The Complete Poems

by William Blake

  On; to walk forward thro’ Eternity, Los descended to me:

  And Los behind me stood; a terrible flaming Sun: just close

  Behind my back; I turned round in terror, and behold.

  Los stood in that fierce glowing fire; & he also stoop’d down

  And bound my sandals on in Udan-Adan; trembling I stood

  10 Exceedingly with fear & terror, standing in the Vale

  Of Lambeth: but he kissed me, and wishd me health.

  And I became One Man with him arising in my strength:

  Twas too late now to recede. Los had enterd into my soul:

  His terrors now posses’d me whole! I arose in fury & strength.

  I am that Shadowy Prophet who Six Thousand Years ago

  Fell from my station in the Eternal bosom. Six Thousand Years

  Are finishd. I return! both Time & Space obey my will.

  I in Six Thousand Years walk up and down: for not one Moment

  Of Time is lost, nor one Event of Space unpermanent.

  20 But all remain: every fabric of Six Thousand Years

  Remains permanent: tho’ on the Earth where Satan

  Fell, and was cut off all things vanish & are seen no more

  They vanish not from me & mine, we guard them first & last[.]

  The generations of men run on in the tide of Time

  But leave their destind lineaments permanent for ever & ever.

  So spoke Los as we went along to his supreme abode

  Rintrah and Palamabron met us at the Gate of Golgonooza

  Clouded with discontent. & brooding in their minds terrible things

  They said. O Father most beloved! O merciful Parent!

  30 Pitying and permitting evil, tho strong & mighty to destroy.

  Whence is this Shadow terrible? wherefore dost thou refuse

  To throw him into the Furnaces! knowest thou not that he

  Will unchain Orc? & let loose Satan, Og, Sihon & Anak,

  Upon the Body of Albion? for this he is come! behold it Written

  Upon his fibrous left Foot black! most dismal to our eyes

  The Shadowy Female shudders thro’ heaven in torment inexpressible!

  And all the Daughters of Los prophetic wail: yet in deceit,

  They weave a new Religion from new Jealousy of Theotormon!

  Miltons Religion is the cause: there is no end to destruction!

  40 Seeing the Churches at their Period in terror & despair:

  Rahab created Voltaire; Tirzah created Rousseau;

  Asserting the Self-righteousness against the Universal Saviour,

  Mocking the Confessors & Martyrs, claiming Self-righteousness;

  With cruel Virtue: making War upon the Lambs Redeemed;

  To perpetuate War & Glory, to perpetuate the Laws of Sin:

  They perverted Swedenborgs Visions in Beulah & in Ulro;

  To destroy Jerusalem as a Harlot & her Sons as Reprobates;

  To raise up Mystery the Virgin Harlot Mother of War,

  Babylon the Great, the Abomination of Desolation!

  O Swedenborg! strongest of men, the Samson shorn by the Churches!

  Shewing the Transgressors in Hell, the proud Warriors in Heaven:

  Heaven as a Punisher & Hell as One under Punishment:

  With Laws from Plato & his Greeks to renew the Trojan Gods,

  In Albion; & to deny the value of the Saviours blood.

  But then I rais’d up Whitefield, Palamabron raisd up Westley,

  And these are the cries of the Churches before the two Witnesses[’]

  Faith in God the dear Saviour who took on the likeness of men:

  Becoming obedient to death, even the death of the Cross

  The Witnesses lie dead in the Street of the Great City

  60 No Faith is in all the Earth: the Book of God is trodden under Foot:

  He sent his two Servants Whitefield & Westley; were they Prophets

  Or were they Idiots or Madmen? shew us Miracles!

  PLATE 23

  Can you have greater Miracles than these? Men who devote

  Their lifes whole comfort to intire scorn & injury & death

  Awake thou sleeper on the Rock of Eternity Albion awake

  The trumpet of Judgment hath twice sounded: all Nations are awake

  But thou art still heavy and dull: Awake Albion awake!

