X. To be or not to be. Songs from 'An Island in The Moon'. William Blake. 1908. The Poetical Works

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

Songs from ‘An Island in The Moon’

X. To be or not to be


TO 1 be or not to be
Of great capacity,
Like Sir Isaac Newton,
Or Locke, or Doctor South,
Or Sherlock upon Death—	5
I’d rather be Sutton! 2

For he did build a house
For agèd men and youth,
With walls of brick and stone;
He furnish’d it within	10
With whatever he could win,
And all his own.

He drew out of the Stocks
His money in a box,
And sent his servant	15
To Green the Bricklayer,
And to the Carpenter;
He was so fervent.

The chimneys were threescore,
The windows many more;	20
And, for convenience,
He sinks and gutters made,
And all the way he pav’d
To hinder pestilence.

Was not this a good man—	25
Whose life was but a span,
Whose name was Sutton—
As Locke, or Doctor South,
Or Sherlock upon Death,
Or Sir Isaac Newton?	30

Note 1. X] Sung by Obtuse Angle, MS., chap. ix. [back]

Note 2. Sutton] Thomas Sutton, founder of the Charterhouse (1532–1611). Perhaps Obtuse Angle was an old Carthusian. [back]