The Complete Poems

by William Blake

  And wove them bodies calling them her belovd sons & daughters

  Employing the daughters in her looms & Los employd the Sons

  In Golgonoozas Furnaces among the Anvils of time & space

  Thus forming a Vast family wondrous in beauty & love

  And they appeard a Universal female form created

  From those who were dead in Ulro from the Spectres of the dead

  PAGE 104 (FIRST PORTION)

  And Enitharmon namd the Female Jerusa[le]m the holy

  Wondring she saw the Lamb of God within Jerusalems Veil

  The divine Vision seen within the inmost deep recess

  Of fair Jerusalems bosom in a gently beaming fire

  Then sang the Sons of Eden round the Lamb of God & said

  Glory Glory Glory to the holy Lamb of God

  Who now beginneth to put off the dark Satanic body

  Now we behold redemption Now we know that life Eternal

  Depends alone upon the Universal hand & not in us

  10 Is aught but death In individual weakness sorrow & pain

  PAGE 113 (FIRST PORTION)

  [Daughters of Beulah describe] We behold with wonder Enitharmons Looms & Los’s Forges

  And the Spindles of Tirzah & Rahab and the Mills of Satan & Beelzeboul

  In Golgonooza Los’s anvils stand & his Furnaces rage

  [The hard dentant hammers are lulld by the flute lula lula The bellowing furnaces blare by the long sounding Clarion]

  Ten thousand demons labour at the forges Creating Continually

  The times & spaces of Mortal Life the Sun the Moon the Stars

  In periods of Pulsative furor beating into [bars] wedges & bars

  Then drawing into wires the terrific Passions & Affections

  10 Of Spectrous dead. Thence to the Looms of Cathedron conveyd

  The Daughters of Enitharmon weave the ovarium & the integument

  In soft silk drawn from their own bowels in lascivious delight

  With songs of sweetest cadence to the turning spindle & reel

  Lulling the weeping spectres of the dead. Clothing their limbs

  With gifts & gold of Eden. Astonishd stupified with delight

  The terrors put on their sweet clothing on the banks of [the Moon] Arnon

  Whence they plunge into the river of space for a period till

  The dread Sleep of Ulro is past. But Satan [receives] Og & Sihon

  Build Mills of resistless wheels to unwind the soft threads & reveal

  20 Naked of their clothing the poor spectres before the accusing heavens

  While Rahab & Tirzah far different mantles prepare webs of torture

  Mantles of despair girdles of bitter compunction shoes of indolence

  Veils of ignorance covering from head to feet with a cold web

  We look down into Ulro we behold the Wonders of the Grave

  Eastward of Golgonooza stands the Lake of Udan Adan In

  Entuthon Benithon [it is] a Lake not of Waters but of Spaces

  Perturbd black & deadly on [the] its Islands & [the] its Margins [of this Lake]

  The Mills of Satan and Beelzeboul stand round the roots of Urizens tree

  For this Lake is formd from the tears & sighs & death sweat of the Victims

  30 Of Urizens laws. to irrigate the roots of the tree of Mystery

  They unweave the soft threads then they weave them anew in the forms

  Of dark death & despair & none from Eternity to Eternity could Escape

  But [All] thou O Universal Humanity who is One Man blessed for Ever

  Recievest the Integuments woven Rahab beholds the Lamb of God

  She smites with her knife of flint She destroys her own work

  Times upon times thinking to destroy the Lamb blessed for Ever

  He puts off the clothing of blood he redeems the spectres from their bonds

  He awakes the sleepers in Ulro the Daughters of Beulah praise him

  They anoint his feet with ointment they wipe them with the hair of their head

  PAGE 104 (SECOND PORTION)

  We now behold the Ends of Beulah & we now behold

  Where Death Eternal is put off Eternally

  Assume the dark Satanic body in the Virgins womb

  O Lamb divin[e] it cannot thee annoy O pitying one

  Thy pity is from the foundation of the World & thy Redemption

  Begun Already in Eternity Come then O Lamb of God

  Come Lord Jesus come quickly

  So sang they in Eternity looking down into Beulah.

