New Year, New Life

By jenpedler

Or art not thou a man like me?

Well, of course, I'm a woman but you have to allow a bit of poetic licence when it comes to William Blake.

The Fly
Little Fly
Thy summer's play,
My thoughtless hand
Has brush'd away.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance
And drink & sing;
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life
And strength & breath;
And the want
Of thought is death;

Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.

William Blake, Songs of Experience (1794)

This quote is on the wall of the Peabody flats in Whitecross Street, Finsbury. Blake is buried in nearby Bunhill Fields.

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