The Complete Poems

by William Blake

Our Father Albions sin and shame! But father now no more!

  Nor sons. nor hateful peace & love, nor soft complacencies

  With transgressors meeting in brotherhood around the table,

  Or in the porch or garden. No more the sinful delights

  Of age and youth and boy and girl and animal and herb,

  And river and mountain, and city & village, and house & family,

  Beneath the Oak & Palm, beneath the Vine and Fig-tree,

  20 In self-denial! – But War and deadly contention, Between

  Father and Son, and light and love! All bold asperities

  Of Haters met in deadly strife, rending the house & garden

  The unforgiving porches, the tables of enmity, and beds

  And chambers of trembling & suspition, hatreds of age & youth

  And boy & girl, & animal & herb, & river & mountain

  And city & village, and house & family. That the Perfect,

  May live in glory, redeem’d by Sacrifice of the Lamb

  And of his children, before sinful Jerusalem. To build

  Babylon the City of Vala, the Goddess Virgin-Mother.

  30 She is our Mother! Nature! Jerusalem is our Harlot-Sister

  Return’d with Children of pollution, to defile our House,

  With Sin and Shame. Cast! Cast her into the Potters field.

  Her little-ones, She must slay upon our Altars: and her aged

  Parents must be carried into captivity, to redeem her Soul

  To be for a Shame & a Curse, and to be our Slaves for ever

  So cry Hand & Hyle the eldest of the fathers of Albions

  Little-ones; to destroy the Divine Saviour; the Friend of Sinners,

  Building Castles in desolated places, and strong Fortifications.

  Soon Hand mightily devour’d & absorb’d Albions Twelve Sons.

  40 Out from his bosom a mighty Polypus, vegetating in darkness,

  And Hyle & Coban were his two chosen ones, for Emissaries

  In War: forth from his bosom they went and return’d,

  Like Wheels from a great Wheel reflected in the Deep.

  Hoarse turn’d the Starry Wheels, rending a way in Albions Loins

  Beyond the Night of Beulah. In a dark & unknown Night,

  Outstretch’d his Giant beauty on the ground in pain & tears:

  PLATE 19

  His Children exil’d from his breast pass to and fro before him

  His birds are silent on his hills, flocks die beneath his branches

  His tents are fall’n! his trumpets, and the sweet sound of his harp

  Are silent on his clouded hills, that belch forth storms & fire.

  His milk of Cows, & honey of Bees, & fruit of golden harvest,

  Is gather’d in the scorching heat, & in the driving rain:

  Where once he sat he weary walks in misery and pain:

  His Giant beauty and perfection fallen into dust:

  Till from within his witherd breast grown narrow with his woes:

  10 The corn is turn’d to thistles & the apples into poison:

  The birds of song to murderous crows, his joys to bitter groans!

  The voices of children in his tents, to cries of helpless infants!

  And self-exiled from the face of light & shine of morning,

  In the dark world a narrow house! he wanders up and down,

  Seeking for rest and finding none! and hidden far within,

  His Eon weeping in the cold and desolated Earth.

  All his Affections now appear withoutside: all his Sons,

  Hand, Hyle & Coban, Guantok, Peachey, Brereton, Slayd & Hutton,

  Scofeld, Kox, Kotope & Bowen; his Twelve Sons: Satanic Mill!

  20 Who are the Spectres of the Twentyfour, each Double-form’d:

  Revolve upon his mountains groaning in pain: beneath

  The dark incessant sky, seeking for rest and finding none:

  Raging against their Human natures, ravning to gormandize

  The Human majesty and beauty of the Twentyfour,

  Condensing them into solid rocks with cruelty and abhorrence

  Suspition & revenge, & the seven diseases of the Soul

  Settled around Albion and around Luvah in his secret cloud[.]

  Willing the Friends endur’d, for Albions sake, and for

  Jerusalem his Emanation shut within his bosom;

  30 Which hardend against them more and more; as he builded onwards

  On the Gulph of Death in self-righteousness, that roll’d

  Before his awful feet, in pride of virtue for victory:

  And Los was roofd in from Eternity in Albions Cliffs

  Which stand upon the ends of Beulah, and withoutside, all

  Appear’d a rocky form against the Divine Humanity.

  Albions Circumference was clos’d: his Center began darkning

  Into the Night of Beulah, and the Moon of Beulah rose

  Clouded with storms: Los his strong Guard walkd round

  beneath the Moon

  And Albion fled inward among the currents of his rivers.

  40 He found Jerusalem upon the River of his City soft repos’d

  In the arms of Vala, assimilating in one with Vala

  The Lilly of Havilah: and they sang soft thro’ Lambeths vales,

  In a sweet moony night & silence that they had created

  With a blue sky spread over with wings and a mild moon,

  Dividing & uniting into many female forms: Jerusalem

  Trembling! then in one comingling in eternal tears,

  Sighing to melt his Giant beauty, on the moony river.

  PLATE 20

  But when they saw Albion fall’n upon mild Lambeths vale:

  Astonish’d! Terrified! they hover’d over his Giant limbs.

  Then thus Jerusalem spoke, while Vala wove the veil of tears:

  Weeping in pleadings of Love, in the web of despair.

  Wherefore hast thou shut me into the winter of human life

  And clos’d up the sweet regions of youth and virgin innocence:

  Where we live, forgetting error, not pondering on evil:

  Among my lambs & brooks of water, among my warbling birds:

  Where we delight in innocence before the face of the Lamb:

  10 Going in and out before him in his love and sweet affection.

  Vala replied weeping & trembling, hiding in her veil.

  When winter rends the hungry family and the snow falls:

  Upon the ways of men hiding the paths of man and beast,

  Then mourns the wanderer: then he repents his wanderings & eyes

  The distant forest; then the slave groans in the dungeon of stone.

  The captive in the mill of the stranger, sold for scanty hire.

  They view their former life: they number moments over and over;

  Stringing them on their remembrance as on a thread of sorrow.

  Thou art my sister and my daughter! thy shame is mine also!

  20 Ask me not of my griefs! thou knowest all my griefs.

  Jerusalem answer’d with soft tears over the valleys.

  O Vala what is Sin? that thou shudderest and weepest

  At sight of thy once lov’d Jerusalem! What is Sin but a little

  Error & fault that is soon forgiven; but mercy is not a Sin

  Nor pity nor love nor kind forgiveness! O! if I have Sinned

  Forgive & pity me! O! unfold thy Veil in mercy & love!

  Slay not my little ones, beloved Virgin daughter of Babylon

  Slay not my infant loves & graces, beautiful daughter of Moab

  I cannot put off the human form I strive but strive in vain

  30 When Albion rent thy beautiful net of gold and silver twine;

  Thou hadst woven it with art, thou hadst caught me in the bands

  Of love; thou refusedst to let me go: Albion beheld thy beauty

  Beautiful thro’ our Love’s comeliness, beautiful thro’ pity.

  The Veil shon
e with thy brightness in the eyes of Albion,

  Because it inclosd pity & love; because we lov’d one-another!

  Albion lov’d thee! he rent thy Veil! he embrac’d thee! he lov’d thee!

  Astonish’d at his beauty & perfection, thou forgavest his furious love:

  I redounded from Albions bosom in my virgin loveliness.

  The Lamb of God reciev’d me in his arms he smil’d upon us:

  40 He made me his Bride & Wife: he gave thee to Albion.

  Then was a time of love: O why is it passed away!

  Then Albion broke silence and with groans reply’d

  PLATE 21

  O Vala! O Jerusalem! do you delight in my groans

  You O lovely forms, you have prepared my death-cup:

  The disease of Shame covers me from head to feet: I have no hope

  Every boil upon my body is a separate & deadly Sin.

  Doubt first assaild me, then Shame took possession of me

  Shame divides Families. Shame hath divided Albion in sunder!

  First fled my Sons, & then my Daughters, then my Wild Animations

  My Cattle next, last ev’n the Dog of my Gate. the Forests fled

  The Corn-fields, & the breathing Gardens outside separated

  10 The Sea; the Stars: the Sun: the Moon: drivn forth by my disease

  All is Eternal Death unless you can weave a chaste

  Body over an unchaste Mind! Vala! O that thou wert pure!