  Lo Orc arises on the Atlantic. Lo his blood and fire

  Glow on Americas shore: Albion turns upon his Couch

  He listens to the sounds of War, astonishd and confounded:

  He weeps into the Atlantic deep, yet still in dismal dreams

  10 Unwakend! and the Covering Cherub advances from the East:

  How long shall we lay dead in the Street of the great City

  How long beneath the Covering Cherub give our Emanations

  Milton will utterly consume us & thee our beloved Father[.]

  He hath enterd into the Covering Cherub, becoming one with

  Albions dread Sons, Hand, Hyle & Coban surround him as

  A girdle; Gwendolen & Conwenna as a garment woven

  20 Of War & Religion; let us descend & bring him chained

  To Bowlahoola O father most beloved! O mild Parent!

  Cruel in thy mildness, pitying and permitting evil

  Tho strong and mighty to destroy, O Los our beloved Father!

  Like the black storm, coming out of Chaos, beyond the stars:

  It issues thro the dark & intricate caves of the Mundane Shell

  Passing the planetary visions, & the well adorned Firmament

  The Sun rolls into Chaos & the stars into the Desarts;

  And then the storms become visible, audible & terrible,

  Covering the light of day, & rolling down upon the mountains,

  Deluge all the country round. Such is a vision of Los;

  When Rintrah & Palamabron spoke; and such his stormy face

  Appeard, as does the face of heaven, when coverd with thick storms

  30 Pitying and loving tho in frowns of terrible perturbation

  But Los dispersd the clouds even as the strong winds of Jehovah.

  And Los thus spoke. O noble Sons, be patient yet a litde[.]

  I have embracd the falling Death, he is become One with me

  O Sons we live not by wrath, by mercy alone we live!

  I recollect an old Prophecy in Eden recorded in gold; and oft

  Sung to the harp: That Milton of the land of Albion

  Should up ascend forward from Felphams Vale & break the Chain

  Of Jealousy from all its roots; be patient therefore O my Sons

  These lovely Females form sweet night and silence and secret

  40 Obscurities to hide from Satans Watch-Fiends. Human loves

  And graces; lest they write them in their Books, & in the Scroll

  Of mortal life, to condemn the accused: who at Satans Bar

  Tremble in Spectrous Bodies continually day and night

  While on the Earth they live in sorrowful Vegetations

  O when shall we tread our Wine-presses in heaven; and Reap

  Our wheat with shoutings of joy, and leave the Earth in peace

  Remember how Calvin and Luther in fury premature

  Sow’d War and stern division between Papists & Protestants

  Let it not be so now: O go not forth in Martyrdoms & Wars

  50 We were plac’d here by the Universal Brotherhood & Mercy

  With powers fitted to circumscribe this dark Satanic death

  And that the Seven Eyes of God may have space for Redemption.

  But how this is as yet we know not, and we cannot know;

  Till Albion is arisen; then patient wait a little while.

  Six Thousand years are passd away the end approaches fast;

  This mighty one is come from Eden, he is of the Elect,

  Who died from Earth & he is returnd before the Judgment. This thing

  Was never known that one of the holy dead
should willing return

  Then patient wait a little while till the Last Vintage is over:

  60 Till we have quenched the Sun of Salah in the Lake of Udan Adan

  O my dear Sons! leave not your Father, as your brethren left me[.]

  Twelve Sons successive fled away in that thousand years of sorrow

  PLATE 24

  Of Palamabrons Harrow, & of Rintrahs wrath & fury:

  Reuben & Manazzoth & Gad & Simeon & Levi,

  And Ephraim & Judah were Generated, because

  They left me, wandering with Tirzah: Enitharmon wept

  One thousand years, and all the Earth was in a watry deluge

  We calld him Menassheh because of the Generations of Tirzah

  Because of Satan: & the Seven Eyes of God continually

  Guard round them, but I the Fourth Zoa am also set

  The Watchman of Eternity, the Three are not! & I am preserved

  10 Still my four mighty ones are left to me in Golgonooza

  Still Rintrah fierce, and Palamabron mild & piteous

  Theotormon filld with care, Bromion loving Science

  You O my Sons still guard round Los. O wander not & leave me

  Rintrah, thou well rememberest when Amalek & Canaan

  Fled with their Sister Moab into that abhorred Void

  They became Nations in our sight beneath the hands of Tirzah.

