The Complete Poems

by William Blake

  Knows in its intricate mazes of delight artful to weave:

  Each one to sound his instruments of music in the dance,

  To touch each other & recede; to cross & change & return

  These are the Children of Los; thou seest the Trees on mountains

  The wind blows heavy, loud they thunder thro’ the darksom sky

  Uttering prophecies & speaking instructive words to the sons

  10 Of men: These are the Sons of Los! These the Visions of Eternity

  But we see only as it were the hem of their garments

  When with our vegetable eyes we view these wond’rous Visions

  There are Two Gates thro which all Souls descend. One Southward

  From Dover Cliff to Lizard Point, the other toward the North

  Caithness & rocky Durness, Pentland & John Groats House.

  The Souls descending to the Body, wail on the right hand

  Of Los; & those deliverd from the Body, on the left hand

  For Los against the east his force continually bends

  Along the Valleys of Middlesex from Hounslow to Blackheath

  20 Lest those Three Heavens of Beulah should the Creation destroy

  And lest they should descend before the north & south Gates

  Groaning with pity, he among the wailing Souls laments.

  And these the Labours of the Sons of Los in Allamanda:

  And in the City of Golgonooza: & in Luban: & around

  The Lake of Udan-Adan, in the Forests of Entuthon Benython

  Where Souls incessant wail, being piteous Passions & Desires

  With neither lineament nor form but like to watry clouds

  The Passions & Desires descend upon the hungry winds

  For such alone Sleepers remain meer passion & appetite;

  30 The Sons of Los clothe them & feed & provide houses & fields

  And every Generated Body in its inward form,

  Is a garden of delight & a building of magnificence,

  Built by the Sons of Los in Bowlahoola & Allamanda

  And the herbs & flowers & furniture & beds & chambers

  Continually woven in the Looms of Enitharmons Daughters

  In bright Cathedrons golden Dome with care & love & tears[.]

  For the various Classes of Men are all markd out determinate

  In Bowlahoola; & as the Spectres choose their affinities

  So they are born on Earth, & every Class is determinate

  40 But not by Natural but by Spiritual power alone. Because

  The Natural power continually seeks & tends to Destruction

  Ending in Death: which would of itself be Eternal Death

  And all are Class’d by Spiritual, & not by Natural power.

  And every Natural Effect has a Spiritual Cause, and Not

  A Natural: for a Natural Cause only seems, it is a Delusion

  Of Ulro: & a ratio of the perishing Vegetable Memory.

  PLATE 27

  But the Wine-press of Los is eastward of Golgonooza, before the Seat

  Of Satan. Luvah laid the foundation & Urizen finish’d it in howling woe.

  How red the sons & daughters of Luvah: here they tread the grapes.

  Laughing & shouting drunk with odours many fall oerwearied

  Drownd in the wine is many a youth & maiden: those around

  Lay them on skins of Tygers & of the spotted Leopard & the Wild Ass

  Till they revive, or bury them in cool grots, making lamentation.

  This Wine-press is call’d War on Earth, it is the Printing-Press

  Of Los; and here he lays his words in order above the mortal brain

  10 As cogs are formd in a wheel to turn the cogs of the adverse wheel.

  Timbrels & violins sport round the Wine-presses; the little Seed;

  The sportive Root, the Earth-worm, the gold Beetle; the wise Emmet;

  Dance round the Wine-presses of Luvah: the Centipede is there:

  The ground Spider with many eyes: the Mole clothed in velvet

  The ambitious Spider in his sullen web; the lucky golden Spinner;

  The Earwig armd: the tender Maggot emblem of immortality:

  The Flea: Louse: Bug: the Tape-Worm: all the Armies of Disease:

  Visible or invisible to the slothful vegetating Man.

  The slow Slug: the Grasshopper that sings & laughs & drinks:

  20 Winter comes, he folds his slender bones without a murmur.

  The cruel Scorpion is there: the Gnat: Wasp: Hornet & the Honey Bee:

  The Toad & venomous Newt; the Serpent clothd in gems & gold:

  They throw off their gorgeous raiment: they rejoice with loud jubilee

  Around the Wine-presses of Luvah, naked & drunk with wine.

  There is the Nettle that stings with soft down; and there

  The indignant Thistle: whose bitterness is bred in his milk:

  Who feeds on contempt of his neighbour: there all the idle Weeds

  That creep around the obscure places, shew their various limbs.

  Naked in all their beauty dancing round the Wine-presses.

  30 But in the Wine-presses the Human grapes sing not, nor dance

  They howl & writhe in shoals of torment; in fierce flames consuming,

  In chains of iron & in dungeons circled with ceaseless fires.

  In pits & dens & shades of death: in shapes of torment & woe.

  The plates & screws & wracks & saws & cords & fires & cisterns

  The cruel joys of Luvahs Daughters lacerating with knives

  And whips their Victims & the deadly sport of Luvahs Sons.

  They dance around the dying, & they drink the howl & groan

  They catch the shrieks in cups of gold, they hand them to one another:

  These are the sports of love, & these the sweet delights of amorous play

  40 Tears of the grape, the death sweat of the cluster the last sigh

  Of the mild youth who listens to the lureing songs of Luvah

  But Allamanda calld on Earth Commerce, is the Cultivated land

  Around the City of Golgonooza in the Forests of Entuthon:

  Here the Sons of Los labour against Death Eternal; through all

  The Twenty-seven Heavens of Beulah in Ulro, Seat of Satan,

  Which is the False Tongue beneath Beulah: it is the Sense of Touch:

  The Plow goes forth in tempests & lightnings & the Harrow cruel

  In blights of the east; the heavy Roller follows in howlings of woe.

  Urizens sons here labour also; & here are seen the Mills

  50 Of Theotormon, on the verge of the Lake of Udan-Adan:

  These are the starry voids of night & the depths & caverns of earth

  These Mills are oceans, clouds & waters ungovernable in their fury

  Here are the stars created & the seeds of all things planted

  And here the Sun & Moon recieve their fixed destinations

  But in Eternity the Four Arts: Poetry, Painting, Music,

  And Architecture which is Science: are the Four Faces of Man.

  Not so in Time & Space: there Three are shut out, and only

  Science remains thro Mercy: & by means of Science, the Three

  Become apparent in Time & Space, in the Three Professions

  60 Poetry in Religion: Music, Law: Painting, in Physic & Surgery:

  That Man may live upon Earth till the time of his awaking,

  And from these Three, Science derives every Occupation of Men.

  And Science is divided into Bowlahoola & Allamanda.

  PLATE 28

  Some Sons of Los surround the Passions with porches of iron & silver

  Creating form & beauty around the dark regions of sorrow,

  Giving to airy nothing a name and a habitation

  Delightful: with bounds to the Infinite putting off the Indefinite

  Into most holy forms of Thought: (such is the power of inspiration)

  They labour incessant; with many tears & afflic
tions:

  Creating the beautiful House for the piteous sufferer.

  Others: Cabinets richly fabricate of gold & ivory;

  For Doubts & fears unform’d & wretched & melancholy

  10 The little weeping Spectre stands on the threshold of Death

  Eternal; and sometimes two Spectres like lamps quivering

  And often malignant they combat (heart-breaking sorrowful & piteous)

  Antamon takes them into his beautiful flexible hands,

  As the Sower takes the seed, or as the Artist his clay

  Or fine wax, to mould artful a model for golden ornaments.

  The soft hands of Antamon draw the indelible line:

  Form immortal with golden pen; such as the Spectre admiring

  Puts on the sweet form; then smiles Antamon bright thro his windows

  The Daughters of beauty look up from their Loom & prepare.

  20 The integument soft for its clothing with joy & delight.

  But Theotormon & Sotha stand in the Gate of Luban anxious

  Their numbers are seven million & seven thousand & seven hundred

  They contend with the weak Spectres, they fabricate soothing forms

  The Spectre refuses, he seeks cruelty, they create the crested Cock

  Terrified the Spectre screams & rushes in fear into their Net

  Of kindness & compassion & is born a weeping terror.

