The Complete Poems

by William Blake

  17–18 For man has closed… cavern Plato’s allegory of the cave (Republic VII) is the major source of this image in western literature and philosophy. In B. the cave or cavern of ignorance is often literally man’s skull. Cf. also Boehme’s Aurora x.96 (quoted by Damon, 324): ‘But if God did once put away that Duskiness, which moves about the Light, and that thy Eyes were opened, then in that very place where thou standest, sittest, or liest, thou shoudst see the glorious Countenance or Face of God and the whole Heavenly Gate.’

  P1. 16.1–2 The Giants… in chains Man’s Energies, subdued by Reason, are like the Titans overthrown by the Olympians, or Prometheus chained to a mountain by Zeus for giving fire to mankind.

  P1. 17.4–6 Jesus Christ… Sword See Matthew 25:32–3 and 10:34.

  9 An Angel Angels represent conventional ‘good’ theology and morality. This one shows B. ‘Hell’ from his own point of view. B. reciprocates by showing him theology from a Blakean point of view.

  16–19 stable… church… vault… mill… cave… void A logical descent from the place of Jesus’ birth progressively downwards, to institutional Religion, Dogma, analytical Reason, the imprisoned Mind, and the blankness which fills it (in Locke’s theory of the tabula rasa). An Inferno vision follows but is interrupted.

  P1. 19.3–4 My friend the Angel… mill A retreat to the safer regions of philosophy and argument. ‘Mills’ in B. always symbolize a mechanical use of Reason.

  23 between saturn & the fixed stars In pre-Copernican astronomy, Saturn was the outermost planetary sphere.

  27 a deep pit For the theologian and scholar, the Bible is not a source of inspiration but a dark mystery requiring analysis. The seven houses are the schools of established religion, each with its own theologians and philosophers, which to B. are monkeys.

  P1. 20.18 Opposition is true Friendship] Deleted by pigment in six copies.

  P1. 22.14 Paracelsus Swiss physician and alchemist, 1493–1541, author of numerous medical and occult works.

  15 Behmen Jakob Boehme (1575–1624), German shoemaker, religious mystic and visionary. Both men influenced B. Boehme in particular believed in a God who, in Himself, contains all antithetical principles.

  P1. 23.10 bray a fool in a morter Quotes Proverbs 27:22.

  14–15 did he not mock at the sabbath The Devil cites scriptural evidence that Jesus scorned the Commandments. Passages referred to are Mark 2:27, John 8:2–11, Matthew 27:13–14. This view of a rebellious Jesus is further developed in The Everlasting Gospel, c. 1818, p. 848.

  23 Jesus was all virtue From Lat. ‘vir’, man. ‘Superiority or excellence, unusual ability, merit, distinction; physical strength or energy; manliness’ (OED).

  A SONG OF LIBERTY

  As a topical piece, the ‘Song’ refers to the advent of the French Revolution in the fall of the Bastille (1789), and the hostility of the other European powers, culminating in an attempted invasion of France which was repulsed in September 1792. Most likely, the ‘Song’ was completed before England declared war on France in February 1793.

  The allegory is as follows: In a Europe burdened by oppression, Nature gives birth to Revolution. Tyranny casts out the newborn child, but his fall rouses mankind and Tyranny collapses temporarily. In the ensuing confrontation between ‘gloomy king’ and ‘son of fire’, the former lacks morale and the latter anticipates an apocalyptic liberation.

  P1. 25.1 The Eternal Female groand! Nature is about to give birth. This figure is developed in B.’s later work.

  7 thy dungeon The Bastille, sacked in 1789.

  9 thy keys Traditional emblems of Papal authority.

  11 And weep Line shortened from ‘And weep and bow thy reverend locks,’ to echo the shortest verse in the Bible, ‘Jesus wept’ (John 11:35) from the story of Lazarus. The old Europe, like Lazarus, is dying.

  12–15 the new born terror… the new born fire This is the first appearance in Blake of ORC, spirit of Revolution, represented as a flaming youth. The ‘terrible babe’ figure also occurs in ‘The Mental Traveller’, Pickering MS., p. 499.

  14–15 mountains… atlantic sea Atlantis, legendary utopian island, overcome by flood, also figures in America.

  16 starry king Elsewhere developed as URIZEN, B.’s archetypal tyrant. Stars in B. are associated with rationalism and a fixed Newtonian universe.

  P1. 26.10 the hoary element The sea.

