The Human Abstract - William Blake

William Blake's 'Songs of Innocence and of Experience' is a collection of contrasting poems. Songs of Innocence is about childhood and the early stages of innocence and Songs of Experience is the counter to the Songs of Innocence and is about the loss of that innocence in the process of growing up with exposure to the adult world.

A wonder is "The Human Extract" from Songs of Experience:

Pity would be no more
If we did not make somebody Poor;
And Mercy no more could be
If all were as happy as we.

And mutual fear brings peace,
Till the selfish loves increase:
Then Cruelty knits a snare,
And spreads his baits with care.

He sits down with holy fears,
And waters the grounds with tears;
Then Humility takes its root
Underneath his foot.

Soon spreads the dismal shade
Of Mystery over his head;
And the Caterpillar and Fly
Feed on the Mystery.

And it bears the fruit of Deceit,
Ruddy and sweet to eat;
And the Raven his nest has made
In its thickest shade.

The Gods of the earth and sea
Sought thro' Nature to find this Tree;
But their search was all in vain:
There grows one in the Human Brain.

The Human Abstract - William Blake
From - Songs of Experience -1794