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Poetry · Poem

Song

William BlakeEnglish RomanticismPoem
SOURCE TEXT · English original
MY silks and fine array,
My smiles and languish’d air,
By Love are driven away;
And mournful lean Despair
Brings me yew to deck my grave:
Such end true lovers have.

His face is fair as heaven
When springing buds unfold:
O why to him was’t given,
Whose heart is wintry cold?
His breast is Love’s all-worshipp’d tomb,
Where all Love’s pilgrims come.

Bring me an axe and spade,
Bring me a winding-sheet;
When I my grave have made,
Let winds and tempests beat:
Then down I’ll lie, as cold as clay:
True love doth pass away!
Cultural reading

Reading the poem

A speaker whose finery and smiles have been driven off by love asks for an axe, a spade and a winding-sheet, and says that once the grave is made he will lie down as cold as clay, with the verdict that true love passes away.

Language notes

Text and edition

The English text follows the fixed historical witness in The Oxford Book of English Verse; no modern third-party translation is included.