Auguries of Innocence is a poem by William Blake, probably written around 1803 and first published in 1863. It opens with four famous lines on seeing the infinite in small things, followed by a long series of couplets on cruelty, justice and the connections between all living things.
A chain of couplets
After its opening quatrain, the poem is made of rhyming couplets, each a short and striking statement, like a proverb.
Many couplets condemn cruelty to animals and suggest that every harm done in the world has wider consequences.
Innocence and experience
The poem echoes the themes of Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience: the vision of the child against the corruption of the world.
Its title suggests signs, or omens, of innocence, which the poet reads in the smallest things.
The Pickering Manuscript
The poem survives in a notebook of poems copied by Blake, known as the Pickering Manuscript after a later owner.
It was first printed in 1863 in Alexander Gilchrist's Life of William Blake, more than thirty years after the poet's death.
Anecdotes
A grain of sand
The opening lines, about seeing a world in a grain of sand, are among the most quoted lines in English poetry and are often used in science books.
A visionary engraver
Blake earned his living as an engraver and printed most of his own books by hand, using a technique he called relief etching.
Frequently asked questions
When was the poem written?
Probably around 1803.
When was it first published?
In 1863, in Gilchrist's Life of Blake.
What form does most of the poem use?
Rhyming couplets.