for two-part chorus & piano
Text: English (William Blake)
Duration: 4'00''
Difficulty: 2/5


A part song by the eminent English choral composer Herbert Howells.


Text
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 song of happy cheer!”
So I sang the same again,
While he wept with joy to hear.


“Piper sit thee down and write
In a book, that all may read.”
So he vanished from my sight:
And I plucked a hollow reed,


And I made a rural pen,
And I stained the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear.


William Blake


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