A Dream
This poem is about an emmet – which is an archaic term for an ant. The emmet is lost at night and a glow-worm offers to light the way while a beetle guides her home.
A Dream
Poem
Once a dream did weave a shade
O'er my angel-guarded bed,
That an emmet lost its way
Where on grass methought I lay.
Troubled, wildered, and forlorn,
Dark, benighted, travel-worn,
Over many a tangle spray,
All heart-broke, I heard her say:
'Oh my children! do they cry,
Do they hear their father sigh?
Now they look abroad to see,
Now return and weep for me.'
Pitying, I dropped a tear:
But I saw a glow-worm near,
Who replied, 'What wailing wight
Calls the watchman of the night?
'I am set to light the ground,
While the beetle goes his round:
Follow now the beetle's hum;
Little wanderer, hie thee home!
Notes
Written by William Blake and published in his collection of poems called Songs of Innocence in 1789.
Thanks and Acknowledgements
Illustration by Monique Palomares.