  Or they create the Lion & Tyger in compassionate thunderings

  Howling the Spectres flee: they take refuge in Human lineaments.

  The Sons of Ozoth within the Optic Nerve stand fiery glowing

  30 And the number of his Sons is eight millions & eight.

  They give delights to the man unknown; artificial riches

  They give to scorn, & their posessors to trouble & sorrow & care,

  Shutting the sun, & moon, & stars, & trees, & clouds, & waters,

  And hills, out from the Optic Nerve & hardening it into a bone

  Opake, and like the black pebble on the enraged beach.

  While the poor indigent is like the diamond which tho cloth’d

  In rugged covering in the mine, is open all within

  And in his hallowd center holds the heavens of bright eternity

  Ozoth here builds walls of rocks against the surging sea

  40 And timbers crampt with iron cramps bar in the joys of life

  From fell destruction in the Spectrous cunning or rage.

  He Creates

  The speckled Newt, the Spider & Beetle, the Rat & Mouse,

  The Badger & Fox: they worship before his feet in trembling fear.

  But others of the Sons of Los build Moments & Minutes & Hours

  And Days & Months & Years & Ages & Periods; wondrous buildings

  And every Moment has a Couch of gold for soft repose,

  (A Moment equals a pulsation of the artery)

  And between every two Moments stands a Daughter of Beulah

  To feed the Sleepers on their Couches with maternal care.

  50 And every Minute has an azure Tent with silken Veils.

  And every Hour has a bright golden Gate carved with skill.

  And every Day & Night, has Walls of brass & Gates of adamant,

  Shining like precious stones & ornamented with appropriate signs:

  And every Month, a silver paved Terrace builded high:

  And every Year, invulnerable Barriers with high Towers.

  And every Age is Moated deep with Bridges of silver & gold:

  And every Seven Ages is Incircled with a Flaming Fire.

  Now Seven Ages is amounting to Two Hundred Years

  Each has its Guard, each Moment Minute Hour Day Month & Year.

  60 All are the work of Fairy hands of the Four Elements

  The Guard are Angels of Providence on duty evermore

  Every Time less than a pulsation of the artery

  Is equal in its period & value to Six Thousand Years.

  PLATE 29

  For in this Period the Poets Work is Done: and all the Great

  Events of Time start forth & are concievd in such a Period

  Within a Moment: a Pulsation of the Artery.

  The Sky is an immortal Tent built by the Sons of Los

  And every Space that a Man views around his dwelling-place:

  Standing on his own roof, or in his garden on a mount

  Of twenty-five cubits in height, such space is his Universe;

  And on its verge the Sun rises & sets, the Clouds bow

  To meet the flat Earth & the Sea in such an orderd Space:

  10 The Starry heavens reach no further but here bend and set

  On all sides & the two Poles turn on their valves of gold:

  And if he move his dwelling-place, his heavens also move,

  Wher’eer he goes & all his neighbourhood bewail his loss:

  Such are the Spaces called Earth & such its dimension:

  As to that false appearance which appears to the reasoner,

  As of a Globe rolling thro Voidness, it is a delusion of Ulro

  The Microscope knows not of this nor the Telescope. they alter

  The ratio of the Spectators Organs but leave Objects untouchd

  For every Space larger than a red Globule of Mans blood,

  20 Is visionary: and is created by the Hammer of Los

  And every Space smaller than a Globule of Mans blood, opens

  Into Eternity of which this vegetable Earth is but a shadow:

  The red Globule is the unwearied Sun by Los created

  To measure Time and Space to mortal Men. every morning.

  Bowlahoola & Allamanda are placed on each side

  Of that Pulsation & that Globule, terrible their power.

  But Rintrah & Palamabron govern over Day & Night

  In Allamanda & Entuthon Benython where Souls wail:

  Where Orc incessant howls burning in fires of Eternal Youth,

  30 Within the vegetated mortal Nerves; for every Man born is joined

  Within into One mighty Polypus, and this Polypus is Orc.

