Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (160 page)

In childhood what wert thou? unutterable anguish! Conwenna

Thy cradled infancy is most piteous. O hide, O hide!

Their secret gardens were made paths to the traveller:

I knew not of their secret loves with those I hated most,

Nor that their every thought was Sin & secret appetite[.]

Hyle sees in fear, he howls in fury over them, Hand sees

In jealous fear: in stern accusation with cruel stripes

30
 
He drives them thro’ the Streets of Babylon before my face:

Because they taught Luvah to rise into my clouded heavens

Battersea and Chelsea mourn for Cambel & Gwendolen!

Hackney and Holloway sicken for Estrild & Ignoge!

Because the Peak, Malvern & Cheviot Reason in Cruelty

Penmaenmawr & Dhinas-bran Demonstrate in Unbelief

Manchester & Liverpool are in tortures of Doubt & Despair

Malden & Colchester Demonstrate: I hear my Childrens voices

I see their piteous faces gleam out upon the cruel winds

From Lincoln & Norwich, from Edinburgh & Monmouth:

40
 
I see them distant from my bosom scourgd along the roads

Then lost in clouds; I hear their tender voices! clouds divide

I see them die beneath the whips of the Captains! they are taken

In solemn pomp into Chaldea across the bredths of Europe

Six months they lie embalmd in silent death: worshipped

Carried in Arks of Oak before the armies in the spring

Bursting their Arks they rise again to life: they play before

The Armies: I hear their loud cymbals & their deadly cries

Are the Dead cruel? are those who are infolded in moral Law

Revengeful? O that Death & Annihilation were the same!

50
 
Then Vala answerd spreading her scarlet Veil over Albion

PLATE 22

Albion thy fear has made me tremble; thy terrors have surrounded me

Thy Sons have naild me on the Gates piercing my hands & feet:

Till Skofields Nimrod the mighty Huntsman [of] Jehovah came,

With Cush his Son & took me down. He in a golden Ark,

Bears me before his Armies tho my shadow hovers here

The flesh of multitudes fed & nourisd me in my childhood

My morn & evening food were prepard in Battles of Men

Great is the cry of the Hounds of Nimrod along the Valley

Of Vision, they scent the odor of War in the Valley of Vision.

10
 
All Love is lost! terror succeeds & Hatred instead of Love

And stern demands of Right & Duty instead of Liberty

Once thou wast to me the loveliest Son of heaven; but now

Where shall I hide from thy dread countenance & searching eyes

I have looked into the secret Soul of him I loved

And in the dark recesses found Sin & can never return.

Albion again utterd his voice beneath the silent Moon

I brought Love into light of day to pride in chaste beauty

I brought Love into light & fancied Innocence is no more

Then spoke Jerusalem O Albion! my Father Albion

20
 
Why wilt thou number every little fibre of my Soul

Spreading them out before the Sun like stalks of flax to dry?

The Infant Joy is beautiful, but its anatomy

Horrible ghast & deadly! nought shalt thou find in it

But dark despair & everlasting brooding melancholy!

Then Albion turnd his face toward Jerusalem & spoke

Hide thou Jerusalem in impalpable voidness, not to be

Touchd by the hand nor seen with the eye: O Jerusalem

Would thou wert not & that thy place might never be found

But come O Vala with knife & cup: drain my blood

30
 
To the last drop! then hide me in thy Scarlet Tabernacle

For I see Luvah whom I slew. I behold him in my Spectre

As I behold Jerusalem in thee O Vala dark and cold

Jerusalem then stretchd her hand toward the Moon & spoke

Why should Punishment Weave the Veil with Iron Wheels of War

When Forgiveness might it Weave with Wings of Cherubim

Loud groand Albion from mountain to mountain & replied

PLATE 23

Jerusalem! Jerusalem! deluding shadow of Albion!

Daughter of my phantasy! unlawful pleasure! Albions curse!

I came here with intention to annihilate thee! But

My soul is melted away, inwoven within the Veil

Hast thou again knitted the Veil of Vala, which I for thee

Pitying rent in ancient times. I see it whole and more

Perfect, and shining with beauty! But thou! O wretched Father!

Jerusalem reply’d, like a voice heard from a sepulcher:

Father! once piteous! Is Pity a Sin? Embalm’d in Vala’s bosom

10
 
In an Eternal Death for Albions sake, our best beloved.

Thou art my Father & my Brother: Why hast thou hidden me,

Remote from the divine Vision: my Lord and Saviour.

Trembling stood Albion at her words in jealous dark despair:

He felt that Love and Pity are the same; a soft repose!

Inward complacency of Soul: a Self-annihilation!

I have erred! I am ashamed! and will never return more:

I have taught my children sacrifices of cruelty: what shall I answer?

I will hide it from Eternals! I will give myself for my Children!

Which way soever I turn, I behold Humanity and Pity!

20
 
He recoil’d: he rush’d outwards; he bore the Veil whole away

His fires redound from his Dragon Altars in Errors returning.

He drew the Veil of Moral Virtue, woven for Cruel Laws,

And cast it into the Atlantic Deep, to catch the Souls of the Dead.

