by William Blake (1757 - 1827)
To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love
Language: English
Available translation(s): RUS
To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love All pray in their distress; And to these virtues of delight Return their thankfulness. For Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love Is God, our Father dear, And Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love Is man, His child and care. For Mercy has a human heart, Pity a human face, And Love, the human form divine, And Peace, the human dress. Then every man, of every clime, That prays in his distress, Prays to the human form divine, Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace. And all must love the human form, In heathen, Turk, or Jew; When Mercy, Love and Pity dwell There God is dwelling too.
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Text Authorship:
- by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "The divine image", appears in Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Innocence, no. 12, first published 1789 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Peter George Aston (b. 1938), "To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love", published 1972 [ four-part chorus ], hymn; in New Catholic Hymnal, NY : St. Martin's Press ; London : Faber Music [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "The divine image", 2006 [ soprano and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by William Bolcom (b. 1938), "The divine image", 1956-81 [ solo voices, chorus, orchestra ], from Songs of Innocence, no. 15 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Vincent Henry Palmer Caillard, Sir (1856 - 1930), "The divine image", published 1891 [ voice and piano ], from The Songs of Innocence of William Blake, no. 12, London : Novello, Ewer & Co. [sung text not yet checked]
- by Henry Leland Clarke (1907 - 1992), "Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love", 1972 [ solo soprano and alto voices, flute, oboe, and percussion ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Norman Curtis (b. 1933), "The divine image", c1959 [ voice and piano ], from William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, no. 8 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Katherine Kennicott Davis (1892 - 1980), "The divine image", published c1970 [ mixed chorus a cappella ], NY : Galaxy Music Corp. [sung text not yet checked]
- by Edward Joseph Dent (1876 - 1957), "The divine image", 1940, published c1941 [ mixed chorus a cappella ], from Motets, Series 2, no. 5, London : Oxford University Press [sung text not yet checked]
- by Harry Farjeon (1878 - 1948), "The divine image", published 1930 [ 2-part chorus ], London : J. B. Cramer & Co [sung text not yet checked]
- by Willard Samuel Fast (b. 1922), "To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love ", published c1971 [ four-part mixed chorus a cappella ], NY : G. Schirmer [sung text not yet checked]
- by Bernard Sidney Garte (1923 - 1953), "The divine image ", c1946 [ voice and piano ], from Eight Songs of William Blake, no. 8 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ole Carsten Green (b. 1922), "The divine image", op. 27b no. 11 (1973) [ voice and piano ], from Songs of Innocence, no. 11 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Tony Hewitt-Jones (1926 - 1989), "The divine image", published c1967 [ mixed chorus a cappella ], South Croyden, Surrey : A. Lengnick ; note: text also includes words by Sylvester, Traherne, Shelley, Wordsworth, Rolle, and an anonymous author [sung text not yet checked]
- by Clarence S. Hill , "The divine image", published 1911-3 [ medium voice and piano ], from Three Songs by Blake, no. 1, London : Novello [sung text not yet checked]
- by Joseph Holbrooke (1878 - 1958), "The divine image", op. 130 no. 14 (1934), published 1934 [ TTBB chorus ], from Songs of Innocence, no. 14, London : Modern Music Library [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ben Johnston (b. 1926), "The divine image", 1975 [ soprano, clarinet, oboe, flute, viola, and contrabass ], from Songs of Innocence, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by (Herbert) Kelsey Jones (b. 1922), "The divine image", 1961 [ soprano, piano, and chamber orchestra ], from Songs of Innocence, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Perry Otis Jones (b. 1936), "The divine image", published c1970 [ SSAATTBB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Wilfred Josephs (b. 1927), "To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love ", op. 80 no. ? (1971), from A Child of the Universe, London : Novello [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Pierre Herman Joubert (1927 - 2019), "To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love", published c1967 [ SATB chorus and organ or piano ], London : Novello [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ty Kroll , "Mercy, Pity, Peace", 2004 [ SSAATTBB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Austin Cole Lovelace (b. 1919), "Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love", published 1960 [ SATB chorus a cappella ], Cincinnati : Canyon Press (Boonin) [sung text not yet checked]
- by Otto Luening (1900 - 1996), "The divine image", 1949, published c1951 [ medium voice and piano ], New York, E. B. Marks Music Corp. & Belwin-Mills [sung text not yet checked]
- by Stanley Robert Marchant, Sir (1883 - 1949), "To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love" [sung text not yet checked]
- by William James Mathias (1934 - 1992), "The divine image", op. 82 no. 11 (1979), published c1987, first performed 1979 [ mezzo-soprano, celesta, harp, piano, and strings ], from Songs of William Blake, no. 11, Oxford : Oxford University Press [sung text not yet checked]
- by George Frederick McKay (1899 - 1970), "Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love ", published c1963 [ SATB chorus ], NY : H. W. Gray (Belwin-Mills) [sung text not yet checked]
- by Michael Richard Miller (b. 1932), "The divine image", 1965 [ SATB chorus a cappella ], from Blake on Love, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Mitchell (b. 1941), "The divine image", op. 25 no. 3 (1977), from Visions from the Flame, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Nailah Nombeko , "The Divine Image", 2019 [ soprano and piano ], from Short Songs to the Poetry of William Blake, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ellen Raskin (1928 - 1984), "The divine image", published 1966 [ voice and piano or guitar ], from Songs of Innocence, no. 12, Garden City, NY : Doubleday [sung text not yet checked]
- by Alec Rowley (1892 - 1958), "The divine mercy", published c1939 [ voice and piano ], London : Boosey & Hawkes [sung text not yet checked]
- by Thomas F. Schubert (b. 1961), "The divine image" [ 2 female voices and instrumental ensemble (variable) ], from The Divine Image -- A William Blake Cantata, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov (1948 - 2020), "The divine image", op. 132 no. 6 (2001) [ speaker and tape ], from The Innocence of Experience, no. 6 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Ronald Stevenson (b. 1928), "The divine image", 1948-50, rev. 1965 [ voice and piano ], from Songs of Innocence, no. 12, another version exists for voice, flute, and string quintet (composed 1966-71) [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Austin Sykes (1909 - 1962), "The divine image", 1935-6, first performed 1975 [ voice and piano ], from Songs of Innocence, no. 10 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Dom Thomas Symons (1887 - 1975), "The divine image ", published 1965 [ voice and piano ], London : J. Curwen ; NY : G. Schirmer [sung text not yet checked]
- by David Evan Thomas (b. 1958), "The divine image", 2002 [ medium voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Virgil Garnett Thomson (1896 - 1989), "The divine image", published c1953 [ medium voice and piano ], from Five Songs from William Blake, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "The divine image", 1957, published 1958 [ voice and oboe ], from Ten Blake Songs, no. 9 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Ernest Walker (1870 - 1949), "To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love", op. 51 no. 4, published c1932 [ four-part chorus ], from Ten Lady Margaret Hall Hymn Tunes, no. 4, hymn; London : Novello [sung text not yet checked]
- by Vally Weigl, née Pick (c1894 - 1982), "Pax hominibus", published 1969 [ medium voice and piano ], NY : American Composers Alliance; note: the sung text begins with stanza 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Rudolph T. Werther (1896 - 1986), "The divine image " [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Thomas F. Schubert) , "Das Ebenbild Gottes", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- RUS Russian (Русский) [singable] (Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov) , "Божественное подобие", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 108