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The Complete Poems

Page 59

by William Blake


  And this the manner of the terrible Separation

  The Emanations of the grievously afflicted Friends of Albion

  Concenter in one Female form an Aged pensive Woman.

  Astonish’d! lovely! embracing the sublime shade: the Daughters of Beulah

  30 Beheld her with wonder! With awful hands she took

  A Moment of Time, drawing it out with many tears & afflictions

  And many sorrows: oblique across the Atlantic Vale

  Which is the Vale of Rephaim dreadful from East to West,

  Where the Human Harvest waves abundant in the beams of Eden

  Into a Rainbow of jewels and gold, a mild Reflection from

  Albions dread Tomb. Eight thousand and five hundred years

  In its extension. Every two hundred years has a door to Eden

  She also took an Atom of Space, with dire pain opening it a Center

  Into Beulah: trembling the Daughters of Beulah dried

  40 Her tears, she ardent embrac’d her sorrows, occupied in labours

  Of sublime mercy in Rephaims Vale. Perusing Albions Tomb

  She sat: she walk’d among the ornaments solemn mourning.

  The Daughters attended her shudderings, wiping the death sweat

  Los also saw her in his seventh Furnace, he also terrified

  Saw the finger of God go forth upon his seventh Furnace:

  Away from the Starry Wheels to prepare Jerusalem a place.

  When with a dreadful groan the Emanation mild of Albion

  Burst from his bosom in the Tomb like a pale snowy cloud,

  Female and lovely, struggling to put off the Human form

  50 Writhing in pain. The Daughters of Beulah in kind arms reciev’d

  Jerusalem: weeping over her among the Spaces of Erin,

  In the Ends of Beulah, where the Dead wail night & day.

  And thus Erin spoke to the Daughters of Beulah, in soft tears

  Albion the Vortex of the Dead! Albion the Generous!

  Albion the mildest son of Heaven! The Place of Holy Sacrifice!

  Where Friends Die for each other: will become the Place,

  Of Murder, & Unforgiving, Never-awaking Sacrifice of Enemies[.]

  The Children must be sacrific’d! (a horror never known

  Till now in Beulah.) unless a Refuge can be found

  60 To hide them from the wrath of Albions Law that freezes sore

  Upon his Sons & Daughters, self-exiled from his bosom

  Draw ye Jerusalem away from Albions Mountains

  To give a Place for Redemption, let Sihon and Og

  Remove Eastward to Bashan and Gilead, and leave

  PLATE 49

  The secret coverts of Albion & the hidden places of America

  Jerusalem Jerusalem! why wilt thou turn away

  Come ye O Daughters of Beulah, lament for Og & Sihon

  Upon the Lakes of Ireland from Rathlin to Baltimore:

  Stand ye upon the Dargle from Wicklow to Drogheda

  Come & mourn over Albion the White Cliff of the Atlantic

  The Mountain of Giants: all the Giants of Albion are become

  Weak: witherd: darkend: & Jerusalem is cast forth from Albion.

  They deny that they ever knew Jerusalem, or ever dwelt in Shiloh[.]

  10 The Gigantic roots & twigs of the vegetating Sons of Albion

  Filld with the little-ones are consumed in the Fires of their Altars

  The vegetating Cities are burned & consumed from the Earth:

  And the Bodies in which all Animals & Vegetations, the Earth & Heaven

  Were containd in the All Glorious Imagination are witherd & darkend:

  The golden Gate of Havilah, and all the Garden of God,

  Was caught up with the Sun in one day of fury and war:

  The Lungs, the Heart, the Liver, shrunk away far distant from Man

  And left a little slimy substance floating upon the tides.

  In one night the Atlantic Continent was caught up with the Moon,

  20 And became an Opake Globe far distant clad with moony beams.

  The Visions of Eternity, by reason of narrowed perceptions,

  Are become weak Visions of Time & Space, fix’d into furrows of death;

  Till deep dissimulation is the only defence an honest man has left[.]

  O Polypus of Death O Spectre over Europe and Asia

  Withering the Human Form by Laws of Sacrifice for Sin

  By Laws of Chastity & Abhorrence I am witherd up.

