SparkNotes: Complete Text of Songs of Innocence and Experience: Poem 23

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READ STUDY GUIDE: "Holy Thursday"

Poem 23:
HOLY THURSDAY (II)

Is this a holy thing to see

In a rich and fruitful land, -

Babes reduced to misery,

Fed with cold and usurous hand?

Is that trembling cry a song?

Can it be a song of joy?

And so many children poor?

It is a land of poverty!

And their sun does never shine,

And their fields are bleak and bare,

And their ways are filled with thorns,

It is eternal winter there.

For where'er the sun does shine,

And where'er the rain does fall,

Babe can never hunger there,

Nor poverty the mind appal.

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SparkNotes Greek Classics is a comprehensive guide to the major and minor works of ancient Greece.
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