The Clod and the Pebble is a poem written by the English poet William Blake

William Blake

William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...

. It was published as part of his collection Songs of Experience in 1794.

The Poem

"Love seeketh not Itself to please,

Nor for itself hath any care;

But for another gives its ease,

And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair."


So sung a little Clod of Clay,

Trodden with the cattle's feet;

But a Pebble of the brook,

Warbled out these metres meet:

"Love seeketh only self to please,

To bind another to Its delight,

Joys in another's loss of ease,

And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite."