Auguries of Innocence / Blake

Auguries of Innocence is a poem from one of William Blake's notebooks now known as The Pickering Manuscript. It is assumed to have been written in 1803, but was not published until 1863 in the companion volume to Alexander Gilchrist's biography of William Blake. The poem contains a series of paradoxes which speak of innocence juxtaposed with evil and corruption. The poem is 132 lines and has been published with and without breaks that divide the poem into stanzas. An augury is a sign or omen.

Allusions in popular culture
The J. B. Priestley play "Time and the Conways" prominently features the lines from "It is right it should be so;/ Man was made for Joy and Woe;" through to "Under every grief and pine/ Runs a joy with silken twine".

The lines "Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night" are quoted by Jim Morrison in the song End of the Night by The Doors from their eponymous debut album, Tim Willocks' novel Green River Rising, and in an episode of A&E cop drama The Beast.

The same lines were used by Agatha Christie in the 1967 novel Endless Night.

A 1985 compilation album of music by Nick Drake is titled Heaven in a Wild Flower, taken from the second line of the poem.

The lines "To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour" were said by:


 * Lara Croft in the movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
 * Jacob Bronowski at his tv series/book The Ascent of Man about the history of mankind seen through the history of science and art (see chapter 10 "Worlds within Worlds" (the story of the periodic table)

Hannibal Lecter used the lines "A robin redbreast in a cage / Puts all heaven in a rage" in the 2002 thriller Red Dragon, as a clue to FBI agent Will Graham.

Bob Dylan recorded the song “Every Grain of Sand” for the 1983 album Shot of Love, which also appeared on Biograph (1985). Its lyrics read: 'In the fury of the moment I can see the Master's hand / In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand.'

Nobody the Indian (Gary Farmer) in the Jarmusch film Dead Man cites lines from this and other Blake poems.

The first strophe of Sting's Send Your Love song is "Finding the world in the smallness of a grain of sand / And holding infinities in the palm of your hand / And Heaven's realms in the seedlings of this tiny flower / And eternities in the space of a single hour"