The Complete Poems

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The Complete Poems Page 52

by William Blake

Hast just cause to be irritated: but look stedfastly upon me:

  Comfort thyself in my strength the time will arrive,

  When all Albions injuries shall cease, and when we shall

  Embrace him tenfold bright, rising from his tomb in immortality.

  They have divided themselves by Wrath, they must be united by

  Pity: let us therefore take example & warning O my Spectre,

  O that I could abstain from wrath! O that the Lamb

  60 Of God would look upon me and pity me in my fury.

  In anguish of regeneration: in terrors of self annihilation:

  Pity must join together those whom wrath has torn in sunder,

  And the Religion of Generation which was meant for the destruction

  Of Jerusalem, become her covering, till the time of the End.

  O holy Generation [Image] of regeneration!

  O point of mutual forgiveness between Enemies!

  Birthplace of the Lamb of God incomprehensible!

  The Dead despise & scorn thee, & cast thee out as accursed:

  Seeing the Lamb of God in thy gardens & thy palaces:

  70 Where they desire to place the Abomination of Desolation.

  Hand sits before his furnace: scorn of others & furious pride:

  Freeze round him to bars of steel & to iron rocks beneath

  His feet: indignant self-righteousness like whirlwinds of the north:

  PLATE 8

  Rose up against me thundering from the Brook of Albions River

  From Ranelagh & Strumbolo, from Cromwells gardens & Chelsea

  The place of wounded Soldiers, but when he saw my Mace

  Whirld round from heaven to earth, trembling he sat: his cold

  Poisons rose up: & his sweet deceits coverd them all over

  With a tender cloud. As thou art now; such was he O Spectre

  I know thy deceit & thy revenges, and unless thou desist

  I will certainly create an eternal Hell for thee. Listen!

  Be attentive! be obedient! Lo the Furnaces are ready to recieve thee.

  10 I will break thee into shivers! & melt thee in the furnaces of death;

  I will cast thee into forms of abhorrence & torment if thou

  Desist not from thine own will, & obey not my stern command!

  I am closd up from my children: my Emanation is dividing

  And thou my Spectre art divided against me. But mark

  I will compell thee to assist me in my terrible labours. To beat

  These hypocritic Selfhoods on the Anvils of bitter Death

  I am inspired: I act not for myself: for Albions sake

  I now am what I am: a horror and an astonishment

  Shuddring the heavens to look upon me: Behold what cruelties

  20 Are practised in Babel & Shinar, & have approachd to Zions Hill

  While Los spoke, the terrible Spectre fell shuddring before him

  Watching his time with glowing eyes to leap upon his prey[.]

  Los opend the Furnaces in fear, the Spectre saw to Babel & Shinar

  Across all Europe & Asia, he saw the tortures of the Victims.

  He saw now from the ou[t]side what he before saw & felt from within

  He saw that Los was the sole, uncontrolld Lord of the Furnaces

  Groaning he kneeld before Los’s iron-shod feet on London Stone,

  Hungring & thirsting for Los’s life yet pretending obedience.

  While Los pursud his speech in threat’nings loud & fierce.

  30 Thou art my Pride & Self-righteousness: I have found thee out:

  Thou art reveald before me in all thy magnitude & power

  The Uncircumcised pretences to Chastity must be cut in sunder!

  Thy holy wrath & deep deceit cannot avail against me

  Nor shalt thou ever assume the triple-form of Albions Spectre

  For I am one of the living: dare not to mock my inspired fury

  If thou wast cast forth from my life! if I was dead upon the mountains

  Thou mightest be pitied & lovd: but now I am living; unless

  Thou abstain ravening I will create an eternal Hell for thee.

  Take thou this Hammer & in patience heave the thundering Bellows

  40 Take thou these Tongs: strike thou alternate with me: labour obedient[.]

  Hand & Hyle & Koban: Skofeld, Kox & Kotope, labour mightily[.]

  In the Wars of Babel & Shinar, all their Emanations were

  Condensd. Hand has absorbd all his Brethen in his might

  All the infant Loves & Graces were lost, for the mighty Hand

  PLATE 9

  Condens’d his Emanations into hard opake substances;

  And his infant thoughts & desires, into cold, dark, cliffs of death.

