The Complete Poems
Page 69
And Satan in his Spiritual War
Dragd at his Chariot wheels loud howld
The God of this World louder rolld
The Chariot Wheels & louder still
His voice was heard from Zions hill
And in his hand the Scourge shone bright
He scourgd the Merchant Canaanite
From out the Temple of his Mind
50 And in his Body tight does bind
Satan & all his Hellish Crew
And thus with wrath he did subdue
The Serpent Bulk of Natures dross
Till he had naild it to the Cross
He took on Sin in the Virgins Womb
[And on the Cross he Seald its doom]
And put it off on the Cross & Tomb
To be Worshipd by the Church of Rome
*
Was Jesus Humble or did he
Give any proofs of Humility
When but a Child he ran away
And left his Parents in dismay
When they had wanderd three days long
These were the words upon his Tongue
No Earthly Parents I confess
I am doing my Fathers business
When the rich learned Pharisee
10 Came to consult him secretly
He was too Proud to take a bribe
He spoke with authority not like a Scribe
Upon his heart with Iron pen
He wrote Ye must be born again
He says with most consummate Art
Follow me I am meek & lowly of heart
As that is the only way to Escape
The Misers net & the Gluttons trap
He who loves his Enemies hates his Friends
20 This is surely not what Jesus intends
He must mean the meer love of Civility
And so he must mean concerning Humility
But he acts with triumphant honest pride
And this is the Reason Jesus died
If he had been [the] Antichrist Creeping Jesus
Hed have done any thing to please us
Gone sneaking into the Synagogues
And not used the Elders & Priests like Dogs
But humble as a Lamb or an Ass
30 Obey himself to Caiaphas
God wants not Man to humble himself
This is the Trick of the Ancient Elf
Humble toward God, Haughty toward Man
This is the Race that Jesus ran
And when he humbled himself to God
Then descended the cruel rod
[Why dost thou humble thyself to me
40 Thou Also dwelst in Eternity]
If thou humblest thyself thou humblest me
Thou also dwelst in Eternity
Thou art a Man God is no more
Thine own Humanity learn to Adore
And thy Revenge Abroad display
In terrors at the Last Judgment day
Gods Mercy & Long Suffering
Are but the Sinner to Judgment to bring
Thou on the Cross for them shalt pray
[Whom thou shalt Torment at the Last Day]
50 And take Revenge at the last Day
Do what you will this Lifes a Fiction
And is made up of Contradiction
THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL
Was Jesus Humble or did he
Give any Proofs of Humility
Boast of high Things with Humble tone
And give with Charity a Stone
When but a Child he ran away
And left his Parents in dismay
When they had wanderd three days long
These were the words upon his tongue
No Earthly Parents I confess
10 I am doing my Fathers business
When the rich learned Pharisee
Came to consult him secretly
Upon his heart with Iron pen
He wrote Ye must be born again
He was too proud to take a bribe
He spoke with authority not like a Scribe
He says with most consummate Art
Follow me I am meek & lowly of heart
As that is the only way to escape
20 The Misers net & the Gluttons trap
What can be done with such desperate Fools
Who follow after the Heathen Schools
I was standing by when Jesus died
What I calld Humility they calld Pride
He who loves his Enemies [hates] betrays his Friends
This surely is not what Jesus intends
But the sneaking Pride of Heroic Schools
And the Scribes & Pharisees Virtuous Rules
For he acts with honest triumphant Pride
30 And this is the cause that Jesus died
He did not die with Christian Ease
Asking pardon of his Enemies
If he had Caiphas would forgive
Sneaking submission can always live
He had only to say that God was the devil
And the devil was God like a Christian Civil
Mild Christian regrets to the devil confess
For affronting him thrice in the Wilderness
He had soon been bloody Caesars Elf
40 And at last he would have been Caesar himself
Like dr Priestly & [Sir Isaac] Bacon & Newton
Poor Spiritual Knowledge is not worth a button
[As] For thus the Gospel Sr Isaac confutes
God can only be known by his Attributes
And as for the Indwelling of the Holy Ghost
Or of Christ & his Father its all a boast
And Pride & Vanity of the Imagination
That disdains to follow this Worlds Fashion
To teach doubt & Experiment
50 Certainly was not what Christ meant
What was he doing all that time
From twelve years old to manly prime
Was he then Idle or the Less
About his Fathers business
Or was his wisdom held in scorn
Before his wrath began to burn
In Miracles throughout the Land
That quite unnervd Caiaphas hand
If he had been [the] Antichrist Creeping Jesus
60 Hed have done any thing to please us
Gone sneaking into Synagogues
And not usd the Elders & Priests like dogs
But Humble as a Lamb or Ass
Obeyd himself to Caiaphas
God wants not Man to Humble himself
This is the trick of the ancient Elf
This is the Race that Jesus ran
Humble to God Haughty to Man
Cursing the Rulers before the People
70 Even to the temples highest Steeple
And when he Humbled himself to God
Then descended the Cruel Rod
If thou humblest thyself thou humblest me
Thou also dwellst in Eternity
Thou art a Man God is no more
Thy own humanity learn to adore
For that is my Spirit of Life
Awake arise to Spiritual Strife
And thy Revenge abroad display
80 In terrors at the Last Judgment day
Gods Mercy & Long Suffering
Is but the Sinner to Judgment to bring
Thou on the Cross for them shalt pray
And take Revenge at the Last Day
[All Corporeal lifes a/This Corporeal
(All) lifes a fiction
And is made up of Contradiction]
Jesus replied & thunders hurld
I never will Pray for the World
Once [I] did so when I prayd in the Garden
90 I wishd to take with me a Bodily Pardon
Can that which was of woman born
In the absence of the Morn
When the Soul fell into Sleep
And Archangels round it weep
Shooting out against the Light
Fibres of a deadly nigh
t
Reasoning upon its own dark Fiction
In doubt which is Self Contradiction
Humility is only doubt
100 And does the Sun & Moon blot out
Rooting over with thorns & stems
The buried Soul & all its Gems.
