The Complete Poems

by William Blake

  PLATE 31

  Into this pleasant Shadow all the weak & weary

  Like Women & Children were taken away as on wings

  Of dovelike softness, & shadowy habitations prepared for them

  But every Man returnd & went still going forward thro’

  The Bosom of the Father in Eternity on Eternity

  Neither did any lack or fall into Error without

  A Shadow to repose in all the Days of happy Eternity

  Into this pleasant Shadow Beulah, all Ololon descended

  And when the Daughters of Beulah heard the lamentation

  10 All Beulah wept, for they saw the Lord coming in the Clouds

  And the Shadows of Beulah terminate in rocky Albion.

  And all Nations wept in affliction Family by Family

  Germany wept towards France & Italy: England wept & trembled

  Towards America: India rose up from his golden bed:

  As one awakend in the night: they saw the Lord coming

  In the Clouds of Ololon with Power & Great Glory!

  And all the Living Creatures of the Four Elements, wail’d

  With bitter wailing: these in the aggregate are named Satan

  And Rahab: they know not of Regeneration, but only of Generation

  20 The Fairies, Nymphs, Gnomes & Genii of the Four Elements

  Unforgiving & unalterable: these cannot be Regenerated

  But must be Created, for they know only of Generation

  These are the Gods of the Kingdoms of the Earth: in contrarious

  And cruel opposition: Element against Element, opposed in War

  Not Mental, as the Wars of Eternity, but a Corporeal Strife

  In Los’s Halls continual labouring in the Furnaces of Golgonooza

  Orc howls on the Atlantic: Enitharmon trembles: All Beulah weeps

  Thou hearest the Nightingale begin the Song of Spring;

  The Lark sitting upon his earthy bed: just as the morn

  30 Appears; listens silent; then springing from the waving Corn-field! loud

  He leads the Choir of the Day: trill, trill, trill, trill,

  Mounting upon the wings of light into the Great Expanse:

  Reecchoing against the lovely blue & shining heavenly Shell:

  His little throat labours with inspiration; every feather

  On throat & breast & wings vibrates with the effluence Divine

  All Nature listens silent to him & the awful Sun

  Stands still upon the Mountain looking on this little Bird

  With eyes of soft humility, & wonder love & awe.

  Then loud from their green covert all the Birds begin their Song

  40 The Thrush, the Linnet & the Goldfinch, Robin & the Wren

  Awake the Sun from his sweet reverie upon the Mountain:

  The Nightingale again assays his song & thro the day,

  And thro the night warbles luxuriant; every Bird of Song

  Attending his loud harmony with admiration & love.

  This is a Vision of the lamentation of Beulah over Ololon!

  Thou percievest the Flowers put forth their precious Odours!

  And none can tell how from so small a center comes such sweets

  Forgetting that within that Center Eternity expands

  Its ever during doors, that Og & Anak fiercely guard[.]

  50 First eer the morning breaks joy opens in the flowery bosoms

  Joy even to tears, which the Sun rising dries; first the Wild Thyme

  And Meadow-sweet downy & soft waving among the reeds.

  Light springing on the air lead the sweet Dance: they wake

  The Honeysuckle sleeping on the Oak: the flaunting beauty

  Revels along upon the wind; the White-thorn lovely May

  Opens her many lovely eyes: listening the Rose still sleeps

  None dare to wake her. soon she bursts her crimson curtaind bed

  60 And comes forth in the majesty of beauty; every Flower:

  The Pink, the Jessamine, the Wall-flower, the Carnation

  The Jonquil, the mild Lilly opes her heavens: every Tree,

  And Flower & Herb soon fill the air with an innumerable Dance

  Yet all in order sweet & lovely, Men are sick with Love!

  Such is a Vision of the lamentation of Beulah over Ololon

  PLATE 32

  And Milton oft sat up on the Couch of Death & oft conversed

  In vision & dream beatific with the Seven Angels of the Presence

  I have turned my back upon these Heavens builded on cruelty

  My Spectre still wandering thro’ them follows my Emanation

  He hunts her footsteps thro’ the snow & the wintry hail & rain

  The idiot Reasoner laughs at the Man of Imagination

  And from laughter proceeds to murder by undervaluing Calunmy

  Then Hillel who is Lucifer replied over the Couch of Death

  And thus the Seven Angels instructed him & thus they converse.

