IX. Hail Matrimony, made of Love! Songs from 'An Island in The Moon'. William Blake. 1908. The Poetical Works

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William Blake (1757–1827). The Poetical Works. 1908.

Songs from ‘An Island in The Moon’

IX. Hail Matrimony, made of Love!


HAIL 1 Matrimony, made of Love!
To thy wide gates how great a drove
On purpose to be yok’d do come;
Widows and Maids and Youths also,
That lightly trip on beauty’s toe,	5
Or sit on beauty’s bum.

Hail fingerfooted lovely Creatures!
The females of our human natures,
Formèd to suckle all Mankind.
’Tis you that come in time of need,	10
Without you we should never breed,
Or any comfort find.

For if a Damsel’s blind or lame,
Or Nature’s hand has crook’d her frame,
Or if she’s deaf, or is wall-eyed;	15
Yet, if her heart is well inclin’d,
Some tender lover she shall find
That panteth for a Bride.

The universal Poultice this,
To cure whatever is amiss	20
In Damsel or in Widow gay!
It makes them smile, it makes them skip;
Like birds, just curèd of the pip,
They chirp and hop away.

Then come, ye maidens! come, ye swains!	25
Come and be cur’d of all your pains
In Matrimony’s Golden Cage— 2

Note 1. IX] Sung by Quid the Cynic, MS., chap. ix. The subject and metre of this song were perhaps suggested by ‘He that intends to take a wife’ (Pills to purge Melancholy, iii, p. 106). [back]

Note 2. Here the song abruptly breaks off. With ‘Matrimony’s Golden Cage’ cp. the third stanza of ‘How sweet I roam’d from field to field’ in the Poetical Sketches (p. 8). [back]

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