A leopard with a harmless kid lay down
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And not one savage beast was seen to frown
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The wolf did with the lamb can dwell in peace
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His grim carnivorous nature there did cease
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The lion with the fatling awn did move
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And a little child was leading them in love
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Long ago there was a young painter
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Who had a dream that every creature came
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And stood assembled by his side
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And he painted the sight that had sweetened his night
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For the one hundred times before he died
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A kid lion and a snake and a child
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Wide-eyed and formal and smiling like the sun had stopped
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And time had ceased to move
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And the wolf and the lamb
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Came and ate from his hand
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And a man-child was leading them in love
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Friend have you seen all the lines and the spaces
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The colors that the young painter sees
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In the peaceable kingdom that shines in the faces
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Of people from more gentle times than these
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I find myself adrift these days
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And endless maze of ends and ways
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And worlds seem so crazy to be here
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But look away look away
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Back or forward from today
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To the visions of either fools or sears
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Oh my friend have you seen all the lines and the spaces
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The colors that the young painter sees
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In the peaceable kingdom that shines in the faces
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Of people from more gentle times than these
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Such a beautiful place
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Full of joy full of grace
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It was bathed in our saintly yellow lie
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To what learning to know that such things can't be so
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He could only believe that they might
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Oh my friend have you seen all the lines and the spaces
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The colors that the young painter sees
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In the peaceable kingdom that shines in the faces
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Of people from more gentle times than these
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Friend have you seen all the lines and the spaces
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The colors that the young painter sees
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In the peaceable kingdom that shines in the faces
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Of people from more gentle times than these
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Peaceable Kingdom
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Billy Gilman |