  And Palamabron thou rememberest when Joseph an infant;

  Stolen from his nurses cradle wrapd in needle-work

  Of emblematic texture, was sold to the Amalekite,

  Who carried him down into Egypt where Ephraim & Menassheh 20

  Gatherd my Sons together in the Sands of Midian

  And if you also flee away and leave your Fathers side,

  Following Milton into Ulro, altho your power is great

  Surely you also shall become poor mortal vegetations

  Beneath the Moon of Ulro: pity then your Fathers tears

  When Jesus raisd Lazarus from the Grave I stood & saw

  Lazarus who is the Vehicular Body of Albion the Redeemd

  Arise into the Covering Cherub who is the Spectre of Albion

  By Martyrdoms to suffer: to watch over the Sleeping Body.

  Upon his Rock beneath his Tomb. I saw the Covering Cherub

  Divide Four-fold into Four Churches when Lazarus arose

  Paul, Constantine, Charlemaine, Luther; behold they stand before us

  Stretchd over Europe & Asia. come O Sons, come, come away

  Arise O Sons give all your strength against Eternal Death

  Lest we are vegetated, for Cathedrons Looms weave only Death

  A Web of Death: & were it not for Bowlahoola & Allamanda

  No Human Form but only a Fibrous Vegetation

  A Polypus of soft affections without Thought or Vision

  Must tremble in the Heavens & Earths thro all the Ulro space

  40 Throw all the Vegetated Mortals into Bowlahoola

  But as to this Elected Form who is returnd again

  He is the Signal that the Last Vintage now approaches

  Nor Vegetation may go on till all the Earth is reapd

  So Los spoke. Furious they descended to Bowlahoola & Allamanda

  Indignant, unconvincd by Los’s arguments & thun[d]ers rolling

  They saw that wrath now swayd and now pity absorbd him

  As it was, so it remaind & no hope of an end.

  Bowlahoola is namd Law. by mortals, Tharmas founded it:

  Because of Satan, before Luban in the City of Golgonooza.

  50 But Golgonooza is namd Art & Manufacture by mortal men

  In Bowlahoola Los’s Anvils stand & his Furnaces rage;

  Thundering the Hammers beat & the Bellows blow loud

  Living self moving mourning lamenting & howling incessantly

  Bowlahoola thro all its porches feels tho’ too fast founded

  Its pillars & porticoes to tremble at the force

  Of mortal or immortal arm: and softly lilling flutes

  Accordant with the horrid labours make sweet melody

  The Bellows are the Animal Lungs: the Hammers the Animal Heart

  The Furnaces the Stomach for digestion, terrible their fury

  60 Thousands & thousands labour, thousands play on instruments

  Stringed or fluted to ameliorate the sorrows of slavery

  Loud sport the dancers in the dance of death, rejoicing in carnage

  The hard dentant Hammers are lulld by the flutes lula lula

  The bellowing Furnaces[’] blare by the long sounding clarion

  The double drum drowns howls & groans, the shrill fife, shrieks & cries:

  The crooked horn mellows the hoarse raving serpent, terrible but harmonious

  Bowlahoola is the Stomach in every individual man.

  Los is by mortals nam’d Time Enitharmon is nam’d Space

  70 But they depict him bald & aged who is in eternal youth

  All powerful and his locks flourish like the brows of morning

  He is the Spirit of Prophecy the ever apparent Elias

  Time is the mercy of Eternity; without Times swiftness

  Which is the swiftest of all things: all were eternal torment:

  All the Gods of the Kingdoms of Earth labour in Los’s Halls.

  Every one is a fallen Son of the Spirit of Prophecy

  He is the Fourth Zoa, that stood arou[n]d the Throne Divine.

  PLATE 25

  Loud shout the Sons of Luvah, at the Wine-presses as Los descended

  With Rintrah & Palamabron in his fires of resistless fury.

  The Wine-press on the Rhine groans loud, but all its central beams

  Act more terrific in the central Cities of the Nations

  Where Human Thought is crushd beneath the iron hand of Power.

  There Los puts all into the Press, the Opressor & the Opressed

  Together, ripe for the Harvest & Vintage & ready for the Loom.