  17 Urthona’s dens The earth; see URTHONA. ORC, URIZEN and URTHONA are among the FOUR ZOAS who later become major figures in B.’s mythology.

  P1. 27.7 the stony law The Ten Commandments, inscribed on tablets of stone.

  15 For every thing that lives is Holy Repeated in VDA 8.10, America 8.13.

  Visions of the Daughters of Albion

  Date of publication: 1793. An illuminated book in iambic septenary metre. Seventeen complete copies are known.

  The story is simple: OOTHOON loves and offers herself to THEOTORMON, but is raped and held captive by BROMION. Maintaining her spiritual purity and liberty, she continues to offer her love to Theotormon, but he does not respond.

  As a tract on Free Love, the poem is a ‘contrary’ response to Milton’s Comus, which idealizes Chastity. But other issues are also central to this poem: the slave trade with its sexual abuse of female slaves, the exploitation of child labour, political and religious tyranny, and the rationalism which justifies such evils. For B., all these issues are one – Slavery versus Liberty – and all are dramatized by the opposition between closed human possessiveness and will to power, as against open human generosity and will to love. For full discussion of the political allegory see Erdman, 226–42.

  Pl. 1.1–2 Oppressed British women may look to America longingly as a symbol of political and social liberty, but also pityingly as a symbol of the slave trade.

  11 Oothoon pluck’d The plucking of a flower traditionally symbolizes sexual initiation.

  16 Bromion rent her Bromion rapes the newly aroused Oothoon, who hereafter is both captive woman and captive slave.

  21 Stampt with my signet Slaves were commonly branded by their owners.

  P1. 2.3 storms rent Theotormons limbs Theotormon is emotionally devastated by the rape of Oothoon, but remains passive.

  5 Bromion and Oothoon are ‘bound’ together, for the master is not truly free but dependent upon his victim.

  8–10 Slaves and exploited children are kept subdued by cold religion while their masters exercise ‘volcanic’ lust for both sex and power.

  13 Theotormons Eagles In Greek myth, Prometheus the fire-bringer was preyed on by the eagles of Zeus as punishment.

  30–34 Body, mind and emotions, which should all be free, are rigidly limited. This destroys the individual’s true life.

  35–6 Instead of morn… an eye/… instead of night a… charnel house Morn should bring fresh life and energy, but now the sun is only a judging eye. Night should bring rest and renewal, but now is deadly.

  P1. 4.12–24 Bromion is troubled by a bad conscience and dim stirrings of awareness that Oothoon’s vision is correct. But he quickly returns to his original position of rigid materialism and moralism.

  22 one law for both the lion and the ox? ‘One Law for the Lion & Ox is Oppression’ (conclusion of MHH, p. 194).

  P1. 5.1ff. her lamentation renewd The remainder of the poem is Oothoon’s rhapsody on Liberty. Its argument is as follows: (1) The god of Reason (URIZEN, 1. 3) is wrong, for all individuals are unique and have their own forms, visions, joys. These are truly holy. The false holiness of State and Church wastes and exploits human energy. It also enforces loathsome marriages which in turn produce monstrous children. (2) Childhood should begin in erotic (pleasure-loving) infancy and move freely towards a mature sexuality which would bring vigour and bliss. The teachings of modesty distort this process and produce hypocrisy, self-righteousness and shame. Oothoon, having escaped these distortions, is perpetually virginal. Conventional virginity, however, is only repressed desire which must lead to auto-eroticism, a fruitless perver
sion. (3) True love is free. Possessiveness is not love. To prove her conviction, Oothoon offers complete liberty to Theotormon. She concludes with images of life-denying selfishness contrasted to the bliss of accepting all life as holy.

  10 contemns poverty Disdains, despises the poor.

  14–15 the fat fed hireling… wastes The gamekeeper who serves the rich at the expense of the poor; or the recruiting sergeant who lures young men away from the land.

  17 the parson The collector of tithes, a mandatory church-tax.

  P1. 5.41-Pl. 6.3 (1) Mortality for Man means life for worms; (2) the fact of mortality reminds Man to ‘seize the day’.

  P1. 7.1 In happy copulation Copulation between the eye and its object. Oothoon declares that even visual perception is an erotic act.

  12 Father of Jealousy URIZEN, the god of Reason, is also the traditional ‘Jealous God’ of the Old Testament.

  America

  Date of publication: 1793. Fifteen copies of this illuminated book are known. Proofs of three cancelled plates also exist: [a] is almost identical with Pl. 3, [b] was replaced by Pl. 4, [c] fits between Pls. 8 and 9. A fourth fragment [d] was apparently rejected from this poem. The metre is iambic septenary.

