The Complete Poems

by William Blake

  10 Of Jerusalems Cherubims & to forge them swords of her Altars

  I see London blind & age-bent begging thro the Streets

  Of Babylon, led by a child, his tears run down his beard

  The voice of Wandering Reuben ecchoes from street to street

  In all the Cities of the Nations Paris Madrid Amsterdam

  The Corner of Broad Street weeps; Poland Street languishes

  To Great Queen Street & Lincolns Inn, all is distress & woe.

  [three lines gouged out irrecoverably]

  20 The night falls thick Hand comes from Albion in his strength

  He combines into a Mighty-one the Double Molech & Chemosh

  Marching thro Egypt in his fury the East is pale at his course

  The Nations of India, the Wild Tartar that never knew Man

  Starts from his lofty places & casts down his tents & flees away

  But we woo him all the night in songs, O Los come forth O Los

  Divide us from these terrors & give us power them to subdue

  Arise upon thy Watches let us see thy Globe of fire

  On Albions Rocks & let thy voice be heard upon Euphrates.

  Thus sang the Daughters in lamentation, uniting into One

  30 With Rahab as she turnd the iron Spindle of destruction.

  Terrified at the Sons of Albion they took the Falshood which

  Gwendolen hid in her left hand, it grew & grew till it

  PLATE 85

  Became a Space & an Allegory around the Winding Worm[.]

  They namd it Canaan & built for it a tender Moon

  Los smild with joy thinking on Enitharmon & he brought

  Reuben from his twelvefold wandrings & led him into it

  Planting the Seeds of the Twelve Tribes & Moses & David

  And gave a Time & Revolution to the Space Six Thousand Years

  He calld it Divine Analogy, for in Beulah the Feminine

  Emanations Create Space, the Masculine Create Time, & plant

  The Seeds of beauty in the Space: listning to their lamentation

  10 Los walks upon his ancient Mountains in the deadly darkness

  Among his Furnaces directing his laborious Myriads watchful

  Looking to the East: & his voice is heard over the whole Earth

  As he watches the Furnaces by night, & directs the labourers

  And thus Los replies upon his Watch: the Valleys listen silent:

  The Stars stand still to hear: Jerusalem & Vala cease to mourn:

  His voice is heard from Albion: the Alps & Appenines

  Listen: Hermon & Lebanon bow their crowned heads

  Babel & Shinar look toward the Western Gate, they sit down

  Silent at his voice: they view the red Globe of fire in Los’s hand

  20 As he walks from Furnace to Furnace directing the Labourers

  And this is the Song of Los, the Song that he sings on his Watch

  O lovely mild Jerusalem! O Shiloh of Mount Ephraim!

  I see thy Gates of precious stones: thy Walls of gold & silver

  Thou art the soft reflected Image of the Sleeping Man

  Who stretchd on Albions rocks reposes amidst his Twenty-eight

  Cities: where Beulah lovely terminates, in the hills & valleys of Albion

  Cities not yet embodied in Time and Space: plant ye

  The Seeds O Sisters in the bosom of Time & Spaces womb

  To spring up for Jerusalem: lovely Shadow of Sleeping Albion

  30 Why wilt thou rend thyself apart & build an Earthly Kingdom

  To reign in pride & to opress & to mix the Cup of Delusion

  O thou that dwellest with Babylon! Come forth O lovely-one

  PLATE 86

  I see thy Form O lovely mild Jerusalem, Wingd with Six Wings

  In the opacous Bosom of the Sleeper, lovely Three-fold

  In Head & Heart & Reins three Universes of love & beauty

  Thy forehead bright: Holiness to the Lord, with Gates of pearl

  Reflects Eternity beneath thy azure wings of feathery down

  Ribbd delicate & clothd with featherd gold & azure & purple

  From thy white shoulders shadowing, purity in holiness!

  Thence featherd with soft crimson of the ruby bright as fire

  Spreading into the azure Wings which like a canopy

  10 Bends over thy immortal Head in which Eternity dwells

  Albion beloved Land; I see thy mountains & thy hills

  And valleys & thy pleasant Cities Holiness to the Lord

  I see the Spectres of thy Dead O Emanation of Albion.

