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[redheartleaf.livejournal.com]

Laughing Song

When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy,
And the dimpling stream runs laughing by;
When the air does laugh with our merry wit,
And the green hill laughs with the noise of it;

When the meadows laugh with lively green.
And the grasshopper laughs in the merry scene,
When Mary and Susan and Emily
With their sweet round mouths sing "Ha, Ha, He!"

When the painted birds laugh in the shade.
Where our table with cherries and nuts is spread,
Come live & be merry, and join with me,
To sing the sweet chorus of "Ha, Ha, He!"

Blake, William.

William Blake (1757-1827) lived in the latter half of the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth century. He was largely responsible for the Romantic Movement in poetry, but was also an accomplished painter, and engraver. In fact, Blake developed "illuminated printing," a technique in which each page of a book is printed in one color (generally black) from an engraved plate containing both text and illustration. The illustration may then be shaded by hand, a task which Blake's wife often did in watercolors.

Blake scholars disagree on whether or not Blake was a mystic. While the Norton Anthology describes him as "an acknowledged mystic, [who] saw visions from the age of four." Others disagree, arguing that Blake was a visionary and not a mystic, the difference being mostly academic in nature.

Living in a time of much social change (American Revolution, French Revolution, and Industrial Revolution), Blake was a social critic who regarded himself as a prophet, and was not truly appreciated during his life, except by small insular groups of individuals. He remained largely unknown during the nineteenth century.