  But in the Optic vegetative Nerves Sleep was transformed

  To Death in old time by Satan the father of Sin & Death

  And Satan is the Spectre of Orc & Orc is the generate Luvah

  But in the Nerves of the Nostrils, Accident being Formed

  Into Substance & Principle, by the cruelties of Demonstration

  It became Opake & Indefinite; but the Divine Saviour,

  Formed it into a Solid by Los’s Mathematic power.

  He named the Opake Satan: he named the Solid Adam

  40 And in the Nerves of the Ear, (for the Nerves of the Tongue are closed)

  On Albions Rock Los stands creating the glorious Sun each morning

  And when unwearied in the evening he creates the Moon

  Death to delude, who all in terror at their splendor leaves

  His prey while Los appoints, & Rintrah & Palamabron guide

  The Souls clear from the Rock of Death, that Death himself may wake

  In his appointed season when the ends of heaven meet.

  Then Los conducts the Spirits to be Vegetated, into

  Great Golgonooza, free from the four iron pillars of Satans Throne

  (Temperance, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, the four pillars of tyranny)

  50 That Satans Watch-Fiends touch them not before they Vegetate.

  But Enitharmon and her Daughters take the pleasant charge.

  To give them to their lovely heavens till the Great Judgment Day

  Such is their lovely charge. But Rahab & Tirzah pervert

  Their mild influences, therefore the Seven Eyes of God walk round

  The Three Heavens of Ulro, where Tirzah & her Sisters

  Weave the black Woof of Death upon Entuthon Benython

  In the Vale of Surrey where Horeb terminates in Rephaim

  The stamping feet of Zelophehads Daughters are coverd with Human gore

 
Upon the treddles of the Loom, they sing to the winged shuttle:

  60 The River rises above his banks to wash the Woof:

  He takes it in his arms: he passes it in strength thro his current

  The veil of human miseries is woven over the Ocean

  From the Atlantic to the Great South Sea, the Erythrean.

  Such is the World of Los the labour of six thousand years.

  Thus Nature is a Vision of the Science of the Elohim.

  End of the First Book.

  PLATE 30

  MILTON

  BOOK THE SECOND

  There is a place where Contrarieties are equally True

  This place is called Beulah, It is a pleasant lovely Shadow

  Where no dispute can come, Because of those who Sleep.

  Into this place the Sons & Daughters of Ololon descended

  With solemn mourning, into Beulahs moony shades & hills

  Weeping for Milton: mute wonder held the Daughters of Beulah

  Enrapturd with affection sweet and mild benevolence

  Beulah is evermore Created around Eternity; appearing

  To the inhabitants of Eden, around them on all sides.

  10 But Beulah to its Inhabitants appears within each district

  As the beloved infant in his mothers bosom round incircled

  With arms of love & pity & sweet compassion. But to

  The Sons of Eden the moony habitations of Beulah,

  Are from Great Eternity a mild & pleasant Rest.

  And it is thus Created. Lo the Eternal Great Humanity

  To whom be Glory & Dominion Evermore Amen

  Walks among all his awful Family seen in every face

  As the breath of the Almighty, such are the words of man to man

  In the great Wars of Eternity, in fury of Poetic Inspiration,

  20 To build the Universe stupendous: Mental forms Creating

  But the Emanations trembled exceedingly, nor could they

  Live, because the life of Man was too exceeding unbounded

  His joy became terrible to them, they trembled & wept

  Crying with one voice. Give us a habitation & a place

  In which we may be hidden under the shadow of wings

  For if we who are but for a time, & who pass away in winter

  Behold these wonders of Eternity we shall consume

  But you O our Fathers & Brothers, remain in Eternity

  But grant us a Temporal Habitation. do you speak

  30 To us; we will obey your words as you obey Jesus

  The Eternal who is blessed for ever & ever. Amen

  So spake the lovely Emanations; & there appeard a pleasant

  Mild Shadow above: beneath: & on all sides round,