  Thy Bosom white, translucent coverd with immortal gems

  A sublime ornament not obscuring the outlines of beauty

  Terrible to behold for thy extreme beauty & perfection

  Twelve-fold here all the Tribes of Israel I behold

  Upon the Holy Land: I see the River of Life & Tree of Life

  I see the New Jerusalem descending out of Heaven

  20 Between thy Wings of gold & silver featherd immortal

  Clear as the rainbow, as the cloud of the Suns tabernacle

  Thy Reins coverd with Wings translucent sometimes covering

  And sometimes spread abroad reveal the flames of holiness

  Which like a robe covers: & like a Veil of Seraphim

  In flaming fire unceasing burns from Eternity to Eternity

  Twelvefold I there behold Israel in her Tents

  A Pillar of a Cloud by day: a Pillar of fire by night

  Guides them: there I behold Moab & Ammon & Amalek

  There Bells of silver round thy knees living articulate

  30 Comforting sounds of love & harmony & on thy feet

  Sandals of gold & pearl, & Egypt & Assyria before me

  The Isles of Javan, Philistea, Tyre and Lebanon

  Thus Los sings upon his Watch walking from Furnace to Furnace.

  He siezes his Hammer every hour, flames surround him as

  He beats: seas roll beneath his feet, tempests muster

  Arou[n]d his head, the thick hail stones stand ready to obey

  His voice in the black cloud, his Sons labour in thunders

  At his Furnaces; his Daughters at their Looms sing woes[.]

  His Emanation separates in milky fibres agonizing

  40 Among the golden Looms of Cathedron sending fibres of love

  From Golgonooza with sweet visions for Jerusalem, wanderer.

  Nor can any consummate bliss without being Generated

  On Earth; of those whose Emanations weave the loves

  Of Beulah for Jerusalem & Shiloh, in immortal Golgonooza

  Concentering in the majestic form of Erin in eternal tears

  Viewing the Winding Worm on the Desarts of Great Tartary

  Viewing Los in his shudderings, pouring balm on his sorrows

  So dread is Los’s fury, that none dare him to approach

  Without becoming his Children in the Furnaces of affliction

  50 And Enitharmon like a faint rainbow waved before him

  Filling with Fibres from his loins which reddend with desire

  Into a Globe of blood beneath his bosom trembling in darkness

  Of Albions clouds, he fed it, with his tears & bitter groans

  Hiding his Spectre in invisibility from the timorous Shade

  Till it became a separated cloud of beauty grace & love

  Among the darkness of his Furnaces dividing asunder till

  She separated stood before him a lovely Female weeping

  Even Enitharmon separated outside, & his Loins closed

  And heal’d after the separation: his pains he soon forgot:

  Lured by her beauty outside of himself in shadowy grief.

  60 Two Wills they had; Two Intellects: & not as in times of old.

  Silent they wanderd hand in hand like two Infants wandring

  From Enion in the desarts, terrified at each others beauty

  Envying each other yet desiring
, in all devouring Love,

  PLATE 87

  Repelling weeping Enion blind & age-bent into the fourfold

  Desarts. Los first broke silence & begun to utter his love

  O lovely Enitharmon: I behold thy graceful forms

  Moving beside me till intoxicated with the woven labyrinth

  Of beauty & perfection my wild fibres shoot in veins

  Of blood thro all my nervous limbs. soon overgrown in roots

  I shall be closed from thy sight, sieze therefore in thy hand

  The small fibres as they shoot around me draw out in pity

  And let them run on the winds of thy bosom: I will fix them

  10 With pulsations, we will divide them into Sons & Daughters

  To live in thy Bosoms translucence as in an eternal morning

  Enitharmon answerd. No! I will sieze thy Fibres & weave

  Them: not as thou wilt but as I will, for I will Create

  A round Womb beneath my bosom lest I also be overwoven

  With Love; be thou assured I never will be thy slave

  Let Mans delight be Love; but Womans delight be Pride[.]

