The Complete Poems

by William Blake

  70 In beauty: are Shadows now no more, but Rocks in Horeb

  PLATE 69

  Then all the Males combined into One Male & every one

  Became a ravening eating Cancer growing in the Female

  A Polypus of Roots of Reasoning Doubt Despair & Death,

  Going forth & returning from Albions Rocks to Canaan:

  Devouring Jerusalem from every Nation of the Earth.

  Envying stood the enormous Form at variance with Itself

  In all its Members: in eternal torment of love & jealousy:

  Driven forth by Los time after time from Albions cliffy shore,

  Drawing the free loves of Jerusalem into infernal bondage;

  10 That they might be born in contentions of Chastity & in

  Deadly Hate between Leah & Rachel, Daughters of Deceit & Fraud

  Bearing the Images of various Species of Contention

  And Jealousy & Abhorrence & Revenge & deadly Murder,

  Till they refuse liberty to the Male; & not like Beulah

  Where every Female delights to give her maiden to her husband

  The Female searches sea & land for gratifications to the

  Male Genius: who in return clothes her in gems & gold

  And feeds her with the food of Eden, hence all her beauty beams

  She Creates at her will a little moony night & silence

  20 With Spaces of sweet gardens & a tent of elegant beauty:

  Closed in by a sandy desart & a night of stars shining,

  And a little tender moon & hovering angels on the wing,

  And the Male gives a Time & Revolution to her Space

  Till the time of love is passed in ever varying delights

  For All Things Exist in the Human Imagination

  And thence in Beulah they are stolen by secret amorous theft,

  Till they have had Punishment enough to make them commit Crimes[.]

  Hence rose the Tabernacle in the Wilderness & all its Offerings,

  From Male & Female Loves in Beulah & their Jealousies

  30 But no one can consummate Female bliss in Los’s World without

  Becoming a Generated Mortal, a Vegetating Death

  And now the Spectres of the Dead awake in Beulah: all

  The Jealousies become Murderous: uniting together in Rahab

  A Religion of Chastity, forming a Commerce to sell Loves,

  With Moral Law, an Equal Balance, not going down with decision

  Therefore the Male severe & cruel filld with stern Revenge:

  Mutual Hate returns & mutual Deceit & mutual Fear.

  Hence the Infernal Veil grows in the disobedient Female:

  Which Jesus rends & the whole Druid Law removes away

  40 From the Inner Sanctuary: a False Holiness hid within the Center,

  For the Sanctuary of Eden, is in the Camp: in the Outline,

  In the Circumference: & every Minute Particular is Holy:

  Embraces are Cominglings: from the Head even to the Feet;

  And not a pompous High Priest entering by a Secret Place.

  Jerusalem pined in her inmost soul over Wandering Reuben

  As she slept in Beulahs Night hid by the Daughters of Beulah

  PLATE 70

  And this the form of mighty Hand sitting on Albions cliffs

  Before the face of Albion, a mighty threatning Form.

  His bosom wide & shoulders huge overspreading wondrous

  Bear Three strong sinewy Necks & Three awful & terrible Heads

  Three Brains in contradictory council brooding incessantly.

  Neither daring to put in act its councils, fearing each-other,

  Therefore rejecting Ideas as nothing & holding all Wisdom

  To consist, in the agreements & disagree[me]nts of Ideas.

  Plotting to devour Albions Body of Humanity & Love.

  10 Such Form the aggregate of the Twelve Sons of Albion took; & such

  Their appearance when combind: but often by birth-pangs & loud groans

  They divide to Twelve: the key-bones & the chest dividing in pain

  Disclose a hideous orifice; thence issuing the Giant-brood

  Arise as the smoke of the furnace, shaking the rocks from sea to sea.

  And there they combine into Three Forms, named Bacon & Newton & Locke,

  In the Oak Groves of Albion which overspread all the Earth.

  Imputing Sin & Righteousness to Individuals;

  Rahab Sat deep within him hid: his Feminine Power unreveal’d

  Brooding Abstract Philosophy, to destroy Imagination,

  the Divine-

  -Humanity A Three-fold Wonder: feminine: most

  20 beautiful: Three-fold

  Each within other. On her white marble & even Neck, her Heart

  Inorb’d and bonified: with locks of shadowing modesty, shining

  Over her beautiful Female features, soft flourishing in beauty

  Beams mild, all love and all perfection, that when the lips

  Recieve a kiss from Gods or Men, a threefold kiss returns

  From the pressd loveliness: so her whole immortal form three-fold

  Three-fold embrace returns: consuming lives of Gods &Men

  In fires of beauty melting them as gold & silver in the furnace[.]

