Little fly

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For works with similar titles, see The Fly.

From Notebook, p. 101, reversed. First draft of the poem The Fly (Blake) in Songs of Experience

1544090Notebook 55. Little flyWilliam Blake
Notebook 55 - Little fly

     * * *[1]

     [Woe, alas! my guilty hand
     Brush'd across thy summer joy;
     All thy gilded, painted pride
     Shatter'd fled... del.]

1    Little Fly,
     Thy summer’s play
     My [guilty hand del.] thoughtless hand
     Has brush'd away.

     [The cut worm
     Forgives the plow,
     And dies in piece,
     And so do thou del.]

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

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

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

[4   Thought is life
     And strength & breath;
     And the want (of del.)
     Of Thought is death; del.]

4   If thought is life
     And strength & breath
     And the want [of del.]
     Of Thought is death;

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  1. "Blake Complete Writings", ed. Geoffrey Keynes, pub. OUP 1966/85, p. 182-3.

This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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