himself. He progresses from this selfish piping to singing for just the one child. From there he writes his words down so that "every child my joy to hear." There's this sense that the piper finally realizes his talents are meant to be shared for the benefit of everyone.

It's interesting that the child that asks the piper to sing and write his songs comes to him "on a cloud" and later "vanished from [his] sight". We can only assume the child must be an angel, a messenger from God. And it's fitting, isn't it? God wants us to use our talents, the talents He gave us, to serve others. He sends his "angels" to encourage this all the time in the form of family, friends, and church leaders.

The other thing I love about this poem is that the child asks the piper to "pipe a song about a Lamb". The Lamb is, of course, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. The child asks the piper not just to pipe any song, but a song about our Savior. I'm not suggesting that everything we write, draw, paint, or sculpt needs be overtly about God. I am, however, suggesting that we should strive to make all of our creative works uplifting and positive in nature. The 13th Article of Faith for the L.D.S. church states, "If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things." If we use that as a standard for the kind of things we try to capture in our work, then we will have, in essence, "piped a song about a Lamb." And maybe, just maybe, when we do it really well, our readers/viewers will "weep [with joy] to hear."

As I mentioned in my journal entry above, this poem is a call to action. The piper is told to write it down "in a book that all may read." Spencer W. Kimball, former president of the L.D.S. church, said, “Get a notebook, my young folks, a journal that will last through all time... Begin today and write in it your goings and comings, your deepest thoughts, your achievements and your failures, your associations and your triumphs, your impressions and your testimonies” (October 1975 New Era). And I would add your sketches, stories, poems, and more. Think about what "songs" you need to write, paint, or draw so that your children, or all of God's children, "may joy to hear." Do this, "and maybe," President Kimball tells us, "the angels may quote from it for eternity."

This is the angel I like to imagine reading from my book.
Sculpture by Roman Shustrov, located in St. Petersburg