  10 We are not Individuals but States: Combinations of Individuals

  We were Angels of the Divine Presence: & were Druids in Annandale

  Compelld to combine into Form by Satan, the Spectre of Albion,

  Who made himself a God &, destroyed the Human Form Divine.

  But the Divine Humanity & Mercy gave us a Human Form

  Because we were combined in Freedom & holy Brotherhood

  While those combind by Satans Tyranny first in the blood of War

  And Sacrifice &, next, in Chains of imprisonment: are Shapeless Rocks

  Retaining only Satans Mathematic Holiness, Length: Bredth & Highth

  Calling the Human Imagination: which is the Divine Vision & Fruition

  20 In which Man liveth eternally: madness & blasphemy, against

  Its own Qualities, which are Servants of Humanity, not Gods or Lords[.]

  Distinguish therefore States from Individuals in those States.

  States Change: but Individual Identities never change nor cease:

  You cannot go to Eternal Death in that which can never Die.

  Satan & Adam are States Created into Twenty-seven Churches

  And thou O Milton art a State about to be Created

  Called Eternal Annihilation that none but the Living shall

  Dare to enter: & they shall enter triumphant over Death

  And Hell & the Grave: States that are not, but ah! Seem to be.

  30 Judge then of thy Own Self: thy Eternal Lineaments explore

  What is Eternal & what Changeable? & what Annihilable:

  The Imagination is not a State: it is the Human Existence itself

  Affection or Love becomes a State, when divided from Imagination

  The Memory is a State always, & the Reason is a State

  Created to be Annihilated & a new Ratio Created

  Whatever can be Created can be Annihilated Forms cannot

  The Oak is cut down by the Ax, the Lamb falls by the Knife

  But their Forms Eternal Exist, For-ever. Amen Halle[l]ujah

  Thus they converse with the Dead watching round the Couch of Death.

  40 For God himself enters Death’s Door always with those that enter

  And lays down in the Grave with them, in Visions of Eternity

  Till they awake & see Jesus & the Linen Clothes lying

  That the Females had Woven for them, & the Gates of their Fathers House

  PLATE 33

  And the Divine Voice was heard in the Songs of Beulah Saying

  When I first Married you, I gave you all my whole Soul

  I thought that you would love my loves & joy in my delights

  Seeking for pleasures in my pleasures O Daughter of Babylon

  Then thou wast lovely, mild & gentle, now thou art terrible

  In jealousy & unlovely in my sight, because thou hast cruelly

  Cut off my loves in fury till I have no love left for thee

  Thy love depends on him thou lovest & on his dear loves />
  Depend thy pleasures which thou hast cut off by jealousy

  10 Therefore I shew my Jealousy & set before you Death.

  Behold Milton descended to Redeem the Female Shade

  From Death Eternal; such your lot, to be continually Redeem’d

  By death & misery of those you love & by Annihilation

  When the Sixfold Female percieves that Milton annihilates

  20 Himself: that seeing all his loves by her cut off: he leaves

  Her also: intirely abstracting himself from Female loves

  She shall relent in fear of death: She shall begin to give

  Her maidens to her husband: delighting in his delight

  And then & then alone begins the happy Female joy

  As it is done in Beulah, & thou O Virgin Babylon Mother of Whoredoms

  Shalt bring Jerusalem in thine arms in the night watches; and

  No longer turning her a wandering Harlot in the streets

  Shalt give her into the arms of God your Lord & Husband.

  Such are the Songs of Beulah in the Lamentations of Ololon

  PLATE 34

  10 And all the Songs of Beulah sounded comfortable notes

  To comfort Ololons lamentation, for they said

  Are you the Fiery Circle that late drove in fury & fire

  The Eight Immortal Starry-Ones down into Ulro dark

  Rending the Heavens of Beulah with your thunders & lightnings

  And can you thus lament & can you pity & forgive?

