Can I See Another's Woe

Representative Text

1 Can I see another’s woe,
and not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another’s grief,
and not seek for kind relief?

2 Can I see a falling tear,
and not feel my sorrow’s share?
Can a father see his child weep,
nor be with sorrow filled?

3 Can a mother sit and hear
infant groan, an infant fear?
No, no, never can it be!
Never, never can it be!

Source: Singing the Living Tradition #127

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Author: William Blake

Blake, William, poet and painter, born 1757, and died 1827. Published Songs of Innocence in 1789, in which appeared a poem in 9 stanzas of 4 lines beginning. "Can I see another's woe" (Sympathy), and headed "On Another's Sorrow." (See also The Poems of William Blake, &c, Lond., W. Pickering, 1874, p. 105.) This poem is repeated in Martineau's Hymns, &c, 1873, and others. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)… Go to person page >

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First Line:	Can I see another's woe
Title:	Can I See Another's Woe
Author:	William Blake
Meter:	7.7.7.7
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Tune

BLAKE (Packer)

ST. DUNSTAN (Redhead)

NUN KOMM, DER HEIDEN HEILAND

NUN KOMM DER HEIDEN HEILAND is a chorale derived from a chant. Among the simplest of the Lutheran repertoire, it is framed by identical lines–l and 4. Sing the entire hymn with antiphonal groups (the practice its original Latin author, Ambrose, strongly promoted). Sing some stanzas in unison and o…

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