  Her Brain enlabyrinths the whole heaven of her bosom & loins

  30 To put in act what her Heart wills; O who can withstand her power

  Her name is Vala in Eternity: in Time her name is Rahab

  The Starry Heavens all were fled from the mighty limbs of Albion

  PLATE 71

  And above Albions Land was seen the Heavenly Canaan

  As the Substance is to the Shadow: and above Albions Twelve Sons

  Were seen Jerusalems Sons: and all the Twelve Tribes spreading

  Over Albion. As the Soul is to the Body, so Jerusalems Sons,

  Are to the Sons of Albion: and Jerusalem is Albions Emanation

  What is Above is Within, for every-thing in Eternity is translucent:

  The Circumference is Within: Without, is formed the Selfish Center

  And the Circumference still expands going forward to Eternity.

  And the Center has Eternal States! these States we now explore.

  10 And these the Names of Albions Twelve Sons, & of his Twelve Daughters

  With their Districts. Hand dwelt in Selsey & had Sussex & Surrey

  And Kent & Middlesex: all their Rivers & their Hills, of locks & herds:

  Their Villages Towns Cities Sea-Ports Temples sublime Cathedrals;

  All were his Friends & their Sons & Daughters intermarry in Beulah

  For all are Men in Eternity. Rivers Mountains Cities Villages,

  All are Human & when you enter into their Bosoms you walk

  In Heavens & Earths; as in your own Bosom you bear your Heaven

  And Earth, & all you behold, tho it appears Without it is Within

  In your Imagination of which this World of Mortality is but a Shadow.

  20 Hyle dwelt in Winchester comprehending Hants Dorset Devon Cornwall.

  Their Villages Cities SeaPorts, their Corn fields & Gardens spacious

  Palaces, Rivers & Mountains, and between Hand & Hyle arose

  Gwendolen & Cambel who is Boadicea: they go abroad & return

  Like lovely beams of light from the mingled affections of the Brothers

  The Inhabitants of the whole Earth rejoice in their beautiful light.

  Coban dwelt in Bath. Somerset Wiltshire Gloucestershire,

  Obeyd his awful voice Ignoge is his lovely Emanation;

  She adjoin’d with Gwantokes Children, soon lovely Cordella arose.

  Gwantoke forgave & joyd over South Wales & all its Mountains.

  Peachey had North Wales Shropshire Cheshire & the Isle of Man.

  His Emanation is Mehetabel terrible & lovely upon the Mountains

  Brertun had Yorkshire Durham Westmoreland & his Emanation

  Is Ragan, she
adjoind to Slade, & produced Gonorill far beaming.

  Slade had Lincoln Stafford Derby Nottingham & his lovely

  Emanation Gonorill rejoices over hills & rocks & woods & rivers.

  Huttn had Warwick Northampton Bedford Buckingham

  Leicester & Berkshire: & his Emanation is Gwinefred beautiful

  Skofeld had Ely Rutland Cambridge Huntingdon Norfolk

  Suffolk Hartford & Essex: & his Emanation is Gwinevera

  40 Beautiful, she beams towards the east, all kinds of precious stones

  And pearl, with instruments of music in holy Jerusalem

  Kox had Oxford Warwick Wilts: his Emanation is Estrild:

  Joind with Cordella she shines southward over the Atlantic.

  Kotope had Hereford Stafford Worcester, & his Emanation

  Is Sabrina joind with Mehetabel she shines west over America

  Bowen had all Scotland, the Isles, Northumberland & Cumberland

  His Emanation is Conwenna, she shines a triple form

  Over the north with pearly beams gorgeous & terrible

  Jerusalem & Vala rejoice in Bowen & Conwenna.

  50 But the Four Sons of Jerusalem that never were Generated

  Are Rintrah and Palamabron and Theotormon and Bromion. They

  Dwell over the Four Provinces of Ireland in heavenly light

  The Four Universities of Scotland, & in Oxford &Cambridge & Winchester

  But now Albion is darkened & Jerusalem lies in ruins:

  Above the Mountains of Albion, above the head of Los.

