General Notes:  I refer to the gloriously informative "Norton Anthology of English Literature 5th Ed. Vol. 2" page 46-52 for much of this.  The setting--Har--and other elements are part of the Blakean universe that he created for other works as well as this one.  It's a kind of mythology, rather like the Cthulhu mythos of Lovecraft and his hangers-on.  Norton says that Blake was probably working on this at the same time as "innocence" and some of  "experience."  I don't know why it's after "Marriage"  on the Reading List.  Thel's name means "wish or will" and it suggests powerlessness to fulfil desires.  Pitiful.  We know how Blake feels about that.  No life.  The Vale of Har is a pastoral type place where the Songs of Innocence might have taken place.  Idyllic and dead.  Dullsville.  But when Mrs. Clay and her son the Worm --representing the fallen world, for all Norton knows, offer her virgin feet (that's normal) the chance to check out the fallen world she just can't hack it.
Iambic heptameter, unrhymed, generally. The accents are not to rigorously kept-to.  
This piece is pretty short so I'll leave it to you to scroll down on your own.


Thel's Motto

The first couple of lines is similar to something in the later "Marriage of Heaven and Hell".  Students in professor Yu Guang Zhong's Romantic Poetry class suggested that the rod and bowl are sexual-organ symbols.  What that interpretation has to do with all the rest, I dunno.

Part 1
This part lasts from the near-top of Plate 1 through the bottom of Plate 2.  I keep expecting My Little Pony to appear.  Thel, the Littlest Harmaid, feels life is pointless and wants to die.  She wants perhaps to have a little hot-cha-cha-cha.  The Lilly of the Valley tries to one-up her saying that her life is duller but she still has the sun.  But Thel is unimpressed.  The Lilly hands her a referral slip, and here comes the Cloud to o a peptalk.  

Part 2
This part was originally etched just on Plate 3.  The cloud says that though he lasts not long due to the cycle of water, he likes to be rain and nourish stuff.  Thel says she's not like that because she has no useful purpose in her life, though she does complain pretty well.  She says she's only good to feed the worms when her body dies.  The cloud thinks that's pretty swell.  So here comes the worm, here comes the worm, it's alright.

Part 3

Geez, there's not much to this is there?  Part 3 lasts from Plate 4 to Plate 5.  The worm surprises Thel.  She knows that worms would eat her rotten flesh (has, by now, I hope) but didn't know what they looked like?  C'mon!  The Clod of Clay, our old pal from Songs of Experience, is said (in my romantic poetry class) to represent self-sacrifice, malleability, and selflessness.  Nice.  Sounds right, too.  Now Thel pities the worm and the Clod.  Now Thelly is invited to the Clod's house--like the underworld, the grave, that kind of thing.  

Part 4

So the dimwit goes.  Now the limpid, vowelly  poetry makes way for more consonantized poetry that really changes the mood.  It's scary and gloomy.  Then she finds a grave that reads:  "EBENEZER SCROOGE".

No, wait, wrong story.  She finds her own grave plot and sits down, listening.  She hears a seductive and dangerous voice referring to the senses one by one, and the maidenhead at last.  Thel wanted something more, but not THAT more.  She runs away, back to her own familiar land of Dooz.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained, nothing even happening.  The End.

That's all for today, kiddies.  Next poet is even more duller than Blake.  It's 'umble Master Burrrrns.