The Two Songs
I heard an Angel Singing When the day was springing: "Mercy, pity, and peace, Are the world's release." So he sang all day Over the new-mown hay, Till the sun went down, And the haycocks looked brown. I heard a devil curse Over the heath and the furse: "Mercy vould be no more If there were nobody poor, And pity no more could be If all were happy as ye: And mutual fear brings peace, Misery's increase Are mercy, pity, and peace." At his curse the sun went down, And the heavens gave a frown.
The Two Songs - context Summary
Published in 1807
From Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience (published 1807), this short poem stages two voices—an angelic singer praising "mercy, pity, and peace" and a devilish counterclaim insisting those virtues depend on suffering and social inequality. The poem contrasts hopeful moral ideals with a cynical social logic, leaving readers to weigh whether compassion requires misery or can exist independently of material imbalance.
Read Complete Analyses
Feel free to be first to leave comment.