Quotes from work
Auguries of Innocence

"Auguries of Innocence" is a poem from one of William Blake's notebooks now known as The Pickering Manuscript. It is assumed to have been written in 1803, but was not published until 1863 in the companion volume to Alexander Gilchrist's biography of William Blake. The poem contains a series of paradoxes which speak of innocence juxtaposed with evil and corruption. The poem is 132 lines and has been published with and without breaks that divide the poem into stanzas. An augury is a sign or omen.


William Blake photo

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.”

Variant: To see a World in a grain of sand,
And a Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.
Source: 1800s, Auguries of Innocence (1803), Line 1

William Blake photo

“A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.”

Source: 1800s, Auguries of Innocence (1803), Line 53

William Blake photo

Similar authors

William Blake photo
William Blake 249
English Romantic poet and artist 1757–1827
Percy Bysshe Shelley photo
Percy Bysshe Shelley 246
English Romantic poet
George Gordon Byron photo
George Gordon Byron 227
English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement
Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo
Samuel Taylor Coleridge 220
English poet, literary critic and philosopher
Robert Southey photo
Robert Southey 51
British poet
Emily Brontë photo
Emily Brontë 151
English novelist and poet
Mikhail Lermontov photo
Mikhail Lermontov 34
Russian writer, poet and painter
Hector Berlioz photo
Hector Berlioz 9
French Romantic composer
Elizabeth Barrett Browning photo
Elizabeth Barrett Browning 88
English poet, author
Thomas Hardy photo
Thomas Hardy 171
English novelist and poet