A part song by the eminent English choral composer Herbert Howells.
Piping down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he, laughing, said to me:
Pipe a song about a lamb,
So I piped with merry cheer;
Piper, pipe that song again!
So I piped: he wept to hear.
Drop thy pipe thy happy pipe,
Sing thy song of happy cheer!
So I sang the same again,
While he wept with joy to hear.
Piper sit thee down and write
In a book, that all may read.
So he vanished from my sight:
And I plucked a hollow reed,
And I made a rural pen,
And I stained the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear.
William Blake