  That the deep wound of Sin might be clos’d up with the Needle,

  And with the Loom: to cover Gwendolen & Ragan with costly Robes

  Of Natural Virtue[,] for their Spiritual forms without a Veil

  Wither in Luvahs Sepulcher. I thrust him from my presence

  And all my Children followd his loud howlings into the Deep.

  Jerusalem! dissembler Jerusalem! I look into thy bosom:

  I discover thy secret places: Cordella! I behold

  20 Thee whom I thought pure as the heavens in innocence &fear:

  Thy Tabernacle taken down, thy secret Cherubim disclosed

  Art thou broken? Ah me Sabrina, running by my side:

  In childhood what wert thou? unutterable anguish! Conwenna

  Thy cradled infancy is most piteous. O hide, O hide!

  Their secret gardens were made paths to the traveller:

  I knew not of their secret loves with those I hated most,

  Nor that their every thought was Sin & secret appetite[.]

  Hyle sees in fear, he howls in fury over them, Hand sees

  In jealous fear: in stern accusation with cruel stripes

  30 He drives them thro’ the Streets of Babylon before my face:

  Because they taught Luvah to rise into my clouded heavens

  Battersea and Chelsea mourn for Cambel & Gwendolen!

  Hackney and Holloway sicken for Estrild & Ignoge!

  Because the Peak, Malvern & Cheviot Reason in Cruelty

  Penmaenmawr & Dhinas-bran Demonstrate in Unbelief

  Manchester & Liverpool are in tortures of Doubt & Despair

  Malden & Colchester Demonstrate: I hear my Childrens voices

  I see their piteous faces gleam out upon the cruel winds

  From Lincoln & Norwich, from Edinburgh & Monmouth:

  40 I see them distant from my bosom scourgd along the roads

  Then lost in clouds; I hear their tender voices! clouds divide

  I see them die beneath the whips of the Captains! they are taken

  In solemn pomp into Chaldea across the bredths of Europe

  Six months they lie embalmd in silent death: worshipped

  Carried in Arks of Oak before the armies in the spring

  Bursting their Arks they rise again to life: they play before

  The Armies: I hear their loud cymbals & their deadly cries

  Are the Dead cruel? are those who are infolded in moral Law

  Revengeful? O that Death & Annihilation were the same!

  50 Then Vala answerd spreading her scarlet Veil over Albion

  PLATE 22

  Albion thy fear has made me tremble; thy terrors have surrounded me

  Thy Sons have naild me on the Gates piercing my hands & feet:

  Till Skofields Nimrod the mighty Huntsman [of] Jehovah came,

  With Cush his Son & took me down. He in a golden Ark,

  Bears me before his Armies tho my shadow hovers here

  The flesh of multitudes fed & nourisd me in my childhood

  My morn & evening food were prepard in Battles of Men

  Great is the cry of the Hounds of Nimrod along the Valley

  Of Vision, they scent the odor of War in the Valley of Vision.

  10 All Love is lost! terror succeeds & Hatred instead of Love

  And stern demands of Right & Duty instead of Liberty

  Once thou wast to me the loveliest Son of heaven; but now

  Where shall I hide from thy dread countenance & searching eyes

  I have looked into the secret Soul of him I loved

  And in the dark recesses found Sin & can never return.

  Albion again utterd his voice beneath the silent Moon

  I brought Love into light of day to pride in chaste beauty

  I brought Love into light & fancied Innocence is no more

  Then spoke Jerusalem O Albion! my Father Albion

  20 Why wilt thou number every little fibre of my Soul

  Spreading them out before the Sun like stalks of flax to dry?

  The Infant Joy is beautiful, but its anatomy

  Horrible ghast & deadly! nought shalt thou find in it

  But dark despair & everlasting brooding melancholy!