  Striving to Create a Heaven in which all shall be pure & holy

  In their Own Selfhoods, in Natural Selfish Chastity to banish Pity

  And dear Mutual Forgiveness; & to become One Great Satan

  30 Inslavd to the most powerful Selfhood: to murder the Divine Humanity

  In whose sight all are as the dust & who chargeth his Angels with folly!

  Ah: weak & wide astray: Ah shut in narrow doleful form!

  Creeping in reptile flesh upon the bosom of the ground:

  The Eye of Man, a little narrow orb, closd up & dark,

  Scarcely beholding the Great Light; conversing with the ground

  The Ear, a little shell, in small volutions shutting out

  True Harmonies, & comprehending great, as very small:

  The Nostrils, bent down to the earth & clos’d with senseless flesh,

  That odours cannot them expand, nor joy on them exult:

  40 The Tongue, a little moisture fills, a little food it cloys,

  A little sound it utters, & its cries are faintly heard.

  Therefore they are removed: therefore they have taken root

  In Egypt & Philistea: in Moab & Edom & Aram:

  In the Erythrean Sea their Uncircu[m]cision in Heart & Loins

  Be lost for ever & ever, then they shall arise from Self

  By Self Annihilation into Jerusalems Courts & into Shiloh

  Shiloh the Masculine Emanation among the Flowers of Beulah

  Lo Shiloh dwells over France, as Jerusalem dwells over Albion

  Build & prepare a Wall & Curtain for Americas shore!

  Rush on: Rush on! Rush on! ye vegetating Sons of Albion 50

  The Sun shall go before you in Day: the Moon shall go

  Before you in Night. Come on! Come on! Come on! The Lord

  Jehovah is before, behind, above, beneath, around

  He has builded the arches of Albions Tomb binding the Stars

  In merciful Order, bending the Laws of Cruelty to Peace.

  He hath placed Og & Anak, the Giants of Albion for their Guards:

  Building the Body of Moses in the Valley of Peor: the Body

  Of Divine Analogy; and Og & Sihon in the tears of Balaam

  The Son of Beor, have given their power to Joshua & Caleb.

  60 Remove from Albion, far remove these terrible surfaces.

  They are beginning to form Heavens & Hells in immense

  Circles: the Hells for food to the Heavens: food of torment,

  Food of despair: they drink the condemnd Soul & rejoice

  In cruel holiness, in their Heavens of Chastity & Uncircumcision

  Yet they are blameless & Iniquity must be imputed only

  To the State they are enterd into that they may be deliverd:

  Satan is the State of Death, & not a Human existence:

  But Luvah is named Satan, because he has enterd that State.

  A World where Man is by Nature the enemy of Man

  70 Because the Evil is Created into a State, that Men

  May be deliverd time after time evermore. Amen.

  Learn therefore O Sisters to distinguish the Eternal Human

  That walks about among the stones of fire in bliss & woe

  Alternate! from those States or Worlds in which the Spirit travels:

  This is the only means to Forgiveness of Enemies

  Therefore remove from Albion these terrible Surfaces

  And let wild seas & rocks close up Jerusalem
away from

  PLATE 50

  The Atlantic Mountains where Giants dwelt in Intellect;

  Now given to stony Druids, and Allegoric Generation

  To the Twelve Gods of Asia, the Spectres of those who Sleep:

  Sway’d by a Providence oppos’d to the Divine Lord Jesus:

  A murderous Providence! A Creation that groans, living on Death.

  Where Fish & Bird & Beast & Man & Tree & Metal & Stone

  Live by Devouring, going into Eternal Death continually:

  Albion is now possess’d by the War of Blood! the Sacrifice

  Of envy Albion is become, and his Emanation cast out:

  10 Come Lord Jesus, Lamb of God descend! for if; O Lord!

  If thou hadst been here, our brother Albion had not died.

  Arise sisters! Go ye & meet the Lord, while I remain –

  Behold the foggy mornings of the Dead on Albions cliffs:

  Ye know that if the Emanation remains in them:

  She will become an Eternal Death, an Avenger of Sin

  A Self-righteousness: the proud Virgin-Harlot! Mother of War!

  And we also & all Beulah, consume beneath Albions curse.

  So Erin spoke to the Daughters of Beulah. Shuddering

  With their wings they sat in the Furnace, in a night

  20 Of stars, for all the Sons of Albion appeard distant stars,

  Ascending and descending into Albions sea of death.