  They sang at the Vintage. This is the Last Vintage! & Seed

  Shall no more be sown upon Earth, till all the Vintage is over

  10 And all gatherd in, till the Plow has passd over the Nations

  And the Harrow & heavy thundering Roller upon the mountains

  And loud the Souls howl round the Porches of Golgonooza

  Crying O God deliver us to the Heavens or to the Earths,

  That we may preach righteousness & punish the sinner with death.

  But Los refused, till all the Vintage of Earth was gatherd in.

  And Los stood & cried to the Labourers of the Vintage in voice of awe.

  Fellow Labourers! The Great Vintage & Harvest is now upon Earth

  The whole extent of the Globe is explored: Every scatterd Atom

  Of Human Intellect now is flocking to the sound of the Trumpet

  20 All the Wisdom which was hidden in caves & dens, from ancient

  Time; is now sought out from Animal & Vegetable & Mineral

  The Awakener is come, outstretchd over Europe! the Vision of God is fulfilled

  The Ancient Man upon the Rock of Albion Awakes,

  He listens to the sounds of War astonishd & ashamed;

  He sees his Children mock at Faith and deny Providence

  Therefore you must bind the Sheaves not by Nations or Families

  You shall bind them in Three Classes; according to their Classes

  So you shall bind them. Separating What has been Mixed

  Since Men began to be Wove into Nations by Rahab & Tirzah

  30 Since Albions Death & Satans Cutting-off from our awful Fields;

  When under pretence to benevolence the Elect Subdud All

  From the Foundation of the World. The Elect is one Class: You

  Shall bind them separate: they cannot Believe in Eternal Life

  Except by Miracle & a New Birth. The other two Classes;

  The Reprobate who never cease to Believe, and the Redeemd,

  Who live in
doubts & fears perpetually tormented by the Elect

  These you shall bind in a twin-bundle for the Consummation

  But the Elect must be saved [from] fires of Eternal Death,

  To be formed into the Churches of Beulah that they destroy not the Earth

  40 For in every Nation & every Family the Three Classes are born

  And in every Species of Earth, Metal, Tree, Fish, Bird & Beast,

  We form the Mundane Egg, that Spectres coming by fury or amity,

  All is the same, & every one remains in his own energy[.]

  Go forth Reapers with rejoicing, you sowed in tears

  But the time of your refreshing cometh, only a little moment

  Still abstain from pleasure & rest in the labours of eternity

  And you shall Reap the whole Earth from Pole to Pole: from Sea to Sea

  Begin[n]ing at Jerusalems Inner Court, Lambeth ruin’d and given

  To the detestable Gods of Priam, to Apollo: and at the Asylum

  50 Given to Hercules, who labour in Tirzahs Looms for bread

  Who set Pleasure against Duty: who Create Olympic crowns

  To make Learning a burden & the Work of the Holy Spirit: Strife.

  The Thor & cruel Odin who first reard the Polar Caves

  Lambeth mourns calling Jerusalem, she weeps & looks abroad

  For the Lords coming, that Jerusalem may overspread all Nations[.]

  Crave not for the mortal & perishing delights, but leave them

  To the weak, and pity the weak as your infant care; Break not

  Forth in your wrath lest you also are vegetated by Tirzah

  Wait till the Judgement is past, till the Creation is consumed

  60 And then rush forward with me into the glorious spiritual

  Vegetation; the Supper of the Lamb & his Bride; and the

  Awaking of Albion our friend and ancient companion.

  So Los spoke. But lightnings of discontent broke on all sides round

  And murmurs of thunder rolling heavy long & loud over the mountains

  While Los calld his Sons around him to the Harvest & the Vintage.

  Thou seest the Constellations in the deep & wondrous Night

  They rise in order and continue their immortal courses

  Upon the mountains & in vales with harp & heavenly song

  With flute & clarion; with cups & measures filld with foaming wine

  Glittering the streams reflect the Vision of beatitude,

  And the calm Ocean joys beneath & smooths his awful waves!

  PLATE 26

  These are the Sons of Los, & these the Labourers of the Vintage

  Thou seest the gorgeous clothed Flies that dance & sport in summer

  Upon the sunny brooks & meadows: every one the dance,