William Blake (1757–1827). The Poetical Works. 1908.
Poems from the Rossetti MS.: Later PoemsWhy was Cupid a boy
W
And why a boy was he?
He should have been a girl,
For aught that I can see.
And the girl shoots with her eye,
And they both are merry and glad,
And laugh when we do cry.
Was the Cupid girl’s mocking plan;
For a boy can’t interpret the thing
Till he is become a man.
And wounded with arrowy smarts,
That the whole business of his life
Is to pick out the heads of the darts.
Turn’d Love into a boy,
And woman into a statue of stone—
And away fled every joy.