  And Erins lovely Bow enclos’d the Wheels of Albions Sons.

  Expanding on wing, the Daughters of Beulah replied in sweet response

  Come O thou Lamb of God and take away the remembrance of Sin

  To Sin & to hide the Sin in sweet deceit. is lovely!!

  To Sin in the open face of day is cruel & pitiless! But

  To record the Sin for a reproach: to let the Sun go down

  In a remembrance of the Sin: is a Woe & a Horror!

  A brooder of an Evil Day, and a Sun rising in blood

  30 Come then O Lamb of God and take away the remembrance of Sin

  End of Chap. 2d.

  PLATE 52

  He never can be a Friend to the Human Race who is the Preacher of Natural Morality or Natural Religion. he is a flatterer who means to betray, to perpetuate Tyrant Pride & the Laws of that Babylon which he forsees shall shortly be destroyed, with the Spiritual and not the Natural Sword: He is in the State named Rahab: which State must be put off before he can be the Friend of Man.

  You O Deists profess yourselves the Enemies of Christianity: and you are so: you are also the Enemies of the

  10 Human Race & of Universal Nature. Man is born a

  Spectre or Satan & is altogether an Evil, & requires a New Selfhood continually & must continually be changed into his direct Contrary. But your Greek Philosophy (which is a remnant of Druidism) teaches that Man is Righteous in his Vegetated Spectre: an Opinion of fatal & accursed consequence to Man, as the Ancients saw plainly by Revelation to the intire abrogation of Experimental Theory. and many believed what they saw, and Prophecied of Jesus.

  Man must & will have Some Religion; if he has not the

  20 Religion of Jesus, he will have the Religion of Satan, & will

  erect the Synagogue of Satan. calling the Prince of this World, God; and destroying all who do not worship Satan under the Name of God. Will any one say: Where are those who worship Satan under the Name of God! Where are they? Listen! Every Religion that Preaches Vengeance for Sin is the Religion of the Enemy & Avenger; and not of the Forgiver of Sin, and their God is Satan, Named by the Divine Name. Your Religion O Deists: Deism, is the Worship of the God of this World by the

  30 means of what you call Natural Religion and Natural

  Philosophy, and of Natural Morality or Self-Righteousness, the Selfish Virtues of the Natural Heart. This was the Religion of the Pharisees who murderd Jesus. Deism is the same & ends in the same.

  Voltaire Rousseau Gibbon Hume, charge the Spiritually Religious with hypocrisy! but how a Monk or a Methodist either, can be a Hypocrite: I cannot concieve. We are Men of like passions with others & pretend not to be holier than others: therefore, when a Religious Man falls into

  40 Sin, he ought not to be calld a Hypocrite: this title is more

  properly to be given to a Player who falls into Sin; whose profession is Virtue & Morality & the making Men Self-Righteous. Foote in calling Whitefield, Hypocrite: was himself one: for Whitefield pretended not to be holier than others: but confessed his Sins before all the World; Voltaire! Rousseau! You cannot escape my charge that you are Pharisees & Hypocrites, for you are constantly talking of the Virtues of the Human Heart, and particularly of your own, that you may accuse others & especially the Religious,

  50 whose errors, you by this display of pretended Virtue,

  chiefly design to expose. Rousseau thought Men Good by Nature; he found them Evil & found no friend. Friendship cannot exist without Forgiveness of Sins continually. The Book written by Rousseau calld his Confessions is an apology & cloke for his sin & not a confession.

  But you also charge the poor Monks & Religious with being the causes of War: while you acquit & flatter the Alexanders & Caesars, the Lewis’s & Fredericks: who alone are its causes & its actors. But the Religion of Jesus,

  60 Forgiveness of Sin, can never be the cause of a War nor of

  a single Martyrdom.

  Those who Martyr others or who cause War are Deists, but never can be Forgivers of Sin. The Glory of Christianity is, To Conquer by Forgiveness. All the Destruction therefore, in Christian Europe has arisen from Deism, which is Natural Religion.

