Patti Smith - My Blakean Year video free download

Trampin' (2004)

Patti Smith's Ode to William Blake

Lyrics:

In my Blakean year

I was so disposed

Toward a mission yet unclear

Advancing pole by pole

Fortune breathed into my ear

Mouthed a simple ode

One road is paved in gold

One road is just a road

In my Blakean year

Such a woeful schism

The pain of our existence

Was not as I envisioned

Boots that trudged from track to track

Worn down to the sole

One road is paved in gold

One road is just a road

Boots that tread from track to track

Worn down to the sole

One road is paved in gold

One road is just a road

In my Blakean year

Temptation but a hiss

Just a shallow spear

Robed in cowardice

Brace yourself for bitter flack

For a life sublime

A labyrinth of riches

Never shall unwind

The threads that bind the pilgrim's sack

Are stitched into the Blakean back

So throw off your stupid cloak

Embrace all that you fear

For joy shall conquer all despair

In my Blakean year

Mercy has a human heart

Pity a human face

Love a human form of defy

Peace a human dress

To mercy, pity, peace and love

For praying their distress

But mercy shall embrace

Mercy shall embrace

Mercy, it is the mercy

It is the mercy

Mercy shall embrace

Mercy shall embrace

Mercy shall embrace

It's the mercy, mercy

Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses. Called the "Godmother of Punk", her work is a fusion of rock and poetry.

Although almost all the songs she records are collaborations, occasionally she writes a song herself. '' Reading a lot of William Blake as well as the wonderful Blake biography by Peter Ackroyd, i worked on this song for a while. William Blake has served as a good example in facing my own difficulties and feeling a certain satisfaction in doing so.''

William Blake (28 November 1757 -- 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the Church of England -- indeed, to all forms of organised religion -- Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American revolutions. His poetry consistently embodies an attitude of rebellion against the abuse of class power as documented in David Erdman's large study Blake: Prophet Against Empire: A Poet's Interpretation of the History of His Own Times. Blake was concerned about senseless wars and the blighting effects of the industrial revolution. Much of his poetry recounts in symbolic allegory the effects of the French and American revolutions. Erdman claims Blake was disillusioned with them, believing they had simply replaced monarchy with irresponsible mercantilism and notes Blake was deeply opposed to slavery, and believes some of his poems read primarily as championing "free love" have had their anti-slavery implications short-changed. A more recent (and very short) study, William Blake: Visionary Anarchist by Peter Marshall (1988), classified Blake and his contemporary William Godwin as forerunners of modern anarchism.