Songs Of Innocence

On Another's Sorrow

• Can I see another's woe,
• And not be in sorrow too?
• Can I see another's grief,
• And not seek for kind relief?
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• Can I see a falling tear,
• And not feel my sorrow's share?
• Can a father see his child
• Weep, nor be with sorrow fill'd?
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• Can a mother sit and hear
• An infant groan an infant fear?
• No, no! never can it be!
• Never, never can it be!
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• And can he who smiles on all
• Hear the wren with sorrows small,
• Hear the small bird's grief & care,
• Hear the woes that infants bear,
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• And not sit beside the nest,
• Pouring pity in their breast;
• And not sit the cradle near,
• Weeping tear on infant's tear;
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• And not sit both night & day,
• Wiping all our tears away?
• O, no! never can it be!
• Never, never can it be!
•  
• He doth give his joy to all;
• He becomes an infant small;
• He becomes a man of woe;
• He doth feel the sorrow too.
•  
• Think not thou canst sigh a sigh
• And thy maker is not by;
• Think not thou canst weep a tear
• And thy maker is not near.
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• O! he gives to us his joy
• That our grief he may destroy;
• Till our grief is fled & gone
• He doth sit by us and moan.