  I saw a Monk of Charlemaine

  Arise before my sight

  I talkd with the Grey Monk as we stood

  In beams of infernal light

  Gibbon arose with a lash of steel

  And Voltaire with a wracking wheel

  The Schools in clouds of learning rolld

  Arose with War in iron & gold.

  Thou lazy Monk they sound afar

  10 In vain condemning glorious War

  And in your Cell you shall ever dwell

  Rise War & bind him in his Cell.

  The blood, red ran from the Grey Monks side

  His hands & feet were wounded wide

  His body bent, his arms & knees

  Like to the roots of ancient trees

  When Satan first the black bow bent

  And the Moral Law from the Gospel rent

  He forgd the Law into a Sword

  20 And spilld the blood of mercys Lord.

  Titus! Constantine! Charlemaine!

  O Voltaire! Rousseau! Gibbon! Vain

  Your Grecian Mocks & Roman Sword

  Against this image of his Lord!

  For a Tear is an Intellectual thing;

  And a Sigh is the Sword of an Angel King

  And the bitter groan of a Martyrs woe

  Is an Arrow from the Almighties Bow.

  PLATE 53

  JERUSALEM

  CHAP 3

  But Los, who is the Vehicular Form of strong Urthona

  Wept vehemently over Albion where Thames currents spring

  From the rivers of Beulah; pleasant river! soft, mild, parent stream

  And the roots of Albions Tree enterd the Soul of Los

  As he sat before his Furnaces clothed in sackcloth of hair

  In gnawing pain dividing him from his Emanation;

  Inclosing all the children of Los time after time.

  Their Giant forms condensing into Nations & Peoples & Tongues

  Translucent the Furnaces, of Beryll & Emerald immortal:

  10 And Seven-fold each within other: incomprehensible

  To the Vegetated Mortal Eye’s perverted & single vision

  The Bellows are the Animal Lungs. the Hammers, the Animal Heart

  The Furnaces, the Stomach for Digestion; terrible their fury

  Like seven burning heavens rang’d from South to North

  Here on th
e banks of the Thames, Los builded Golgonooza,

  Outside of the Gates of the Human Heart, beneath Beulah

  In the midst of the rocks of the Altars of Albion. In fears

  He builded it, in rage & in fury. It is the Spiritual Fourfold

  London: continually building & continually decaying desolate:

  20 In eternal labours: loud the Furnaces & loud the Anvils

  Of Death thunder incessant around the flaming Couches of

  The Twentyfour Friends of Albion and round the awful Four

  For the protection of the Twelve Emanations of Albions Sons

  The Mystic Union of the Emanation in the Lord; Because

  Man divided from his Emanation is a dark Spectre

  His Emanation is an ever-weeping melancholy Shadow

  But she is made receptive of Generation thro’ mercy

  In the Potters Furnace, among the Funeral Urns of Beulah

  From Surrey hills, thro’ Italy and Greece, to Hinnoms vale.

  PLATE 54

  In Great Eternity, every particular Form gives forth or Emanates

  Its own peculiar Light, & the Form is the Divine Vision

  And the Light is his Garment. This is Jerusalem in every Man

  A Tent & Tabernacle of Mutual Forgiveness Male & Female Clothings.

  And Jerusalem is called Liberty among the Children of Albion

  But Albion fell down a Rocky fragment from: Eternity hurld

  By his own Spectre, who is the Reasoning Power in every Man

  Into his own Chaos which is the Memory between Man & Man

  The silent broodings of deadly revenge springing from the

  10 All powerful parental affection, fills Albion from head to foot

  Seeing his Sons assimilate with Luvah, bound in the bonds

  Of spiritual Hate, from which springs Sexual Love as iron chains:

  He tosses like a cloud outstretchd among Jerusalems Ruins

  Which overspread all the Earth, he groans among his ruind porches

  But the Spectre like a hoar frost & a Mildew rose over Albion

  Saying, I am God O Sons of Men! I am your Rational Power!

  Am I not Bacon & Newton & Locke who teach Humility to Man!

  Who teach Doubt & Experiment & my two Wings Voltaire: Rousseau.

  Where is that Friend of Sinners! that Rebel against my Laws!

  20 Who teaches Belief to the Nations, & an unknown Eternal Life

  Come hither into the Desart & turn these stones to bread.

  Vain foolish Man! wilt thou believe without Experiment?

 

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