  Is terror changd to pity O wonder of Eternity:

  And the Four States of Humanity in its Repose,

  Were shewed them. First of Beulah a most pleasant Sleep

  On Couches soft, with mild music, tended by Flowers of Beulah

  Sweet Female forms, winged or floating in the air spontaneous

  The Second State is Alia & the third State Al-Ulro;

  But the Fourth State is dreadful; it is named Or-Ulro:

  The First State is in the Head, the Second is in the Heart:

  The Third in the Loins & Seminal Vessels & the Fourth

  In the Stomach & Intestines terrible, deadly, unutterable

  And he whose Gates are opend in those Regions of his Body

  Can from those Gates view all these wondrous Imaginations

  But Ololon sought the Or-Ulro & its fiery Gates

  20 And the Couches of the Martyrs: & many Daughters of Beulah

  Accompany them down to the Ulro with soft melodious tears

  A long journey & dark thro Chaos in the track of Miltons course

  To where the Contraries of Beulah War beneath Negations Banner

  Then view’d from Miltons Track they see the Ulro: a vast Polypus

  Of living fibres down into the Sea of Time & Space growing

  A self-devouring monstrous Human Death Twenty-seven fold[.]

  Within it sit Five Females & the nameless Shadowy Mother

  Spinning it from their bowels with songs of amorous delight

  And melting cadences that lure the Sleepers of Beulah down

  30 The River Storge (which is Arnon) into the Dead Sea:

  Around this Polypus Los continual builds the Mundane Shell

  Four Universes round the Universe of Los remain Chaotic

  Four intersecting Globes, & the Egg form’d World of Los

  In midst; stretching from Zenith to Nadir, in midst of Chaos[.]

  One of these Ruind Universes is to the North named Urthona

  One to the South this was the glorious World of Urizen

  One to the East, of Luvah: One to the West; of Tharmas.

  But when Luvah assumed the World of Urizen in the South

  All fell towards the Center sinking downward in dire Ruin

  40 Here in these Chaoses the Sons of Ololon took their abode

  In Chasms of the Mundane Shell which open on all sides round

  Southward & by the East within the Breach of Miltons descent

  To watch the time, pitying & gentle to awaken Urizen

  They stood in a dark land of death of fiery corroding waters

  Where lie in evil death the Four Immortals pale and cold

  And the Eternal Man, even Albion, upon the Rock of Ages[.]

  Seeing Miltons Shadow, some Daughters of Beulah trembling

  Returnd, but Ololon remaind before the Gates of the Dead

  And Ololon looked down into the Heavens of Ulro in fear

  50 They said. How are the Wars of man which in Great Eternity

  Appear around, in the External Spheres of Visionary Life

  Here renderd Deadly within the Life & Interior Vision

  How are the Beasts & Birds & Fishes, & Plants & Minerals

  Here fixd into a frozen bulk subject to decay & death

  Those Visions of Human Life & Shadows of Wisdom & Knowledge

  PLATE 35

  Are here frozen to unexpansive deadly destroying terrors

  And War & Hunting: the Two Fountains of the River of Life

  Are become Fountains of bitter Death & of corroding Hell

  Till Brotherhood is changd into a Curse & a Flattery

  By Differences between Ideas, that Ideas themselves, (which are

  The Divine Members) may be slain in offerings for sin

  O dreadful Loom of Death! O piteous Female forms compelld

  To weave the Woof of Death. On Camberwell Tirzahs Courts

  Malahs on Blackheath, Rahab & Noah, dwell on Windsors heights

  10 Where once the Cherubs of Jerusalem spread to Lambeths Vale

  Milcahs Pillars shine from Harrow to Hampstead where Hoglah

  On Highgates heights magnificent Weaves over trembling Thames

  To Shooters Hill and thence to Blackheath the dark Woof! Loud

  Loud roll the Weights & Spindles over the whole Earth let down

  On all sides round to the Four Quarters of the World, eastward on

  Europe to Euphrates & Hindu, to Nile & back in Clouds

  Of Death across the Atlantic to America North & South

  So spake Ololon in reminiscence astonishd, but they

  Could not behold Golgonooza without passing the Polypus

  20 A wondrous journey not passable by Immortal feet, & none

  But the Divine Saviour can pass it without annihilation.