  Then Albion turnd his face toward Jerusalem & spoke

  Hide thou Jerusalem in impalpable voidness, not to be

  Touchd by the hand nor seen with the eye: O Jerusalem

  Would thou wert not & that thy place might never be found

  But come O Vala with knife & cup: drain my blood

  30 To the last drop! then hide me in thy Scarlet Tabernacle

  For I see Luvah whom I slew. I behold him in my Spectre

  As I behold Jerusalem in thee O Vala dark and cold

  Jerusalem then stretchd her hand toward the Moon & spoke

  Why should Punishment Weave the Veil with Iron Wheels of War

  When Forgiveness might it Weave with Wings of Cherubim

  Loud groand Albion from mountain to mountain & replied

  PLATE 23

  Jerusalem! Jerusalem! deluding shadow of Albion!

  Daughter of my phantasy! unlawful pleasure! Albions curse!

  I came here with intention to annihilate thee! But

  My soul is melted away, inwoven within the Veil

  Hast thou again knitted the Veil of Vala, which I for thee

  Pitying rent in ancient times. I see it whole and more

  Perfect, and shining with beauty! But thou! O wretched Father!

  Jerusalem reply’d, like a voice heard from a sepulcher:

  Father! once piteous! Is Pity a Sin? Embalm’d in Vala’s bosom

  10 In an Eternal Death for Albions sake, our best beloved.

  Thou art my Father & my Brother: Why hast thou hidden me,

  Remote from the divine Vision: my Lord and Saviour.

  Trembling stood Albion at her words in jealous dark despair:

  He felt that Love and Pity are the same; a soft repose!

  Inward complacency of Soul: a Self-annihilation!

  I have erred! I am ashamed! and will never return more:

  I have taught my children sacrifices of cruelty: what shall I answer?

  I will hide it from Eternals! I will give myself for my Children!

  Which way soever I turn, I behold Humanity and Pity!

  20 He recoil’d: he rush’d outwards; he bore the Veil whole away

  His fires redound from his Dragon Altars in Errors returning.

  He drew the Veil of Moral Virtue, woven for Cruel
Laws,

  And cast it into the Atlantic Deep, to catch the Souls of the Dead.

  He stood between the Palm tree & the Oak of weeping

  Which stand upon the edge of Beulah; and there Albion sunk

  Down in sick pallid languor! These were his last words, relapsing!

  Hoarse from his rocks, from caverns of Derbyshire & Wales

  And Scotland, utter’d from the Circumference into Eternity.

  Blasphemous Sons of Feminine delusion! God in the dreary Void

  30 Dwells from Eternity, wide separated from the Human Soul

  But thou deluding Image by whom imbu’d the Veil I rent

  Lo here is Valas Veil whole, for a Law, a Terror & a Curse!

  And therefore God takes vengeance on me: from my clay-cold bosom

  My children wander trembling victims of his Moral Justice.

  His snows fall on me and cover me, while in the Veil I fold

  My dying limbs. Therefore O Manhood, if thou art aught

  But a meer Phantasy, hear dying Albions Curse!

  May God who dwells in this dark Ulro & voidness, vengeance take,

  And draw thee down into this Abyss of sorrow and torture,

  40 Like me thy Victim. O that Death & Annihilation were the same!

  PLATE 24

  What have I said? What have I done? O all-powerful Human Words:

  You recoil back upon me in the blood of the Lamb slain in his Children.

  Two bleeding Contraries equally true, are his Witnesses against me

  We reared mighty Stones: we danced naked around them:

  Thinking to bring Love into light of day, to Jerusalems shame:

  Displaying our Giant limbs to all the winds of heaven! Sudden

  Shame siezd us, we could not look on one-another for abhorrence: the Blue

  Of our immortal Veins & all their Hosts fled from our Limbs,

  And wanderd distant in a dismal Night clouded & dark:

  10 The Sun fled from the Britons forehead: the Moon from his mighty loins:

  Scandinavia fled with all his mountains filld with groans.

  O what is Life & what is Man. O what is Death! Wherefore

  Are you my Children, natives in the Grave to where I go

  Or are you born to feed the hungry ravenings of Destruction

  To be the sport of Accident! to waste in Wrath & Love, a weary

  Life, in brooding cares & anxious labours, that prove but chaff.

  O Jerusalem Jerusalem I have forsaken thy Courts

  Thy Pillars of ivory & gold: thy Curtains of silk & fine

  Linen: thy Pavements of precious stones: thy Walls of pearl

  20 And gold, thy Gates of Thanksgiving thy Windows of Praise: