The Clod and the Pebble
The Clod and the Pebble - meaning Summary
Contrasting Views of Love
Blake stages two brief, opposing definitions of love through a clod of clay and a brook pebble. The clod offers an innocent, selfless account: love cares for and sacrifices for another. The pebble replies with a worldly, selfish view: love seeks its own pleasure even if it harms others. The poem compresses innocence versus experience into a paradoxical exchange, exposing love's moral ambiguity through contrast and irony.
Read Complete Analyses"Love seeketh not itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care, But for another gives its ease, And builds a heaven in hell's despair." So sung a little clod of clay, Trodden with the cattle's feet; But a pebble of the brook Warbled out these meters meet: "Love seeketh only Self to please, To bind another to its delight, Joys in another's loss of ease, And builds a hell in heaven's despite."
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