  For Golgonooza cannot be seen till having passd the Polypus

  It is viewed on all sides round by a Four-fold Vision

  Or till you become Mortal & Vegetable in Sexuality

  Then you behold its mighty Spires & Domes of ivory & gold

  And Ololon examined all the Couches of the Dead.

  Even of Los & Enitharmon & all the Sons of Albion

  And his Four Zoas terrified & on the verge of Death

  In midst of these was Miltons Couch, & when they saw Eight

  30 Immortal Starry-Ones, guarding the Couch in flaming fires

  They thunderous utterd all a universal groan falling down

  Prostrate before the Starry Eight asking with tears forgiveness

  Confessing their crime with humiliation and sorrow.

  O how the Starry Eight rejoic’d to see Ololon descended!

  And now that a wide road was open to Eternity,

  By Ololons descent thro Beulah to Los & Enitharmon.

  For mighty were the multitudes of Ololon, vast the extent

  Of their great sway, reaching from Ulro to Eternity

  Surrounding the Mundane Shell outside in its Caverns

  40 And through Beulah. and all silent forbore to contend

  With Ololon for they saw the Lord in the Clouds of Ololon

  There is a Moment in each Day that Satan cannot find

  Nor can his Watch Fiends find it, but the Industrious find

  This Moment & it multiply. & when it once is found

  It renovates every Moment of the Day if rightly placed

  In this Moment Ololon descended to Los & Enitharmon

  Unseen beyond the Mun
dane Shell Southward in Miltons track

  Just in this Moment when the morning odours rise abroad

  And first from the Wild Thyme, stands a Fountain in a rock

  50 Of crystal flowing into two Streams, one flows thro Golgonooza

  And thro Beulah to Eden beneath Los’s western Wall

  The other flows thro the Aerial Void & all the Churches

  Meeting again in Golgonooza beyond Satans Seat

  The Wild Thyme is Los’s Messenger to Eden, a mighty Demon

  Terrible deadly & poisonous his presence in Ulro dark

  Therefore he appears only a small Root creeping in grass

  Covering over the Rock of Odours his bright purple mantle

  Beside the Fount above the Larks nest in Golgonooza

  Luvah slept here in death & here is Luvahs empty Tomb

  60 Ololon sat beside this Fountain on the Rock of Odours.

  Just at the place to where the Lark mounts, is a Crystal Gate

  It is the enterance of the First Heaven named Luther: for

  The Lark is Los’s Messenger thro the Twenty-seven Churches

  That the Seven Eyes of God who walk even to Satans Seat

  Thro all the Twenty-seven Heavens may not slumber nor sleep

  But the Larks Nest is at the Gate of Los, at the eastern

  Gate of wide Golgonooza & the Lark is Los’s Messenger

  PLATE 36

  When on the highest lift of his light pinions he arrives

  At that bright Gate, another Lark meets him & back to back

  They touch their pinions tip tip: and each descend

  To their respective Earths & there all night consult with Angels

  Of Providence & with the Eyes of God all night in slumbers

  Inspired: & at the dawn of day send out another Lark

  Into another Heaven to carry news upon his wings

  Thus are the Messengers dispatchd till they reach the Earth again

  In the East Gate of Golgonooza, & the Twenty-eighth bright

  10 Lark, met the Female Ololon descending into my Garden

  Thus it appears to Mortal eyes & those of the Ulro Heavens

  But not thus to Immortals. the Lark is a mighty Angel

  For Ololon step’d into the Polypus within the Mundane Shell

  They could not step into Vegetable Worlds without becoming

  The enemies of Humanity except in a Female Form

  And as One Female, Ololon and all its mighty Hosts

  Appear’d: a Virgin of twelve years nor time nor space was

  To the perception of the Virgin Ololon but as the

  Flash of lightning but more quick the Virgin in my Garden

  20 Before my Cottage stood, for the Satanic Space is delusion