  In Eden our loves were the same here they are opposite

  I have Loves of my own I will weave them in Albions Spectre

  Cast thou in Jerusalems shadows thy Loves! silk of liquid

  20 Rubies Jacinths Crysolites: issuing from thy Furnaces. While

  Jerusalem divides thy care: while thou carest for Jerusalem

  Know that I never will be thine: also thou hidest Vala

  From her these fibres shoot to shut me in a Grave.

  You are Albions Victim, he has set his Daughter in your path

  PLATE 88

  Los answerd sighing like the Bellows of his Furnaces

  I care not! the swing of my Hammer shall measure the starry round[.]

  When in Eternity Man converses with Man they enter

  Into each others Bosom (which are Universes of delight)

  In mutual interchange, and first their Emanations meet

  Surrounded by their Children, if they embrace & comingle

  The Human Four-fold Forms mingle also in thunders of Intellect

  But if the Emanations mingle not; with storms & agitations

  Of earthquakes & consuming fires they roll apart in fear

  10 For Man cannot unite with Man but by their Emanations

  Which stand both Male & Female at the Gates of each Humanity

  How then can I ever again be united as Man with Man

  While thou my Emanation refusest my Fibres of dominion?

  When Souls mingle & join thro all the Fibres of Brotherhood

  Can there be any secret joy on Earth greater than this?

  Enitharmon answerd: This is Womans World, nor need she any

  Spectre to defend her from Man. I will Create secret places

  And the masculine names of the places Merlin & Arthur.

  A triple Female Tabernacle for Moral Law I weave

  20 That he who loves Jesus may loathe terrified Female love

  Till God himself become a Male subservient to the Female.

  She spoke in scorn & jealousy, alternate torments; and

  So speaking she sat down on Sussex shore singing lulling

  Cadences & playing in sweet intoxication among the glistening

  Fibres of Los: sending them over the Ocean eastward into

  The realms of dark death; O perverse to thyself, contrarious

  To thy own purposes; for when she began to weave

  Shooting out in sweet pleasure her bosom in milky Love

  Flowd into the aching fibres of Los, yet contending against him

  30 In pride sending his Fibres over to her objects of jealousy

  In the little lovely Allegoric Night of Albions Daughters

  Which stretchd abroad, expanding east & west & north & south

  Thro’ all the World of Erin & of Los & all their Children

  A sullen smile broke from the Spectre in mockery & scorn

  Knowing himself the author of their divisions & shrinkings, gratified

  At their contentions, he wiped his tears he washd his visage.

  The Man who respects Woman shall be despised by Woman

  And deadly cunning & mean abjectness only, shall enjoy them

  For I will make their places of joy & love, excrementitious[.]

  40 Continually building, continually destroying in Family feuds

  While you are under the dominion of a jealous Female

  Unpermanent for ever because of love & jealousy,

  You shall want all the Minute Particulars of Life

  Thus joyd the Spectre in the dusky fires of Los’s Forge, eyeing

  Enitharmon who at her shining Looms sings lulling cadences

  While Los stood at his Anvil in wrath the victim of their love

  And hate: dividing the Space of Love with brazen Compasses

  In Golgonooza & in Udan-Adan & in Entuthon of Urizen.

  The blow of his Hammer is Justice, the swing of his Hammer Mercy.

  50 The force of Los’s Hammer is eternal Forgiveness; but

  His rage or his mildness were vain, she scatterd his love on the wind

  Eastward into her own Center, creating the Female Womb.

  In mild Jerusalem around the Lamb of God. Loud howl

  The Furnaces of Los! I loud roll the Wheels of Enitharmon

  The Four Zoa’s in all their faded majesty burst out in fury

  And fire, Jerusalem took the Cup which foamd in Vala’s hand

  Like the red Sun upon the mountains in the bloody day

  Upon the Hermaphroditic Wine-presses of Love & Wrath.

