The Portable William Blake (37 page)

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Authors: William Blake

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Slept as a bird in the blue shell that soon shall burst away.
[THE SONG SUNG AT THE FEAST OF LOS AND ENITHARMON]
And This is the Song sung at The Feast of Los & Enitharmon :
 
“Ephraim
call’d
out to Zion:
‘Awake, O Brother Mountainl
Let us refuse the Plow & Spade, the heavy Roller & spiked
Harrow; bum all these Corn fields, throw down all these fences!
Fatten’d on Human blood & drunk with wine of life is better far
Than all these labours of the harvest & the vintage. See the river,
Red with the blood of Men, swells lustful round my rocky knees;
My clouds are not the clouds of verdant fields & groves of fruit,
But Clouds of Human Souls: my nostrils drink the lives of Men.’
 
“The Villages lament: they faint, outstretch’d upon the plain.
Wailing runs round the Valleys from the Mill & from the Barn.
But most the polish’d Palaces, dark, silent, bow with dread,
Hiding their books & pictures underneath the dens of Earth.
 
“The Cities send to one another saying: ‘My sons are Mad
With wine of cruelty. Let us plat a scourge, 0 Sister City.
Children are nourish’d for the Slaughter; once the Child was fed
With Milk, but wherefore now are Children fed with blood?
 
“The Horse is of more value than the Man. The Tyger fierce
Laughs at the Human form; the Lion mocks & thirsts for blood.
They cry, ‘O Spider, spread thy web! Enlarge thy bones &, fill’d
With marrow, sinews & flesh, Exalt thyself, attain a voice.
 
“ ‘Call to thy dark arm’d hosts; for all the sons of Men muster together
To desolate their cities! Man shall be no morel Awake, O Hostsl’
The bow string sang upon the hills, ‘Luvah & Vala ride
Triumphant in the bloody sky, & the Human form is no more.’
 
“The list’ning Stars heard, & the first beam of the morning started back:
He cried out to his Father ‘depart ! depart!’ but sudden Siez’d,
And clad in steel, & his Horse proudly neigh’d; he smelt the battle
Afar off. Rushing back, redd’ning with rage, the Mighty Father
Siez’d his bright sheephook studded with gems & gold; he swung it round
His head, shrill sounding in the sky; down rush’d the Sun with noise
Of war; the Mountains fled away; they sought a place beneath.”
[THE MUNDANE SHELL]
Urizen rose from the bright Feast like a star thro’ the evening sky,
Exulting at the voice that call’d him from the Feast of envy.
First he beheld the body of Man, pale, cold; the horrors of death
Beneath his feet shot thro’ him as he stood in the Human Brain,
And all its golden porches grew pale with his sickening light,
No more exulting, for he saw Eternal Death beneath.
Pale, he beheld futurity: pale, he beheld the Abyss
Where Enion, blind & age bent, wept in direful hunger craving,
All rav’ning like the hungry worm & like the silent grave.
Mighty was the draught of Voidness to draw Existence in.
 
Terrific Urizen strode above in fear & pale dismay.
He saw the indefinite space beneath & his soul shrunk with horror,
His feet upon the verge of Non Existence; his voice went forth:
 
Luvah & Vala trembling & shrinking beheld the great Work master
And heard his Word: “Divide, ye bands, influence by influence.
Build we a Bower for heaven’s darling in the grizly deep:
Build we the Mundane Shell around the Rock of Albion.”
 
