1912
The Little Fly
Composed by
John Alden Carpenter
John Alden Carpenter Text by
William Blake
William Blake "The Little Fly" sets a text of William Blake from his 1794 work Songs of Experience. The song was written in 1909 and published in 1912.
Text
The Little Fly
by William Blake
Little Fly,
Thy summer’s play
My thoughtless hand
Has brush’d away.
Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?
For I dance
And drink & sing:
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.
If thought is life
And strength & breath
And the want
Of thought is death;
Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.
Sheet Music