  PLATE 89

  Tho divided by the Cross & Nails & Thorns & Spear

  In cruelties of Rahab & Tirzah[,] permanent endure

  A terrible indefinite Hermaphroditic form

  A Wine-press of Love & Wrath double Hermaph[r]oditic

  Twelvefold in Allegoric pomp in selfish holiness

  The Pharisaion, the Grammateis, the Presbuterion,

  The Archiereus, the Iereus, the Saddusaion, double

  Each withoutside of the other, covering eastern heaven

  Thus was the Covering Cherub reveald majestic image

  10 Of Selfhood, Body put off, the Antichrist accursed

  Coverd with precious stones, a Human Dragon terrible

  And bright, stretchd over Europe & Asia gorgeous

  In three nights he devourd the rejected corse of death

  His Head dark, deadly, in its Brain incloses a reflexion

  Of Eden all perverted: Egypt on the Gihon many tongued

  And many mouthd: Ethiopia, Lybia, the Sea of Rephaim

  Minute Particulars in slavery I behold among the brick-kilns

  Disorganiz’d, & there is Pharoh in his iron Court:

  And the Dragon of the River & the Furnaces of iron.

  20 Outwoven from Thames & Tweed & Severn awful streams

  Twelve ridges of Stone frown over all the Earth in tyrant pride

  Frown over each River stupendous Works of Albions Druid Sons

  And Albions Forests of Oaks coverd the Earth from Pole to Pole

  His Bosom wide reflects Moab & Ammon, on the River

  Pison, since calld Arnon, there is Heshbon beautiful

  The Rocks of Rabbath on the Arnon & the Fish-pools of Heshbon

  Whose currents flow into the Dead Sea by Sodom & Gomorra

  Above his Head high arching Wings black filld with Eyes

  Spring upon iron sinews from the Scapulae & Os Humeri.

  30 There Israel in bondage to his Generalizing Gods

  Molech & Chemosh, & in his left breast is Philistea

  In Druid Temples over the whole Earth with Victims Sacrifice,

  From Gaza to Damascus Tyre & Sidon & the Gods

  Of Javan thro the Isles of Grecia & all Europes Kings

  Where Hiddekel pursues his course among the rocks

 
; Two Wings spring from his ribs of brass, starry, black as night

  But translucent their blackness as the dazling of gems

  His Loins inclose Babylon on Euphrates beautiful

  And Rome in sweet Hesperia, there Israel scatterd abroad

  40 In martyrdoms & slavery I behold: ah vision of sorrow!

  Inclosd by eyeless Wings, glowing with fire as the iron

  Heated in the Smiths forge, but cold the wind of their dread fury

  But in the midst of a devouring Stomach, Jerusalem

  Hidden within the Covering Cherub as in a Tabernacle

  Of threefold workmanship in allegoric delusion & woe[.]

  There the Seven Kings of Canaan & Five Baalim of Philistea

  Sihon & Og the Anakim & Emim, Nephilim & Gibborim

  From Babylon to Rome & the Wings spread from Japan

  Where the Red Sea terminates the World of Generation & Death

  50 To Irelands farthest rocks where Giants builded their Causeway

  Into the Sea of Rephaim, but the Sea oerwhelmd them all.

  A Double Female now appeard within the Tabernacle,

  Religion hid in War, a Dragon red & hidden Harlot

  Each within other, but without a Warlike Mighty-one

  Of dreadful power, sitting upon Horeb pondering dire

  And mighty preparations mustering multitudes innumerable

  Of warlike sons among the sands of Midian & Aram

  For multitudes of those who sleep in Alla descend

  Lured by his warlike symphonies of tabret pipe & harp

  60 Burst the bottoms of the Graves & Funeral Arks of Beulah

  Wandering in that unknown Night beyond the silent Grave

  They become One with the Antichrist & are absorbd in him

  PLATE 90

  The Feminine separates from the Masculine & both from Man,

  Ceasing to be His Emanations, Life to Themselves assuming:

  And while they circumscribe his Brain, & while they circumscribe

  His Heart, & while they circumscribe his Loins: a Veil & Net

  Of Veins of red Blood grows around them like a scarlet robe,

  Covering them from the sight of Man like the woven Veil of Sleep

  Such as the Flowers of Beulah weave to be their Funeral Mantles

  But dark! opake! tender to touch, & painful! & agonizing

  To the embrace of love, & to the mingling of soft fibres

  10 Of tender affection, that no more the Masculine mingles

  With the Feminine, but the Sublime is shut out from the Pathos

  In howling torment, to build stone walls of separation, compelling

  The Pathos, to weave curtains of hiding secresy from the torment.