This Lifes dim Windows of the Soul
Distorts the Heavens from Pole to Pole
And leads you to Believe a Lie
When you see with not thro the Eye
That was born in a night to perish in a night
When the Soul slept in the beams of Light.
*
I am sure This Jesus will not do
Either for Englishman or Jew
FOR THE SEXES THE GATES OF PARADISE
[PROLOGUE]
Mutual forgiveness of each Vice
Such are the Gates of Paradise
Against the Accusers chief desire
Who walked among the Stones of Fire
Jehovahs Finger Wrote the Law
Then Wept! then rose in Zeal & Awe
And the Dead Corpse from Sinais heat
Buried beneath his Mercy Seat
O Christians Christians tell me Why
10 You rear it on your Altars high
THE KEYS
The Catterpiller on the Leaf
Reminds thee of thy Mothers Grief
OF THE GATES
1
My Eternal Man set in Repose
The Female from his darkness rose
And She found me beneath a Tree
A Mandrake & in her Veil hid me
Serpent Reasonings us entice
Of Good & Evil: Virtue & Vice
2
Doubt Self Jealous Watry folly
10 3
Struggling thro Earths Melancholy
4
Naked in Air in Shame & Fear
5
Blind in Fire with shield & spear
Two Horn’d Reasoning Cloven Fiction
In Doubt which is Self contradiction
A dark Hermaphrodite We stood
Rational Truth Root of Evil & Good
Round me flew the Flaming Sword
Round her snowy Whirlwinds roard
20Freezing her Veil the Mundane Shell
20 6
I rent the Veil where the Dead dwell
When weary Man enters his Cave
He meets his Saviour in the Grave
Some find a Female Garment there
And some a Male, woven with care
Lest the Sexual Garments sweet
Should grow a devouring Winding sheet
7
One Dies! Alas! the Living & Dead
One is slain & One is fled
8
In Vain-glory hatcht & nurst
30
By double Spectres Self AccurstMy Son! my Son! thou treatest me
But as I have instructed thee
9
On the shadows of the Moon
Climbing thro Nights highest noon
10
In Times Ocean falling drownd
In Aged Ignorance profound
11
Holy & cold I clipd the Wings
Of all Sublunary Things
12
And in the depths of my Dungeons
40
Closed the Father & the Sons
13
But when once I did descry
The Immortal Man that cannot Die
14
Thro evening shades I haste away
To close the Labours of my Day
15
The Door of Death I open found
And the Worm Weaving in the Ground
16
Thou’rt my Mother from the Womb
Wife, Sister, Daughter to the Tomb
Weaving to Dreams the Sexual strife
50
And weeping over the Web of Life
[EPILOGUE]
TO THE ACCUSER WHO IS THE GOD OF
THIS WORLD
Truly My Satan thou art but a Dunce
And dost not know the Garment from the Man
Every Harlot was a Virgin once
Nor canst thou ever change Kate into Nan
Tho thou art Worshipd by the Names Divine
Of Jesus & Jehovah: thou art still
The Son of Morn in weary Nights decline
The lost Travellers Dream under the Hill
THE GHOST OF ABEL
A Revelation In the Visions of Jehovah
Seen by William Blake
PLATE I
To LORD BYRON in the Wilderness
What doest thou here Elijah?
Can a Poet doubt the Visions of Jehovah? Nature has
no Outline: but Imagination has. Nature has no Tune:
but Imagination has! Nature has no Supernatural &
dissolves: Imagination is Eternity
Scene. A rocky Country. Eve fainted over the dead body
of Abel which lays near a Grave. Adam kneels by her
Jehovah stands above.
JEHOVAH: Adam!
ADAM: I will not hear thee more thou Spiritual Voice
Is this Death?
JEHOVAH: Adam!
ADAM: It is in vain: I will not hear thee
Henceforth! Is this thy Promise that the Womans Seed
Should bruise the Serpents head: Is this the Serpent? Ah!
10 Seven times, O Eve thou hast fainted over the Dead. Ah! Ah!
Eve revives.
EVE: Is this the Promise of Jehovah! O it is all a vain delusion
This Death & this Life & this Jehovah!
JEHOVAH: Woman: lift thine eyes
A Voice is heard coming on.
VOICE: O Earth cover not thou my Blood! cover not thou my Blood
Enter the Ghost of Abel.
EVE: Thou Visionary Phantasm thou art not the real Abel.
ABEL:Among the Elohim a Human Victim I wander I am their House
Prince of the Air & our dimensions compass Zenith & Nadir
Vain is thy Covenant O Jehovah I am the Accuser & Avenger
Of Blood O Earth Cover not thou the Blood of Abel
JEHOVAH:What Vengeance dost thou require
ABEL: Life for
Life! Life for Life!
20 JEHOVAH: He who shall take Cains life must also Die O Abel
And who is he? Adam wilt thou, or Eve thou do this
ADAM: It is all a Vain delusion of the all creative Imagination
Eve come away & let us not believe these vain delusions
Abel is dead & Cain slew him! We shall also Die a Death
And then! what then? be as poor Abel a Thought: or as
This! O what shall I call thee Form Divine! Father of Mercies
That appearest to my Spiritual Vision: Eve seest thou also.
EVE: I see him plainly with my Minds Eye. I see also Abel living:
Tho terribly afflicted as We also are, yet Jehovah sees him
PLATE 2
Alive & not Dead: were it not better to believe Vision
With all our might & strength tho we are fallen &
lost
ADAM: Eve thou hast spoken truly. let us kneel before his feet.
They Kneel before Jehovah.
ABEL: Are these the Sacrifices of Eternity O Jehovah, a Broken Spirit
And a Contrite Heart. O I cannot Forgive! the Accuser hath
Enterd into Me as into his House & I loathe thy Tabernacles
As thou hast said so is it come to pass: My desire is unto Cain
And He doth rule over Me: therefore My Soul in fumes of Blood
Cries for Vengeance: Sacrifice on Sacrifice Blood on Blood
10 JEHOVAH: Lo I have given you a Lamb for an Atonement instead
Of the Transgres[s]or, or no Flesh or Spirit could ever Live
ABEL: Compelled I cry O Earth cover not the Blood of Abel
Abel sinks down into the Grave from which arises Satan
Armed in g
littering scales with a Crown & a Spear.
SATAN: I will have Human Blood & not the blood of Bulls or Goats
And no Atonement O Jehovah the Elohim live on Sacrifice
Of Men: hence I am God of Men: Thou Human O Jehovah.
By the Rock & Oak of the Druid creeping Mistletoe & Thorn
Cains City built with Human Blood, not Blood of Bulls & Goats
Thou shalt Thyself be Sacrificed to Me thy God on Calvary
JEHOVAH:Such is My Will. Thunders.
that Thou Thyself go to
Eternal Death
20 In Self Annihilation even till Satan Self-subdud Put off Satan
Into the Bottomless Abyss whose torment arises for ever & ever.
On each side a Chrous of Angels entering Sing the following:
The Elohim of the Heathen Swore Vengeance for Sin! Then Thou stoodst
Forth O Elohim Jehovah! in the midst of the darkness of the Oath! All Clothed
In Thy Covenant of the Forgiveness of Sins: Death O Holy! Is this Brotherhood
The Elohim saw their Oath Eternal Fire; they rolled apart trembling over The
Mercy Seat: each in his station fixt in the Firmament by Peace Brotherhood and Love.
The Curtain falls.
NOTES
Blake’s Works are abbreviated in the Notes as follows:
PS
Poetical Sketches
SI
Songs of Innocence
SE
Songs of Experience
SIE
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
FR
The French Revolution
MHH
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
SL
A Song of liberty
VDA
Visions of the Daughters of Albion
Eur
Europe
SL
The Song of Los
BU
The First Book of Urizen
BA
The Book of Ahania
BL
The Book of Los
FZ
Vala, or the Four Zoas
M
Milton
f
Jerusalem
OED refers to the Oxford English Dictionary.
For references to Bentley, Damon, Erdman, Frye and Stevenson, see Further Reading.
Terms printed in small capitals in the Notes are more fully defined in the Dictionary of Proper Names.