Featured Poem: The Angel by William Blake

This week’s Featured Poem is a choice from William Blake, taken from his Songs of Experience. Blake began writing poetry when he was twelve, but his visionary experiences began before then at the age of eight when he told his mother that he had seen a tree filled with angels “bespangling every bough like stars”. Such visions became a theme through his work, with this poem alongside his other I Heard an Angel appealing to a different set of senses.

This poem was recently read in a shared reading group within a Criminal Justice setting, who are making their way through Skellig by David Almond. The Angel is featured within the book, sung at one point by one of the characters, and it was the melodious quality that was picked up by one of the group members in particular. The choice was found to be an ’empowering’ one – take a read and see what you think.

The Angel

I dreamt a dream! What can it mean?
And that I was a maiden Queen
Guarded by an Angel mild:
Witless woe was ne’er beguiled!

And I wept both night and day,
And he wiped my tears away;
And I wept both day and night,
And hid from him my heart’s delight.

So he took his wings, and fled;
Then the morn blushed rosy red.
I dried my tears, and armed my fears
With ten-thousand shields and spears.

Soon my Angel came again;
I was armed, he came in vain;
For the time of youth was fled,
And grey hairs were on my head.

William Blake