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Home  »  The Poetical Works by William Blake  »  For this is being a friend just in the nick

William Blake (1757–1827). The Poetical Works. 1908.

On Friends and Foes

For this is being a friend just in the nick

XXIX
—FOR this is being a friend just in the nick,

Not when he’s well, but waiting till he’s sick;

He calls you to his help; be you not mov’d

Until, by being sick, his wants are prov’d.

You see him spend his soul in prophecy:

Do you believe it a confounded lie,

Till some bookseller, and the public fame,

Prove there is truth in his extravagant claim.

For ’tis atrocious in a friend you love

To tell you anything that he can’t prove,

And ’tis most wicked in a Christian nation

For any man to pretend to inspiration.