  The war roard round Jerusalems Gates it took a hideous form

  20 Seen in the aggregate a Vast Hermaphroditic form

  [Heaving ? tw] Heavd like an Earthquake labring with convulsive groans

  Intolerable at length an awful wonder burst

  From the Hermaphroditic bosom Satan he was namd

  Son of Perdition terrible his form dishumanizd monstrous

  A male without a female counterpart a howling fiend

  Fo[r]lorn of Eden & repugnant to the forms of life

  Yet hiding the shadowy female Vala as in an ark & Curtains

  Abhorrd accursed ever dying an Eternal death

  Being multitudes of tyrant Men in union blasphemous

  30 Against the divine image. Congregated Assemblies of wicked men

  Los said to Enitharmon Pitying I saw

  Pitying the Lamb of God Descended thro Jerusalems gates

  To put off Mystery time after time & as a Man

  Is born on Earth so was he born of Fair Jerusalem

  In mysterys woven mantle & in the Robes of Luvah

  He stood in fair Jerusalem to awake up into Eden

  The fallen Man but first to [rend the Veil of Mystery] Give his vegetated body

  [And then call Urizen & Luvah & Tharmas & Urthona]

  To be cut off & separated that the Spiritual body may be Reveald

  PAGE 105

  The Lamb of God stood before [Urizen] Satan opposite

  In Entuthon Benithon in the shadows of torments & woe

  Upon the heights of [Entuthon that] Amalek taking refuge in his arms

  The Victims fled from punishment [that] for all his words were peace

  [He] Urizen calld together the Synagogue of Satan in dire Sanhedrim

  To Judge the Lamb of God to Death as a murderer & robber

  As it is written he was numberd among the transgressors

  Cold dark opake the Assembly met twelvefold in Amalek

  Twelve rocky unshapd forms terrific forms of torture & woe

  10 Such seemd the Synagogue to distant view [around] amidst them [stood] beamd

  A False Feminine Counterpart of Lovely Delusive Beauty

  Dividing & Uniting at will in the Cruelties of Holiness

  Vala drawn down into a Vegetated body now triumphant

  The Synagogue of Satan Clothed her with Scarlet robes & Gems

  And on her forehead was her name written in blood Mystery

  When viewd remote She is One when viewd near she divides

  To multitude as it is in Eden so permitted because

  It was the best possible in the State called Satan to Save

  From Death Eternal & to put off Satan Eternally

  20 The Synagogue Created her from Fruit of Urizens tree

  By devilish arts abominable unlawful unutterable

  Perpetually vegetating in detestable births

  Of Female forms beautiful thro poisons hidden in secret

  Which give a tincture to false beauty [therefore they were calld

  The daughters &] there was hidden within

  The bosom of Satan The false Female as in an ark & veil

  Which christ must rend & her reveal Her Daughters are Calld

  Tirzah She is namd Rahab their various divisions are [namd] calld

  The Daughters of Amalek Canaan & Moab binding on the [Stems] Stones

  Their victims & with [songs] knives tormenting them singin
g with tears

  30 Over their victims Hear ye the song of the Females of Amalek

  O thou poor human form O thou poor child of woe

  Why dost thou wander away from Tirzah why me compell to bind thee

  If thou dost go away from me I shall consume upon the rocks

  These fibres of thine eyes that used to wander in distant heavens

  Away from me I have bound down with a hot iron

  These nostrils that Expanded with delight in morning skies

  I have bent downward with lead molten in my roaring furnaces

  My soul is seven furnaces incessant roars the bellows

  Upon my terribly flaming heart the molten metal runs

  40 In channels thro my fiery limbs O love O pity O pain

  O the pangs the bitter pangs of love forsaken

  Ephraim was a wilderness of joy where all my wild beasts ran

  The river Kanah wanderd by my sweet Manassehs side

  [To see the boy spring into heaven sounding from my sight]

