'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 the 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.'
This somewhat gratuitous sounding verse was copied from 'A Dictionary of Literary Terms' by Martin Gray. In it there is an explanation of the term 'Antinomy' and Martin Gray cites the above poem as an example; of a work containing internal contradictions, in this case on the theme of love; before quoting the poem, Martin Gray says:
"The poet Blake was fascinated by such paradoxes, and incorporated them into his personal mythology. What seems, for example, to be contrary definitions of love, are given in the short poem 'The Clod and the Pebble' (1794), though in fact they are mutually dependent:"
