Poem #27: The Clod and the Pebble by William Blake, 1794

“Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric; out of the quarrel with ourselves we make poetry. “~W.B. Yeats

“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 metres 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.”

So Blake and the pebble would have been proponents of what is today called “tough love,” I suppose, or perhaps the sort of romantic lustful love that is glorified in so many movies and books? I don’t really get the pebble’s perspective: how does real love ever build a hell? But, then again, I’m not sure I believe that the clod has it right either. Yes, Love is giving and forgiving and serving, but there is a place for honesty and acknowledgement of one’s own needs even while serving and thinking of others. Jesus calls us to self-denial, and we are told in the Bible that “whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.” (Luke 17:33) But Matthew adds the important words “for My sake,” (Mt. 10:39) implying that self-abnegation for its own sake or even for the sake of others alone is not what we are called to practice. We are called to deny self in order to follow Christ, and God himself will provide for all our needs.

A focus on glorifying Jesus makes all the difference.

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