  And Los shouted with ceaseless shoutings & his tears pourd down

  His immortal cheeks, rearing his hands to heaven for aid Divine!

  But he spoke not to Albion: fearing lest Albion should turn his Back

  Against the Divine Vision: & fall over the Precipice of Eternal Death.

  60 But he receded before Albion & before Vala weaving the Veil

  With the iron shuttle of War among the rooted Oaks of Albion;

  Weeping & shouting to the Lord day & night; and his Children

  Wept round him as a flock silent Seven Days of Eternity

  PLATE 72

  And the Thirty-two Counties of the Four Provinces of Ireland

  Are thus divided: The Four Counties are in the Four Camps

  Munster South in Reubens Gate, Connaut West in Josephs Gate

  Ulster North in Dans Gate, Leinster East in Judahs Gate

  For Albion in Eternity has Sixteen Gates among his Pillars

  But the Four towards the West were Walled up & the Twelve

  That front the Four other Points were turned Four Square

  By Los for Jerusalems sake & called the Gates of Jerusalem

  Because Twelve Sons of Jerusalem fled successive thro the Gates

  10 But the Four Sons of Jerusalem who fled not but remaind

  Are Rintrah & Palamabron & Theotormon & Bromion

  The Four that remain with Los to guard the Western Wall

  And these Four remain to guard the Four Walls of Jerusalem

  Whose foundations remain in the Thirty-two Counties of Ireland

  And in Twelve Counties of Wales, & in the Forty Counties

  Of England & in the Thirty-six Counties of Scotland

  And the names of the Thirty-two Counties of Ireland are these

  Under Judah & Issachar & Zebulun are Lowth Longford

  Eastmeath Westmeath Dublin Kildare Kings County

  20 Queens County Wicklow Catherloh Wexford Kilkenny

  And those under Reuben & Simeon & Levi are these

  Waterford Tipperary Cork Limerick Kerry Clare

  And those under Ephraim Manasseh & Benjamin are these

  Galway Roscommon Mayo Sligo Leitrim

  And those under Dan Asher & Napthali are these

  Donnegal Antrim Tyrone Fermanagh Armagh Londonderry

  Down Managhan Cavan. These are the Land of Erin

  All these Center in London & in Golgonooza, from whence

  They are Created continually East & West & North & South

  30 And from them are Created all the Nations of the Earth

  Europe & Asia & Africa & America, in fury Fourfold!

  And Thirty-two the Nations: to dwell in Jerusalems Gates

  O Come ye Nations Come ye People Come up to Jerusalem

  Return Jerusalem & dwell together as of old: Return

  Return: O Albion let Jerusalem overspread all Nations

  As in the times of old: O Albion awake: Reuben wanders

  The Nations wait for Jerusalem, they look up for the Bride

  France Spain Italy Germany Poland Russia Sweden Turkey

  Arabia Palestine Persia Hindostan China Tartary Siberia

  40 Egypt Lybia Ethiopia Guinea Caffraria Negroland Morocco

  Congo Zaara Canada Greenland Carolina Mexico

  Peru Patagonia Amazonia Brazil. Thirty-two Nations

  And under these Thirty-two Classes of Islands in the Ocean

  All the Nations Peoples & Tongues throughout all the Earth

  And the Four Gates of Los surround the Universe Within and

  Without; & whatever is visible in the Vegetable Earth, the same

  Is visible in the Mundane Shell; reversd in mountain & vale

  And a Son of Eden was set over each Daughter of Beulah to guard

  In Albions Tomb the wondrous Creation: & the Four-gold Gate

  Towards Beulah is to the South[.] Fenelon, Guion, Teresa,

  50 Whitefield & Hervey, guard that Gate; with all the gentle Souls

  Who guide the great Wine-press of Love; Four precious Stones that Gate:

  PLATE 73

  Such are Cathedrons golden Halls: in the City of Golgonooza

  And Los’s Furnaces howl loud; living: self-moving: lamenting

  With fury & despair, & they stretch from South to North

  Thro all the Four Points: Lo! the Labourers at the Furnaces

  Rintrah & Palamabron, Theotormon & Bromion, loud labring

  With the innumerable multitudes of Golgonooza, round the Anvils

  Of Death. But how they came forth from the Furnaces & how long

  Vast & severe the anguish eer they knew their Father; were

  Long to tell & of the iron rollers, golden axle-trees & yokes

  10 Of brass, iron chains & braces & the gold, silver & brass

  Mingled or separate: for swords; arrows; cannons; mortars

  The terrible ball: the wedge: the loud sounding hammer of destruction

  The sounding flail to thresh: the winnow: to winnow kingdoms

  The water wheel & mill of many innumerable wheels resistless

  Over the Four fold Monarchy from Earth to the Mundane Shell.

