The Complete Poems

by William Blake

  41–2] A list of spiritual, philosophical and poetic leaders, opposites of the kings. B. deleted 1. 42.

  54 Primrose Hill This was on the outskirts of London. B. told Crabb Robinson, 10 Dec. 1825, ‘I have conversed with the Spiritual Sun – I saw him on Primrose Hill.’

  P1. 74.24–6 In music, Blake preferred melody to harmony; in painting, clear outline to chiaroscuro; and in literature (or philosophy), vision of particulars rather than generalizing abstraction.

  28 Hyle roofd Los as Hayley patronizingly restricted Blake.

  30 Gog The defeat of Gog in the last days is prophesied in Ezekiel 38–9 and Revelation 20:8.

  41–57 how the Daughters… Cabul The separation of the twelve tribes of Israel from Albion, and the lands apportioned to each.

  54 Dinah… Erin Dinah was the one daughter of Jacob. As her lover Shechem was murdered by her brothers, so England ‘murdered’ Ireland’s faith by religious intolerance.

  Pl. 75.2 Merlin and Bladud are associated with King Arthur. Bladud was supposed to have founded Bath, practised magic, and died attempting to fly.

  3 The Cup Babylon’s ‘cup… full of abominations’ (Revelation 17:4).

  10–20 Twenty-seven Heavens… War See Dictionary of Proper Names. This list of successive erroneous religions leading towards apocalypse is adapted from M 37.35–43.

  CHAPTER 4

  This final chapter, prefaced by an address ‘To the Christians’, divides into two parts. The first (Pls. 78–93) depicts Los’s culminating struggles as he approaches the realization of his vision, and the Covering Cherub–Antichrist is revealed. The second (Pls. 94–9) brings the awakening of Albion, his reunion with Jesus, and the renewal of his full humanity. The episodes are:

  Pls. 78–80: While the Sons of Albion besiege Erin and Jerusalem, ruined Jerusalem laments, as does – surprisingly – triumphant Vala. Pls. 80–82: The turning-point of the poem comes as the seductive Daughters of Albion begin unwittingly to serve Los’s purposes.

  Pls. 83–8: Los, with renewed confidence, becomes a watchman of the night. As the Daughters of Albion create the allegory of Canaan, he makes it into divine analogy, planting seeds of future truth and beauty. He sees a vision of the true Jerusalem, and steadfastly continues his labours. At this point, however, his emanation, Enitharmon, rebels.

  Pl. 89: The apotheosis of the Covering Cherub, identified as Antichrist.

  Pls. 90–93: Destructive efforts continue by the Sons and Daughters of Albion, the Spectre of Los, and Enitharmon. But Los contends against them with increasing certitude.

  Pls. 94–5: Time finishes; Albion awakes and reunites with England–Britannia. Pl. 96: Albion meets Jesus in friendship, and as the Covering Cherub comes on, sacrifices himself for Jesus. At this moment, the nightmare of the poem ceases, for ‘all was a dream’. Pl. 97–9: A final description of regenerate Man.

  Pl. 77. (epigraph) 1 I give you the end of a golden string] From lines in the Notebook (p. 624).

  3–4 ‘Saul Saul’/‘Why persecutest thou me’ The words of Jesus in Saul’s vision on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:4). In the following argument, B. reminds nominal ‘Christians’ that they too are in need of conversion.

  (prose) 5 seed of a wild flower From the parable of the tares sown among the wheat, Matthew 13:24–30.

  19 What is that Talent From the parable of the talents, Matthew 25.

  20 What are the Treasures From Matthew 6:19–21.

  22 What are all the Gifts From Matthew 7:7–11.

  (poetry) 1 I stood among my valleys B. places himself in the south, or intellectual region. His vision contains a devouring wheel, implicitly opposed to the wheel of ‘living creatures’ in Ezekiel 1:16, 21.

  12 a Watcher… Holy-One From Daniel 4:13. John in Revelation similarly converses with angels.

  18 Caiaphas The high priest who condemned Jesus for blasphemy.

  31 Publicans & Harlots Jesus is several times in the Gospels named as friend of ‘publicans and sinners’ or ‘publicans and harlots’, for ‘They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick’ (Matthew 9:12). Publicans were Jewish tax-collectors for Rome, hence despised by their fellow-Jews.

  P1. 78. 12 Forty-two Gates of Erin A mistake? Ireland has thirty-two counties, as in Pl. 72.

  26 the Giants causway Headland composed of basalt columns in the north of Ireland.

  31 My brother and my father Albion is both brother and father to Jerusalem.

  God hath forsaken me Christ’s words on the cross: ‘My God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ (Matthew 27:46).

  32 arrows of the Almighty From Job 6:4.

  P1. 79 The lament of Jerusalem is that Albion and the Holy Land, once identical, have become divided and merely geographical places.

  68 Tell me O Vala thy purposes Jerusalem once again questions Vala–Nature’s separation of humanity into sexes.

  78 Wherefore then do you realize these nets Why do you make these nets (of sexuality) real, when they should be accepted as illusions.

  P1. 80. 3 I am a worm ‘I am a worm, and no man’ (Psalm 22:6).

  6–7 Vala… Lamenting We expect Vala to triumph. She laments (1) because she wishes Albion to remain ‘dead’, and fears he will be reborn; (2) she knows inwardly that her role of murderer is not her true role, and hopes, unconsciously, for a return to Eternity.

  16 My Father Luvah is both father and beloved of Vala.

  27 I… keep his body Vala keeps Albion’s body.

  35–6 To weave Jerusalem… A Dragon form Vala hopes to clothe Jerusalem in War, thus creating ‘a dragon red and hidden harlot’ – another Church for men to worship.

  51–2 Rahab… Refusd to take a definite form Rahab refused to reveal, openly, what she was.

  57 Skiddaws top A mountain in the Lake District.

  61 Drawing out fibre by fibre Cambel is (1) alluring Hand; (2) using his substance as thread for her loom.

  82 the Wine-press of Luvah At once Love and War. It presses the juice from ‘human grapes’ in FZ IX.

  P1. 81.2 Merlin the piteous Merlin was undone by love of a woman, Vivian.

  8 is the Cruel become an Infant The female will seeks to reduce Man to infantile dependence.

  11 Josephs beautiful integument (1) His coat of many colours; (2) his skin.

  my Beloved Hyle.

  P1. 82.17 So saying she took a Falsehood The design for Pl. 81 shows the nude Gwendolen pointing to the following lines in mirror-writing while holding her left hand behind her:

  In Heaven the only Art of Living

  Is Forgetting & Forgiving

  Especially to the Female

  But if you on Earth Forgive

  You shall not find where to Live.

  29 But hide America America represents potential liberty.

  33 the Friend of Sinners Epithet for Jesus, here applied to Jerusalem.

  34 close up her… Ark Make Jerusalem chaste by force, so that Man, sexually (and spiritually) frustrated, will exhaust himself in War.

  43] All copies give ‘hands’ twice in this line, but the sense is clear. In the Song of Solomon 7:4, ‘Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fish-pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath–Rabbin.’ Gwendolen makes the song of love into a song of crucifixion of her lover Hyle.

  44 ‘O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother!… Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm’ (Song of Solomon 8: 1, 6).

  47 And Hyle a winding Worm At this crucial point in the poem, female will is shown to be ultimately self-defeating. The winding worm is (1) a further degeneration of helpless infancy – Gwendolen’s wish has come true, as in fairy tales, beyond her intention; (2) the phallic worm; (3) the devouring worm. Gwendolen’s ‘perfect’ beauty (1. 50) is now useless to her, and the entire episode – reduction of ‘warrior’ to ‘worm’ – recalls Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. But instead of a tragic close, this metamorphosis will bring the possibility of genuine love to the Daughters of Albion.


  56–7 Here begins a turn for the better. Los’s wrath gives him new strength. In the following passages the Daughters of Albion begin despite themselves to serve Los’s redemptive purposes.

  59 Billingsgate The London fish-market, famous for foul and abusive language; also a term for foul, vituperative language itself. Thus: Blake–Los is angry at Cambel and releases a ‘blast’ of Billingsgate at her.

  81–2 I know… I can at will expatiate Los knows that in his eternal form he can (1) wander freely; (2) speak or write freely.

  P1. 83.5 I shall become an Infant… Enion! Tharmas! Los feels he is in danger of losing his strength and vision. In FZ Los and Enitharmon, in their fall, entered the world of Generation as the infant children of Tharmas and Enion.

  9–13 Sussex… Hants, Devon & Wilts… Mystery Sussex rejects the unwed mother. Los demands that the other three counties (supposed Druid sites) must make definite forms for the cruelties of Vala and Luvah, nailing them to their own error as they have sacrificed other victims.

  34–7 The indefinite and always changing form of this earth, believed at some times to be the centre of the universe, at other times to be a globe in space, and at still others to be flat. The appearances alter as mortal perceptions – controlled by the Daughters of Albion – alter. But realities are permanent.

