Introduction

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!”
   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 vanish’d from my sight;
     And I pluck’d a hollow reed,

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