  Go Noah fetch the girdle of strong brass heat it red hot

  Press it around the loins of this expanding cruelty

  Shriek not so my only love

  Bind him down Sisters bind him down on Ebal mount of Cursing

  Malah come forth from Lebanon & Hoglah from Mount sinai

  50 Come circumscribe this tongue of sweets & with a Screw of iron

  Fasten this Ear into the Rock Milcah the task is thine

  Weep not so sisters weep not so our life depends on this

  Or mercy & truth are fled away from Shechem & Mount Gilead

  Unless my beloved is bound upon the Stems of Vegetation

  Such are the songs of Tirzah such the loves of Amalek

  The Lamb of God descended thro the twelve portions of Luvah

  Bearing his sorrows & rec[iev]ing all his cruel wounds

  PAGE 106 (FIRST PORTION)

  Thus was the Lamb of God condemnd to Death

  They naild him upon the tree of Mystery weeping over him

  And then mocking & then worshipping calling him Lord & King

  Sometimes as twelve daughters lovely & sometimes as five

  They stood in beaming beauty & sometimes as one even Rahab

  [In which is Tirzah untranslucent an opake covering]

  Who is Mystery Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots

  [And Rahab stripd off Luvahs robes from off the lamb of God

  Then first she saw his glory & her harlot form appeard

  10 In all its turpitude beneath the divine light & of Luvahs robes

  She made herself a Mantle

  Also the Vegetated bodies which Enitharmon wove in her looms

  Opend within the heart & in the loins & in the brain

  To Beulah & the dead in Beulah descended thro their gates

  And some were woven one fold some two fold & some threefold

  In head or heart or reins according to the fittest order

  Of most mournful pity&compassion to the spectrous dead]

  [She] Jerusalem saw the Body dead upon the Cross She fled away

  Saying Is this Eternal Death Where shall I hide from Death

  20 Pity me Los pity me Urizen & [build] let us build

  A Sepulcher & worship Death in fear while yet we live

  Death! God of All from whom we rise to whom we all return

  And Let all Nations [in] of the Earth worship at the Sepulcher

  With Gifts & Spices with lamps rich embossd jewels & gold

  Los took the Body from the Cross Jerusalem weeping over

  They bore it to the Sepulcher which Los had hewn in the rock

  Of Eternity for himself he hewd it despairing of Life Eternal

  PAGE 113 (SECOND PORTION)