  51 the old Parent Father Thames; perhaps Tharmas, as in FZ.

  59 the Tribes of Llewellyn The Welsh.

  61 The night falls thick Possibly an echo of Macbeth III.ii.50–51: ‘Light thickens, and the crow/Makes wing to th’ rooky wood.’ Los now becomes Watchman of London as Ezekiel was made ‘watchman unto the house of Israel’ (3:17). Like the watchman of God in Isaiah 21:9, he will ultimately see that ‘Babylon is fallen, is fallen’.

  76–7 Putting on his golden sandals… girding himself In Acts 12:8 an angel frees the Apostle Peter from prison, saying, ‘Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals… and follow me.’

  82 the Dogs of Leutha The Isle of Dogs in the Thames; the dogs of Diana, the virgin huntress, which destroyed Actaeon. Here they seem tame.

  P1. 84.31–Pl. 85.9 they took the Falshood… in the Space See 82.17. The Daughters of Albion, still hoping to subdue their threatening male counterparts, unintentionally imitate the protective activities usually performed by Daughters of Beulah and by Enitharmon. (In M 8.39–44, Enitharmon creates a space for Satan and Michael and ‘clos’d it with a tender moon’.) The Space created by the Daughters is an ‘Allegory’ – a theological lie. But Los uses this falsehood to plant seeds of truth. Thus: the idea of a ‘Chosen People’ is based on a ‘Jealous God’. This is a falsehood. Yet from this falsehood springs the truth of the Gospels.

  85.22 O lovely mild Jerusalem! Los now sees the ‘New Jerusalem’ of Revelation 21–2.

  P1. 86.1 Six Wings From Isaiah 6:2.

  4 Holiness to the Lord From the description of Aaron’s sacred vestments (Exodus 28). These words were graved on a gold plate for his brow. Jerusalem’s immortal gems, gold & azure & purple, and bells are also from Aaron’s vestments. Gates of pearl are from Revelation 21:21.

  18 The River of Life & Tree of Life From Revelation 22:1–2.

  19 ‘And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband’ (Revelation 21:2).

  32 Javan Progenitor of the inhabitants of Greece (Genesis 10:2).

  50 On the verge of realizing his vision, Los must contend with a final obstacle: the rebellion of his own emanation. This episode (Pls. 86–8, 92–3) recapitulates the division and jealousies between Los and Enitharmon developed in B.’s earlier works, notably BU and FZ, where the division formed a part of Man’s original Fall. Here, however, the rebellion of Ehitharmon comes at the end of history instead of the beginning, and is the final sexual split which precipitates the coming of Antichrist.

  P1. 86.62–Pl. 87.2 In FZ 1. Pp.8–9, Enion gives birth to Los and Enitharmon, who then repel her, as here.

  P1. 88.23 Sussex shore Felpham, where Blake and Catherine lived under Hayley’s patronage.

  56 Jerusalem took the Cup The ‘cup of abominations’ in Revelation 17:4, held by Vala in f 63.39 and Rahab in f 75.3. Jerusalem is about to poison herself.

  58 Hermaphroditic Self-contradictory, barren.

  P1. 89.4 Love & Wrath These are contraries and should be opposed. When united in the ‘Wine-press’ of false religion, both are meaningless.

  6–7 Pharisaion… Saddusaion Pharisees, scribes, elders, high priest, priest, sadducees.

  9 the Covering Cherub The whole ruling body of the old Church, just catalogued, and identified as Antichrist. The ensuing description of his head, heart and loins is in perverse parallel to the vision of Jerusalem (Pl. 86). For the sexual symbolism of the Covering Cherub, see Dictionary of Proper Names.

  13 In three nights Three nights between Crucifixion and Resurrection.

  15 Gihon One of the four rivers of Paradise; identified with the ‘perverted Nile’ here. The other rivers are Pison-Arnon (1. 25), Hiddekel–Tigris (1. 35), and Euphrates (1. 38).

  19 the Dragon Pharaoh is a river dragon in Ezekiel 29:3.

  21 Twelve ridges of Stone Twelve lines on the Covering Cherub’s brow, one for each of the twelve tribes and twelve Sons of Albion, compose a Druid temple.

  33–4 The power of the Covering Cherub spreads north around the rim of the Mediterranean, thence to Europe.

  43 The Holy City absorbed and hidden by the Covering Cherub as if devoured.

  46 Seven Kings… Five Baalim For the number of Canaanite tribes, and of Philistine towns, opposing Israel. Baalim, ‘idols’.

