William Blake, Songs of Experience: A Little Girl Lost
Children of the future Age
Reading this indignant page;
Know that in a former time.
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Love! sweet Love! was thought a crime.
In the Age of Gold,
Free from winters cold:
Youth and maiden bright.
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To the holy light,
Naked in the sunny beams delight.
Once a youthful pair
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Met in garden bright.
Where the holy light,
Had just removd the curtains of the night.
There in rising day.
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On the grass they play:
Parents were afar;
Strangers came not near:
And the maiden soon forgot her fear.
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Tired with kisses sweet
They agree to meet,
When the silent sleep
Waves o'er heavens deep:
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And the weary tired wanderers weep.
To her father white
Came the maiden bright:
But his loving look,
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Like the holy book,
All her tender limbs with terror shook
Ona! pale and weak!
To thy father speak:
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O the trembling fear!
O the dismal care!
That shakes the blossoms of my hoary hair