  Perusing Albions Tomb in the starry characters of Og & Anak:

  To Create the lion & wolf the bear: the tyger & ounce:

  To Create the wooly lamb & downy fowl & scaly serpent

  The summer & winter: day & night: the sun & moon & stars

  20 The tree: the plant: the flower: the rock: the stone: the metal:

  Of Vegetative Nature: by their hard restricting condensations.

  Where Luvahs World of Opakeness grew to a period: It

  Became a Limit, a Rocky hardness without form & void

  Accumulating without end: here Los who is of the Elohim

  Opens the Furnaces of affliction in the Emanation

  Fixing the Sexual into an ever-prolific Generation

  Naming the Limit of Opakeness Satan & the Limit of Contraction

  Adam, who is Peleg & Joktan: & Esau & Jacob: &Saul & David

  Voltaire insinuates that these Limits are the cruel work of God

  30 Mocking the Remover of Limits & the Resurrection of the Dead

  Setting up Kings in wrath: in holiness of Natural Religion

  Which Los with his mighty Hammer demolishes time on time

  In miracles & wonders in the Four-fold Desart of Albion

  Permanently Creating to be in Tim
e Reveald & Demolishd

  Satan Cain Tubal Nimrod Pharoh Priam Bladud Belin

  Arthur Alfred the Norman Conqueror Richard John

  [Edward Henry Elizabeth James Charles William George]

  And all the Kings & Nobles of the Earth & all their Glories

  These are Created by Rahab & Tirzah in Ulro: but around

  40 These, to preserve them from Eternal Death Los Creates

  Adam Noah Abraham Moses Samuel David Ezekiel

  [Pythagoras Socrates Euripedes Virgil Dante Milton]

  Dissipating the rocky forms of Death, by his thunderous Hammer[.]

  As the Pilgrim passes while the Country permanent remains

  So Men pass on: but States remain permanent for ever

  The Spectres of the Dead howl round the porches of Los

  In the terrible Family feuds of Albions cities & villages

  To devour the Body of Albion, hungring & thirsting & ravning

  The Sons of Los clothe them & feed, & provide houses & gardens

  50 And every Human Vegetated Form in its inward recesses

  Is a house of ple[as]antness & a garden of delight Built by the

  Sons & Daughters of Los in Bowlahoola & in Cathedron

  From London to York & Edinburgh the Furnaces rage terrible

  Primrose Hill is the mouth of the Furnace & the Iron Door;

  PLATE 74

  The Four Zoa’s clouded rage; Urizen stood by Albion

  With Rintrah and Palamabron and Theotormon and Bromion

  These Four are Verulam & London & York & Edinburgh

  And the Four Zoa’s are Urizen & Luvah & Tharmas & Urthona

  In opposition deadly, and their Wheels in poisonous

  And deadly stupor turn’d against each other loud & fierce

  Entering into the Reasoning Power, forsaking Imagination

  They became Spectres; & their Human Bodies were reposed

  In Beulah, by the Daughters of Beulah with tears & lamentations

  10 The Spectre is the Reasoning Power in Man; & when separated

  From Imagination, and closing itself as in steel, in a Ratio

  Of the Things of Memory, It thence frames Laws & Moralities

  To destroy Imagination! the Divine Body, by Martyrdoms & Wars

  Teach me O Holy Spirit the Testimony of Jesus! let me

  Comprehend wonderous things out of the Divine Law[.]

  I behold Babylon in the opening Streets of London, I behold

  Jerusalem in ruins wandering about from house

  to house This I behold the shudderings of death attend my steps

  I walk up and down in Six Thousand Years: their

  Events are present before me

  20 To tell how Los in grief & anger, whirling round his Hammer on high