  His hammer of gold he siezd; and his anvil of adamant.

  He siez’d the bars of condens’d thoughts, to forge them:

  Into the sword of war: into the bow and arrow:

  Into the thundering cannon and into the murdering gun[.]

  I saw the limbs form’d for exercise, contemn’d: & the beauty of

  Eternity, look’d upon as deformity & loveliness as a dry tree:

  10 I saw disease forming a Body of Death around the Lamb

  Of God, to destroy Jerusalem, & to devour the body of Albion

  By war and stratagem to win the labour of the husbandman:

  Awkwardness arm’d in steel: folly in a helmet of gold:

  Weakness with horns & talons: ignorance with a rav’ning beak!

  Every Emanative joy forbidden as a Crime:

  And the Emanations buried alive in the earth with pomp of religion:

  Inspiration deny’d; Genius forbidden by laws of punishment:

  I saw terrified; I took the sighs & tears, & bitter groans:

  I lifted them into my Furnaces; to form the spiritual sword,

  That lays open the hidden heart: I drew forth the pang

  20 Of sorrow red hot: I workd it on my resolute anvil:

  I heated it in the flames of Hand, & Hyle, & Coban

  Nine times; Gwendolen & Cambel & Gwineverra

  Are melted into the gold, the silver, the liquid ruby,

  The crysolite, the topaz, the jacinth, & every precious stone.

  Loud roar my Furnaces and loud my hammer is heard:

  I labour day and night, I behold the soft affections

  Condense beneath my hammer into forms of cruelty

  But still I labour in hope, tho’ still my tears flow down,

  That he who will not defend Truth, may be competid to defend

  30 A Lie: that he may be snared and caught and snared and taken

  That Enthusiasm and Life may not cease: arise Spectre arise!

  Thus they contended among the Furnaces with groans & tears;

  Groaning the Spectre heavd the bellows, obeying Los’s frowns;

  Till the Spaces of Erin were perfected in the furnaces

  Of affliction, and Los drew them forth, compelling the harsh Spectre.

  PLATE 10

  Into the Furnaces & into the valleys of the Anvils of Death

  And into the mountains of the Anvils & of the heavy Hammers

  Till he should bring the Sons & Daughters of Jerusalem to be

  The Sons & Daughters of Los that he might protect them from

  Albions dread Spectres; storming, loud, thunderous & mighty

  The Bellows & the Hammers move compell’d by Los’s hand.

  And this is the manner of the Sons of Albion in their strength

  They take the Two Contraries which are calld Qualities, with which

  Every Substance is clothed, they name them Good & Evil

  10 From them they make an Abstract, which is a Negation

  Not only of the Substance from which it is derived

  A murderer of its own Body: but also a murderer

  Of every Divine Member: it is the Reasoning Power

  An Abstract objecting power, that Negatives every thing
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  This is the Spectre of Man: the Holy Reasoning Power

  And in its Holiness is closed the Abomination of Desolation

  Therefore Los stands in London building Golgonooza

  Compelling his Spectre to labours mighty; trembling in fear

  The Spectre weeps, but Los unmovd by tears or threats remains

  20 I must Create a System, or be enslav’d by another Mans

  I will not Reason & Compare: my business is to Create

  So Los, in fury & strength: in indignation & burning wrath

  Shuddring the Spectre howls, his howlings terrify the night

  He stamps around the Anvil, beating blows of stern despair

  He curses Heaven & Earth, Day & Night & Sun & Moon

  He curses Forest Spring & River, Desart & sandy Waste

  Cities & Nations, Families & Peoples, Tongues & Laws

  Driven to desperation by Los’s terrors & threatning fears

  Los cries, Obey my voice & never deviate from my will

  30 And I will be merciful to thee: be thou invisible to all

  To whom I make thee invisible, but chief to my own Children

  O Spectre of Urthona: Reason not against their dear approach

  Nor them obstruct with thy temptations of doubt & despair[.]