  40 [And] But when Rahab had cut off the Mantle of Luvah from

  The Lamb of God it rolld apart, revealing to all in heaven

  And all on Earth the Temple & the Synagogue of Satan & Mystery

  Even Rahab in all her turpitude Rahab divided herself

  She stood before Los in her Pride [above] among the Furnaces

  Dividing & uniting in Delusive feminine pomp questioning him

  He answerd her with tenderness & love not uninspird

  Los sat upon his anvil stock they sat beside the forge

  Los wipd the sweat from his red brow & thus began

  To the delusive female forms shining among his furnaces

  50 I am that shadowy Prophet who six thousand years ago

  Fell from my station in the Eternal bosom. I divided

  To multitude & my multitudes are children of Care & Labour

  O Rahab I behold thee I was once like thee a Son

  Of Pride and I also have piercd the Lamb of God in pride & wrath

  Hear me repeat my Generations that thou mayst also repent

  PAGE 115

  And these [Were] are the Sons of Los & Enitharmon. Rintrah Palamabron

  Theotormon Bromion Antamon Ananton Ozoth Ohana

  Sotha Mydon Ellayol Natho Gon Harhath Satan

  Har Ochim Ijim Adam Reuben Simeon Levi Judah Dan Naphtali

  Gad Asher Issachar Zebulun Joseph Benjamin David Solomon

  Paul Constantine Charlemaine Luther Milton

  These [were their] are our daughters Ocalythron Elynittria Oothoon Leutha

  Elythiria Enanto Manathu Vorcyon Ethinthus Moab Midian

  Adah Zillah Caina Naamah Tamar Rahab Tirzah Mary

  10 And myriads more of Sons & Daughters to whom [their] our love increasd

  To each according to the multiplication of their multitudes

  But Satan accusd Palamabron before [Los] his brethren also he maddend

  The horses of palambrons harrow wherefor Rintrah & Palamabron

  Cut him off from Golgonooza. But Enitharmon in tears

  Wept over him Created him a Space closd with a tender moon

  And he rolld down beneath the fires of Orc a Globe immense

  Crusted with snow in a dim void. here by the Arts of Urizen

  He tempted many of the Sons & Daughters of Los to flee

  Away from [Los] Me first Reuben fled then Simeon then Levi then Judah

  20 Then Dan then Naphtali then Gad then Asher then Issachar

  Then Zebulun then Joseph then Benjamin twelve sons of Los

  And this is the manner in which Satan became the Tempter

  There is a State namd Satan learn distinct to know O [Mortals] Rahab

  The Difference between States & Individuals of those States

  The State namd Satan never can be redeemd in all Eternity

  But when Luvah in Orc became a Serpent he des[c]ended into

  That State calld Satan Enitharmon breathd forth on the Winds

  Of Golgonooza her well beloved knowing he was Orc’s human remains

  She tenderly lovd him above all his brethren he grew up

  30 In mothers tenderness The Enormous worlds rolling in Urizens power

  Must have given Satan by these mild arts Dominion over all

  Wherefore [Rintrah &] Palamabron being accusd by Satan to Los

  Calld down a Great Solemn assembly Rintrah in fury & fire

  Defended Palamabron & rage filld the Universal Tent

  Because Palamabron was good naturd Satan supposd he feard him

  And Satan not having the Science of Wrath but only of Pity

  Was soon condemnd & wrath was left to wrath & Pity to Pity

  Rintrah & Palamabron Cut sheer off from Golgonooza

  Enitharmons Moony space & in it Satan & his companions

  40 They rolld down a dim world Crusted with Snow deadly &dark

  Jerusalem pitying them wove them mantles of life & death

  Times after times And those in Eden sent Lucifer for their Guard

  Lucifer refusd to die for Satan & in pride he forsook his charge

  Then they sent Molech Molech was impatient They sent

  Molech impatient They Sent Elohim who created Adam


  To die for Satan Adam refusd but was compelled to die

  By Satans arts. Then the Eternals Sent Shaddai

  Shaddai was angry Pachad descended Pachad was terrified

  And then they Sent Jehovah who leprous stretchd his hand to Eternity

  50 Then Jesus Came & Died willing beneath Tirzah & Rahab

  Thou art that Rahab Lo the Tomb what can we purpose more

  PAGE 116

  Lo Enitharmon terrible & beautiful in Eternal youth

  Bow down before her you children & set Jerusalem free

  Rahab burning with pride & revenge departed from Los

  Los dropd a tear at her departure but he wipd it away in hope

  She went to Urizen in pride the Prince of Light beheld

  Reveald before the face of heaven his secret holiness

  PAGE 106 (SECOND PORTION)

  Darkness & sorrow coverd all flesh Eternity was darkend

  Urizen sitting in his web of dece[i]tful Religion [was? darkend]

  30 [He] felt the female death a dull & numming stupor such as neer

  Before assaulted the bright human form he felt his pores

  Drink in the deadly dull delusion horrors of Eternal death

  Shot thro him Urizen sat Stonied upon his rock

  Forgetful of his own Laws pitying he began to Embrace

  The Shadowy Female since life cannot be quenchd Life exuded

  His eyes shot outwards then his breathing nostrils drawn forth

  Scales coverd over a cold forehead & a neck outstretchd

  Into the deep to sieze the shadow scales his neck & bosom

  Coverd & scales his hands & feet upon his belly falling

  40 Outstretchd [over] thro the immense his mouth wide opening tongueless

  His teeth a triple row he strove to sieze the shadow in vain

  And his immense tail lashd the Abyss his human form a Stone

  A form of Senseless Stone remaind in terrors on the rock

  Abominable to the eyes of mortals who explore his books

  His wisdom still remaind & all his memory stord with woe

  And still his stony form remaind in the Abyss immense

  Like the pale visage in its sheet of lead that cannot follow

  Incessant stern disdain his scaly form gnaws inwardly

  With deep repentance for the loss of that fair form of Man

  50 With Envy he saw Los with Envy Tharmas & [Urthona] the Spectre

  With Envy & in vain he swam around his stony form

  No longer now Erect the King of Light outstretchd in fury

  Lashes his tail in the [wide] wild deep his Eyelids like the Sun

  Arising in his pride enlighten all the Grizly deeps