Songs of Ourselves Volume

The Clod ond the Pebble

WILLIAA,I BIAKE

'Love seeketh not itself to please,

Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair.'

little Clod of Clay

Trodden with the cattle's feet,
So sung a

But a Pebble of the brook

Warbled out these metres meet:

'Love seeketh only self to please,

To bind another to its delight,
Joys in another's loss of ease,
And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite.'

The poem expresses the like and

dislike of love.

Pebble: The love is superficial, Builds a

Hell in Heaven's dispair.
Clod: Everyone needs love, Builds a
heaven in Hell's despair.
Asonanse gived the poem a rhythmic structure.
Clodl lump of clay or earth
metres meetl appropriate rhymes
in. . . despitel in scornful contempt

of

Contrasts of different types of

love, the clod and the pebble,
and hell and heaven.

The clod and the pebble are

personified