  Like The French Revolution, America treats history mythologically. But now B. concentrates less on day-to-day events, and more on the spiritual significance of the American revolt. The plot is as follows: Washington and his friends complain of oppression and are confronted by a wrathful Albion’s angel (spirit of Repression). At this moment ORC (revolution) explodes from the mid-Atlantic, defies England and promises human liberation. The angel sounds to war, but the thirteen colonies refuse to obey and the thirteen governors are helpless. The angel sends spiritual troops armed with plagues, but the plagues recoil upon England, URIZEN the tyrant-god intervenes and freezes the action for twelve years, but it is promised that the light of revolt will reach France and set Europe aflame.

  PRELUDIUM

  Title added (by a small extra plate) in all but two copies.

  P1. 1.1 The shadowy daughter… Urthona… red Orc See Dictionary of Proper Names for these. Nature sustains Rebellious Energy until he is ready to seize her in a ‘fierce embrace’ (1.10) which will bring liberty. The story is retold in greater detail and less optimistically in FZ 7 [a] 85.12–22 and 7 [b] 91.1–93.31.

  2 fourteen suns Fourteen years.

  13–15 eagle, lion, whale, serpent Emblems of Liberty in North and South America. In Nature, they represent powers of air, earth, water, fire.

  P1. 2.18–21 The stern Bard… lamentings] These lines were omitted from almost all copies of America.

  A PROPHECY

  P1. 3.1 The Guardian Prince of Albion Also called ‘Albion’s Angel’, Pl. 5ff.

  4 Washington, Franklin, Paine & Warren, Gates, Hancock & Green The first three were leaders of the American Revolution in military, political and ideological spheres respectively. The latter four held positions in the American army and the first Continental Congress.

  14 wrathful] Pl. [a]: fiery.

  15 dragon An epithet for Pharaoh in Ezekiel 29:3.

  16 red] Pl. [a]: fierce.

  P1. 4.2–11 Solemn heave… murky atmosphere A volcano explodes. Its flames and red clouds gradually take the form of Orc.

  P1. 5.2, 6 the terror… The Spectre Epithets for Orc.

  P1. 6 Like the American Declaration of Independence, the speech on this plate promises life (11. 1–5), liberty (6–11) and the pursuit of happiness (12–15).

  2 Allusions to the scene at Christ’s resurrection.

  3–4 The bones of death… Reviving In Ezekiel 37:1–10 God makes dry bones into living men.

  15 Empire is no more Repeats the conclusion of ‘A Song of Liberty’, MHH, p. 195.

  P1. 7.3 Orc… serpent-form’d See Preludium 1.15. The Angel correctly perceives that Orc is the Serpent of Rebellion against the Law of the State and the Law of God. In Pl. 8.1, Orc is wreathed around the ‘accursed tree’ of Good and Evil.

  4–5 the gate of Enitharmon… Antichrist In Revelation 12:1–4, a dragon (Satan or Antichrist) stands ready to devour the child of the ‘woman clothed with the sun’.

  P1. 8.3 In B.’s reading of the Book of Exodus, the motive of the exodus was Liberty. This was perverted into Law when the Ten Commandments were issued during the wandering in the wilderness.

  8 To make the desarts blossom ‘The desert shall… blossom as the rose,’ Isaiah 35:1.

  10–14 pale religious letchery… defil’d These lines amalgamate phrases and ideas in MHH Proverb 53, ‘A Song of Liberty’ (Chorus), and VDA 1.9–10, 8.10.

  15–17 The fires purify humanity. B. combines the stories of Daniel unharmed in Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace (Dan. 3:25–7) and the King’s dream of an image with gold head, silver breast and arms, brass belly and thighs, and feet of clay (Dan. 2:32–3). Orc’s image is of noble metals without feet of clay.

  P1. 9.1–2 Albion’s Angel calls to arms.

  Thirteen Angels Minions of ideological repression in the colonies. But in 12.2–3 they relinquish authority and turn rebellious.

  P1. 10.6–10 Atlantean hills… Ariston See Dictionary of Proper Names.

  P1. 11.12–15 Boston’s Angel denounces the Church which preaches peace, pity and abstinence, but supports war, oppression and greed. Boston was a leading city in the pre-war opposition to English control.

  P1. 13.1–2 convene/In Bernard’s house Sir Francis Bernard, Governor of Massachusetts Bay 1760–69. This incident is B.’s invention.

