Chapter 1 of Poems of William Blake is here in full — 173 sentences across 35 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
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Chapter I
Chapter 1 of Poems of William Blake is here in full — 173 sentences across 35 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me: "Pipe a song about a Lamb!" So I piped with merry cheer. "Piper, pipe that song again;" So I piped: he wept to hear. "Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe; Sing thy songs of happy cheer!"
Chapter 1 of Poems of William Blake is here in full — 173 sentences across 35 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/34 · 5 reading units · Lines 1–5
These definitions explain words found in the current reading and keep every example grounded in its original sentence.
Oxford-style entry order: headword, part of speech, US IPA, concise definition, contextual example, and audio.
Every word in these five lines is listed here, and every one of them can be played on its own.
Dictionary details are shown only when verified; these are not licensed Oxford entries.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "Pipe a song about a Lamb!"
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "Piper, pipe that song again;" So I piped: he wept to hear.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading So I piped with merry cheer.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe; Sing thy songs of happy cheer!"
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe; Sing thy songs of happy cheer!"
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "Piper, pipe that song again;" So I piped: he wept to hear.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "Pipe a song about a Lamb!"
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading So I piped with merry cheer.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "Pipe a song about a Lamb!"
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading So I piped with merry cheer.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "Piper, pipe that song again;" So I piped: he wept to hear.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe; Sing thy songs of happy cheer!"
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading So I piped with merry cheer.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "Pipe a song about a Lamb!"
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "Piper, pipe that song again;" So I piped: he wept to hear.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe; Sing thy songs of happy cheer!"
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "Piper, pipe that song again;" So I piped: he wept to hear.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading So I piped with merry cheer.
Chapter 1 of Poems of William Blake by William Blake holds 173 sentences, grouped into 35 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the public-domain source, unabridged, and the chapter records which sentences cover which part of the work so that nothing is dropped. Every word can be tapped for its pronunciation and dictionary entry.
Chapter 1 holds 173 sentences of Poems of William Blake, unabridged, divided into 35 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of Poems of William Blake by William Blake exactly as it stands in the public-domain source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 173 sentences, grouped into 35 sections of at most 5 sentences so that a reader can take the chapter in steady, finishable pieces. The chapter also stores a coverage record mapping every one of its sentences to a part of the work, which is how the edition demonstrates that no line was dropped.
Work through the 35 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 35 sections in this chapter is short enough to read once, hear once, and then re-read with the vocabulary in view. Tapping a word plays it alone and opens its dictionary entry with IPA, part of speech and meaning, so the reader is never forced to guess a pronunciation from spelling. Working section by section keeps a long chapter from becoming an undifferentiated wall of text, which is the usual reason a reader abandons a work of this period.
Yes — every sentence and every individual word in chapter 1 can be played aloud in United States English.
Audio covers the whole chapter: any sentence can be played, and any single word within it can be played on its own. The voice uses United States English. For a work of this period that matters, because spelling is an unreliable guide to pronunciation for vocabulary that has fallen out of daily use, and a learner who guesses wrong tends to keep the error. Hearing the word in its own sentence, and then alone, settles it.
Common questions about reading Poems of William Blake by William Blake on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 346 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #574 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #574, a public-domain edition. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 28 minutes of reading across 70 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Poems of William Blake section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 2 chapters of Poems of William Blake to begin.
Each section holds 5 sentences; read it once through.
Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in Poems of William Blake, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