  O Shame O strong & mighty Shame I break thy brazen fetters

  If thou refuse, thy present torments will seem southern breezes

  To what thou shalt endure if thou obey not my great will.

  The Spectre answer’d. Art thou not ashamd of those thy Sins

  That thou callest thy Children? lo the Law of God commands

  That they be offered upon his Altar: O cruelty & torment

  40 For thine are also mine! I have kept silent hitherto,

  Concerning my chief delight: but thou hast broken silence

  Now I will speak my mind! Where is my lovely Enitharmon

  O thou my enemy, where is my Great Sin? She is also thine

  I said: now is my grief at worst: incapable of being

  Surpassed: but every moment it accumulates more & more

  It continues accumulating to eternity! the joys of God advance

  For he is Righteous: he is not a Being of Pity & Compassion

  He cannot feel Distress: he feeds on Sacrifice & Offering:

  Delighting in cries & tears & clothd in holiness & solitude

  50 But my griefs advance also, for ever & ever without end

  O that I could cease to be! Despair! I am Despair

  Created to be the great example of horror & agony: also my

  Prayer is vain I called for compassion: compassion mockd

  Mercy & pity threw the grave stone over me & with lead

  And iron, bound it over me for ever: Life lives on my

  Consuming: & the Almighty hath made me his Contrary

  To be all evil, all reversed & for ever dead: knowing

  And seeing life, yet living not; how can I then behold

  And not tremble; how can I be beheld & not abhorrd

  60 So spoke the Spectre shuddring, & dark tears ran down his shadowy face

  Which Los wipd off, but comfort none could give! or beam of hope

  Yet ceasd he not from labouring at the roarings of his Forge

  With iron & brass Building Golgonooza in great contendings

  Till his Sons & Daughters came forth from the Furnaces

  At the sublime Labours for Los, compelld the invisible Spectre

  PLATE II

  To labours mighty, with vast strength, with his mighty chains.

  In pulsations of time, & extensions of space, like Urns of Beulah

  With great labour upon his anvils & in his ladles the Ore

  He lifted, pouring it into the clay ground prepar’d with art;

  Striving with Systems to deliver Individuals from those Systems;

  That whenever any Spectre began to devour the Dead,

  He might feel the pain as if a man gnawd his own tender nerves.

  Then Erin came forth from the Furnaces, & all the Daughters of Beulah

  Came from the Furnaces, by Los’s mighty power for Jerusalems

  10 Sake: walking up and down among the Spaces of Erin:

  And the Sons and Daughters of Los came forth in perfection lovely!

  And the Spaces of Erin reach’d from the starry heighth, to the starry depth.

  Los wept with exceeding joy & all wept with joy together!

  They feard they never more should see their Father, who

  Was built in from Eternity, in the Cliffs of Albion.

  But when the joy of meeting was exhausted in loving embrace;

  Again they lament. O what shall we do for lovely Jerusalem?

  To protect the Emanations of Albions mighty ones from cruelty?

  Sabrina & Ignoge begin to sharpen their beamy spears

  20 Of light and love: their little children stand with arrows of gold:

  Ragan is wholly cruel Scofield is bound in iron armour!

  He is like a mandrake in the earth before Reubens gate:

  He shoots beneath Jerusalems walls to undermine her foundations:

  Vala is but thy Shadow, O thou loveliest among women!

  A shadow animated by thy tears O mournful Jerusalem!

  PLATE 12

  Why wilt thou give to her a Body whose life is but a Shade?

  Her joy and love, a shade: a shade of sweet repose:

  But animated and vegetated, she is a devouring worm:

  What shall we do for thee O lovely mild Jerusalem?

  And Los said. I behold the finger of God in terrors!

  Albion is dead! his Emanation is divided from him!

  But I am living! yet I feel my Emanation also dividing

  Such thing was never known! O pity me, thou all-piteous-one!

  What shall I do! or how exist, divided from Enitharmon?

  10 Yet why despair! I saw the finger of God go forth

  Upon my Furnaces, from within the Wheels of Albions Sons:

  Fixing their Systems, permanent: by mathematic power

  Giving a body to Falshood that it may be cast off for ever.