He stood between the Palm tree & the Oak of weeping

Which stand upon the edge of Beulah; and there Albion sunk

Down in sick pallid languor! These were his last words, relapsing!

Hoarse from his rocks, from caverns of Derbyshire & Wales

And Scotland, utter’d from the Circumference into Eternity.

Blasphemous Sons of Feminine delusion! God in the dreary Void

30
 
Dwells from Eternity, wide separated from the Human Soul

But thou deluding Image by whom imbu’d the Veil I rent

Lo here is Valas Veil whole, for a Law, a Terror & a Curse!

And therefore God takes vengeance on me: from my clay-cold bosom

My children wander trembling victims of his Moral Justice.

His snows fall on me and cover me, while in the Veil I fold

My dying limbs. Therefore O Manhood, if thou art aught

But a meer Phantasy, hear dying Albions Curse!

May God who dwells in this dark Ulro & voidness, vengeance take,

And draw thee down into this Abyss of sorrow and torture,

40
 
Like me thy Victim. O that Death & Annihilation were the same!

PLATE 24

What have I said? What have I done? O all-powerful Human Words:

You recoil back upon me in the blood of the Lamb slain in his Children.

Two bleeding Contraries equally true, are his Witnesses against me

We reared mighty Stones: we danced naked around them:

Thinking to bring Love into light of day, to Jerusalems shame:

Displaying our Giant limbs to all the winds of heaven! Sudden

Shame siezd us, we could not look on one-another for abhorrence: the Blue

Of our immortal Veins & all their Hosts fled from our Limbs,

And wanderd distant in a dismal Night clouded & dark:

10
 
The Sun fled from the Britons forehead: the Moon from his mighty loins:

Scandinavia fled with all his mountains filld with groans.

O what is Life & what is Man. O what is Death! Wherefore

Are you my Children, natives in the Grave to where I go

Or are you born to feed the hungry ravenings of Destruction

To be the sport of Accident! to waste in Wrath & Love, a weary

Life, in brooding cares & anxious labours, that prove but chaff.

O Jerusalem Jerusalem I have forsaken thy Courts

Thy Pillars of ivory & gold: thy Curtains of silk & fine

Linen: thy Pavements of precious stones: thy Walls of pearl

20
 
And gold, thy Gates of Thanksgiving thy Windows of Praise:

Thy Clouds of Blessing; thy Cherubims of Tender-mercy

Stretching their Wings sublime over the Little-ones of Albion[.]

O Human Imagination O Divine Body I have Crucified

I have turned my back upon thee into the Wastes of Moral Law:

There Babylon is builded in the Waste, founded in Human desolation.

O Babylon thy Watchman stands over thee in the night

Thy severe Judge all the day long proves thee O Babylon

With provings of destruction, with giving thee thy hearts desire.

But Albion is cast forth to the Potter his Children to the Builders

30
 
To build Babylon because they have forsaken Jerusalem

The Walls of Babylon are Souls of Men: her Gates the Groans

Of Nations; her Towers are the Miseries of once happy Families.

Her Streets are paved with Destruction, her Houses built with Death

Her Palaces with Hell & the Grave; her Synagogues with Torments

Of ever-hardening Despair squard & polishd with cruel skill

Yet thou wast lovely as the summer cloud upon my hills

When Jerusalem was thy hearts desire in times of youth & love.

Thy Sons came to Jerusalem with gifts, she sent them away

With blessings on their hands & on their feet, blessings of gold,

40
 
And pearl & diamond: thy Daughters sang in her Courts:

They came up to Jerusalem; they walked before Albion

In the Exchanges of London every Nation walkd

And London walkd in every Nation mutual in love & harmony

Albion coverd the whole Earth, England encompassd the Nations,

Mutual each within others bosom in Visions of Regeneration;

Jerusalem coverd the Atlantic Mountains & the Erythrean,

From bright Japan & China to Hesperia France & England.

Mount Zion lifted his head in every Nation under heaven:

And the Mount of Olives was beheld over the whole Earth:

50
 
The footsteps of the Lamb of God were there: but now no more

No more shall I behold him, he is closd in Luvahs Sepulcher.

Yet why these smitings of Luvah, the gentlest mildest Zoa?

If God was Merciful this could not be: O Lamb of God

Thou art a delusion and Jerusalem is my Sin! O my Children

I have educated you in the crucifying cruelties of Demonstration

Till you have assum’d the Providence of God & slain your Father

Dost thou appear before me who liest dead in Luvahs Sepulcher

Dost thou forgive me! thou who wast Dead & art Alive?

Look not so merciful upon me O thou Slain Lamb of God

60
 
I die! I die in thy arms tho Hope is banishd from me.

Thundring the Veil rushes from his hand Vegetating Knot by

Knot, Day by Day, Night by Night; loud roll the indignant Atlantic

Waves & the Erythrean, turning up the bottoms of the Deeps

PLATE 25

And there was heard a great lamenting in Beulah: all the Regions

Of Beulah were moved as the tender bowels are moved: & they said:

Why did you take Vengeance O ye Sons of the mighty Albion?