  P1. 14.3–4 thunderous command… plagues obedient Satan and his followers are attacked by ‘thunders’ which inflict spiritual ‘plagues’ in Paradise Lost VI.836–8. Plagues are a common instrument of God’s wrath in the Old Testament.

  17 The fabled Atlantis was lost by flood; this might have happened to America also. Compare Psalm 124:2–4: ‘If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us: Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us: Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul.’

  20 the plagues recoil’d! As in Hosea 8:7, ‘They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.’ The spiritual attack, intended to demoralize the Americans, recoils to produce civil disaffection in England. See next note.

  P1. 15.1–15 the Pestilence began… shame & woe Actual conditions referred to include riots in Bristol and London, a high desertion rate, and the mental depression of George III, later to develop into insanity.

  16 the Bard of Albion William Whitehead, who as poet laureate (1757–85) wrote in defence of British policy.

  19 The doors of marriage are open The revolution brings sexual liberation also (cf. VDA, passim).

  26 a vine… the tender grape From the springtime image in Song of Solomon 2:13, ‘the vines with the tender grape’.

  P1. 16.2 Urizen The god of Reason and Law (see Dictionary of Proper Names). His snows are the propaganda of counter-revolutionary writers.

  14 twelve years The dates referred to are disputed among commentators. Possibly from 1777, the decisive defeat of Burgoyne and the endurance of Washington’s troops through the cruel winter of Valley Forge, to 1789, the fall of the Bastille.

  19 the five gates The five senses.

  20 blasting… mildews Two terms in the famous curse uttered in Deuteronomy 28:22.

  Europe

  Date of publication: 1794. Twelve copies of this illuminated book are known, ten without the prefatory ‘fairy’ poem. The metre is predominantly iambic septenary, but varied by free-verse lines of shorter length.

  Europe continues and extends the mythological mode of America. The poem takes place in a single ‘night’, in which the goddess ENITHARMON has dominion over her consort LOS and all their children. On earth this night is the 1800 years of spiritual error from the time of Christ to the advent of the French Revolution. Enitharmon’s dream – a poem within the poem – concentrates on the efforts of England to resist revolution. This t
akes up where America left off. At the conclusion, dawn comes and the inevitable final apocalypse approaches.

  Pl. iii.1 Five windows Five senses.

  6 stolen joys… pleasant ‘Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant’ is the invitation of the ‘foolish woman’ seductress in Proverbs 9:17.

  PRELUDIUM

  P1. 1.1–2.11 Nature in the Preludium laments her own endless but meaningless fertility. Her union with ORC (in America) has not yet brought redemption or transcendence for the world. She is forced to produce life, but all her creations exist in pain and mutual destruction, and even their natural vigour is thwarted by the doctrines of Enitharmon.

  A PROPHECY

  P1. 3.1–4 The birth of Christ (identified with Orc in this poem). The lines parallel and parody Milton’s ‘On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity’ in metre and theme. Milton celebrates the peace which descends on Nature, and the rout of paganism, at the nativity. B. acknowledges these events (1. 4) but to him it is a false dawn.

  7 Los, possessor of the moon The proper roles of the sexes are reversed. Los should be a vigorous sun-god. Here he is only Enitharmon’s consort, indulging in irresponsible hedonism.

  P1. 4.10–13 Arise O Orc… thou art bound Orc (Rebellion), son of Los and Enitharmon, has been ‘bound’ by his parents (the full story is in FZ v, pp. 59–62). The allusions are to Christ crucified. Thus, to crown him with garlands is a mockery; the ‘hour of bliss’ is blissful for Los, not Orc.

  P1. 6.5 Following the death of Christ, Enitharmon directs her sons to establish official Christianity, a religion in which female principles will dominate through the teaching of virgin-worship, repression of sexuality and promises of heaven for the passively virtuous.

  Pl. 9.6–Pl. 13.8 The ‘episode’ of Enitharmon’s dream, which in this world is historical reality for 1,800 years.

  P1. 9.8 Albions Angel smitten Takes up where America leaves off (c. 1780). Britain is responding to the American war and the threat of revolution.

  12 the council house; down rushing Parliament collapses.

  P1. 10.2–5 his ancient temple serpent-form’d… Verulam Conservative policy reverts to the ancient spirit of DRUIDISM, supposedly the archaic religion of England. In the following passage, B. describes a supposed Druid temple, then traces this religion to man’s fall from ‘the infinite’ into a finite material world.