  With Demonstrative Science piercing Apollyon with his own bow!

  God is within, & without! he is even in the depths of Hell!

  Such were the lamentations of the Labourers in the Furnaces!

  And they appeard within & without incircling on both sides

  The Starry Wheels of Albions Sons, with Spaces for Jerusalem:

  And for Vala the shadow of Jerusalem: the ever mourning shade:

  20 On both sides, within & without beaming gloriously!

  Terrified at the sublime Wonder, Los stood before his Furnaces.

  And they stood around, terrified with admiration at Erins Spaces

  For the Spaces reachd from the starry heighth, to the starry depth;

  And they builded Golgonooza: terrible eternal labour!

  What are those golden builders doing? where was the burying-place

  Of soft Ethinthus? near Tyburns fatal Tree? is that

  Mild Zions hills most ancient promontory; near mournful

  Ever weeping Paddington? is that Calvary and Golgotha?

  Becoming a building of pity and compassion? Lo!

  30 The stones are pity and the bricks, well wrought affections:

  Enameld with love & kindness, & the tiles engraven gold

  Labour of merciful hands: the beams & rafters are forgiveness:

  The mortar & cement of the work, tears of honesty: the nails,

  And the screws & iron braces, are well wrought blandishments,

  And well contrived words, firm fixing, never forgotten,

  Always comforting the remembrance: the floors, humility,

  The cielings, devotion: the hearths, thanksgiving:

  Prepare the furniture O Lambeth in thy pitying looms!

  The curtains, woven tears & sighs, wrought into lovely forms

  40 For comfo
rt, there the secret furniture of Jerusalems chamber

  Is wrought: Lambeth! the Bride the Lambs Wife loveth thee:

  Thou art one with her & knowest not of self in thy supreme joy.

  Go on, builders in hope: tho Jerusalem wanders far away,

  Without the gate of Los: among the dark Satanic wheels.

  Fourfold the Sons of Los in their divisions: and fourfold,

  The great City of Golgonooza: fourfold toward the north

  And toward the south fourfold, & fourfold toward the east & west

  Each within other toward the four points: that toward

  Eden, and that toward the World of Generation,

  50 And that toward Beulah, and that toward Ulro:

  Ulro is the space of the terrible starry wheels of Albions sons:

  But that toward Eden is walled up, till time of renovation:

  Yet it is perfect in its building, ornaments & perfection.

  And the Four Points are thus beheld in Great Eternity

  West, the Circumference: South, the Zenith: North,

  The Nadir: East, the Center, unapproachable for ever.

  These are the four Faces towards the Four Worlds of Humanity

  In every Man. Ezekiel saw them by Chebars flood.

  And the Eyes are the South, and the Nostrils are the East.

  60 And the Tongue is the West, and the Ear is the North.

  And the North Gate of Golgonooza toward Generation

  Has four sculpturd Bulls terrible before the Gate of iron.

  And iron, the Bulls: and that which looks toward Ulro,

  Clay bak’d & enamel’d, eternal glowing as four furnaces:

  Turning upon the Wheels of Albions sons with enormous power.

  And that toward Beulah four, gold, silver, brass, & iron:

  PLATE 13

  And that toward Eden, four, form’d of gold, silver, brass, & iron.

  The South, a golden Gate, has four Lions terrible, living!

  That toward Generation, four, of iron carv’d wondrous:

  That toward Ulro, four, clay bak’d, laborious workmanship

  That toward Eden, four; immortal gold, silver, brass & iron.

  The Western Gate fourfold, is closd: having four Cherubim

  Its guards, living, the work of elemental hands, laborious task!

  Like Men, hermaphroditic, each winged with eight wings

  That towards Generation, iron; that toward Beulah, stone;

  10 That toward Ulro, clay: that toward Eden, metals.

  But all clos’d up till the last day, when the graves shall yield their dead

  The Eastern Gate, fourfold: terrible & deadly its ornaments:

  Taking their forms from the Wheels of Albions sons; as cogs

 

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