  47 Legendary giants of Canaan.

  55 Horeb Sinai, the site of the Law.

  57 Midian Tribe named for a son of Abraham. Aram Syria.

  58 Alla A region of Ulro.

  P1. 90 The Sons and Daughters of Albion are seen once again at their destructive work, dividing the tribes of Israel from their rightful places in Albion.

  25 Reuben… Surrey An error? Reuben (16.44) belongs in Suffolk, not Surrey.

  28–37 A complex and condensed argument. Universal attributes or characteristics (such as womanliness or lordship) belong to no single individual but to Man. Private persons who consider themselves as self-sufficient units, rather than as members of a Universal Man or Divine Body, are ‘Blasphemous Selfhoods’. The notion of Christ’s incarnation through virgin birth is both blasphemous and barren. For Jesus, born of impure woman, is another potential egocentric Satan or selfhood. His divinity consists in casting off his selfhood, not in lacking it.

  38 Come Lord Jesus The last cry of the New Testament, Revelation 22:21: ‘Even so, come, Lord Jesus.’

  take on… Body of Holiness Jesus is to take on a Satanic form, as a garment to shed and a burden to be put off.

  58 Giants of Albion Sons of Albion.

  59 rocking Stones Natural rock formations in which a large broad rock balances on a narrow one. B. associates them with the Druid trilithons.

  62 a Circle in Malden or in Strathness or Dura Malden has some prehistoric remains, though no stone circles. Strathness, the valley of Loch Ness, is near stone circles at Muir of Ord and Cononbridge. Dura, an island off Scotland, has rocky caves.

  P1. 91.7–10 the Worship of God… there is no other/God Adapted from MHH Pl. 29. But the new definition of God as ‘the intellectual fountain of humanity’ alters the meaning radically.

  32 The Spectre The spectre of Los. His ‘buildings’ are last-gasp rationalizations of the status quo, and Los destroys them.

  32–3 Heavens/Like to a curtain From Psalm 104:2.

  34 Smaragdine Table of Hermes A famous text in occult tradition and alchemy. B. apparently rejects occultism as too materialistic.

  38–9 Leviathan… Behemoth The great sea-monster and land-monster of Job 40:15, 41:1; associated in two paintings of B.’s 1809 exhibition, and in the job engravings, with Nelson and Pitt.

  50 every Ratio of his Reason Every syst
ematic rationale.

  Pl. 92.1 What do I see? The following vision is one of unification of nations within Albion, instead of division and dispersion.

  12 Then thou wilt Create another Female Eve’s fear in Paradise Lost IX.826–9 is similar.

  15–17 Los promises that the crimes, punishments, accusations, jealousies, revenges, murders and deceits of present life – the major facts of life – will in Eternity become things merely to be imagined or recalled as a caution.

  P1. 93 The design here shows three Accusers crouching and pointing. Their bodies bear the inscription: ‘Anytus Melitus & Lycon thought Socrates a Very Pernicious Man. So Caiphas thought Jesus’.

  1–16 Enitharmon selfishly pleads with her sons. She wants them to love her alone.

  5 Ocalythron & Elynittria Emanations of Rintrah and Palamabron.

  6East Moor… Cheviot Both part of the highlands of England which run north to south and ‘divide’ the country.

  8 Reuben… Mandrakes Reuben gave his mother, Leah, mandrakes to make her attractive to Jacob.

  10 Rintrahs Plow… Satans… Team In the Bard’s Song in M Pls. 7–8 Satan usurped Palamabron’s harrow. This is either the same story mis-remembered, or a similar one.

  17–26 Los makes a counter-argument, as in M 23.32, where he similarly tries to reassure his sons.

  26 that Signal of the Morning The darkest hour is just before the dawn. In Revelation the appearance of all the forces of evil in their strength – Satan, the Beast and Babylon – immediately precedes the Second Coming of Christ in glory.

  27 Mam-Tor The peak in Derbyshire whence Los denounced female will (30.41).

  Pl. 94.5 The weeds of Death Seaweed; shrouds.

  18 Time was Finished! The sounding of the seventh trumpet in Revelation 10:6 announces that there is ‘time no longer’, and the remainder of the book occurs outside of time.

  20 England who is Brittannia ‘Brittannia’ is the conventional female personification, as in Thomson’s ‘Rule Britannia’ (1740), ‘England’ her guiding portion.

  Pl. 95.10 The Four Elements Albion’s Four Zoas (11. 16–20).

  P1. 96.35 Albion at last sacrifices himself for his friend Jesus, and the nightmare of history is finished immediately.