The Bands of Heaven flew thro’ the air singing & shouting to Urizen.
Some fix’d the anvil, some the loom erected, some the plow
And harrow form’d & fram’d the harness of silver & ivory,
The golden compasses, the quadrant, & the rule & balance.
They erected the furnaces, they form’d the anvils of gold beaten in mills
Where winter beats incessant, fixing them firm on then base.
The bellows began to blow, & the Lions of Urizen stood round the anvil
And the leopards cover’d with skins of beasts tended the roaring fires,
Sublime, distinct, their lineaments divine of human beauty.
The tygers of wrath called the horses of instruction from their mangers,
They unloos’d them & put on the harness of gold & silver & ivory,
In human forms distinct they stood round Urizen, prince of Light,
Petrifying all the Human Imagination into rock & sand.
Groans ran along Tyburn’s brook and along the River of Oxford
Among the Druid Temples. Albion groan’d on Tyburn’s brook:
Albion gave his loud death groan. The Atlantic Mountains trembled.
Aloft the Moon fled with a cry: the Sun with streams of blood.
From Albion’s Loins fled all Peoples and Nations of the Earth,
Fled with the noise of Slaughter, & the stars of heaven fled.
Jerusalem came down in a dire ruin over all the Earth, She fell cold from Lambeth’s Vales in groans & dewy death—
The dew of anxious souls, the death-sweat of the dying—
In every pillar’d hall & arched roof of Albion’s skies.
The brother & the brother bathe in blood upon the Severn,
The Maiden weeping by. The father & the mother with
The Maiden’s father & her mother fainting over the body,
And the Young Man, the Murderer, fleeing over the mountains.
[URIZEN’S WORK]
With trembling horror pale, aghast the Children of Man
Stood on the infinite Earth & saw these visions in the air,
In waters & in earth beneath; they cried to one another,
“What! are we terrors to one another? Come, O brethren, wherefore
Was this wide Earth spread all abroad? not. for wild beasts to roam.”
But many stood silent, & busied in their families.
And many said, “We see no Visions in the darksom air.
Measure the course of that sulphur orb that lights the darksom day;
Set stations on this breeding Earth & let us buy & sell.”
Others arose & schools erected, forming Instruments
To measure out the course of heaven. Stem Urizen beheld
In woe his brethren & his sons, in dark’ning woe lamenting
Upon the winds in clouds involv’d, Uttering his voice in thunders,
Commanding all the work with care & power & severity.
 
Then seiz’d the Lions of Urizen their work, & heated in the forge
Roar the bright masses; thund’ring beat the hammers, many a pyramid
Is form’d & thrown down thund’ring into the deeps of Non Entity.
Heated red hot they, hizzing, rend their way down many a league
Till resting, each his basement finds; suspended there they stand
Casting their sparkles dire abroad into the dismal deep.
For, measur’d out in order’d spaces, the Sons of Urizen
With compasses divide the deep; they the strong scales erect
That Luvah rent from the faint Heart of the Fallen Man,
And weigh the massy Cubes, then fix them in their awful stations.
 
And all the time, in Caverns shut, the golden Looms erected
First spun, then wove the Atmospheres; there the Spider & Worm
Plied the wing’d shuttle, piping shrill thro’ all the list’n-ing threads;
Beneath the Caverns roll the weights of lead & spindles of iron,
The enormous warp & woof rage direful in the affrighted deep.
 
While far into the vast unknown the strong wing’d Eagles bend
Their venturous flight in Human forms distinct; thro’ darkness deep
They bear the woven draperies; on golden hooks they hang abroad
The universal curtains & spread out from Sun to Sun
The vehicles of light; they separate the furious particles
Into mild currents as the water mingles with the wine.
 
While thus the Spirits of strongest wing enlighten the dark deep,
The threads are spun & the cords twisted & drawn out; then the weak
Begin their work, & many a net is netted, many a net
Spread, & many a Spirit caught: innumerable the nets,
Innumerable the gins & traps, & many a soothing flute
Is form’d, & many a corded lyre outspread over the immense.
 
In cruel delight they trap the listeners, & in cruel delight
Bind them, condensing the strong energies into little compass.
Some became seed of every plant that shall be planted; some
The bulbous roots, thrown up together into barns & garners.
Then rose the Builders. First the Architect divine his plan
Unfolds. The wondrous scaffold rear’d all round the infinite,
Quadrangular the building rose, the heavens squared by a line,
Trigons & cubes divide the elements in finite bonds.
Multitudes without number work incessant: the hewn stone
Is plac’d in beds of mortar mingled with the ashes of Vala.
Severe the labour; female slaves the mortar trod oppressed.
 
Twelve halls after the names of his twelve sons compos’ d
The wondrous building, & three Central Domes after the Names
Of his three daughters were encompass’d by the twelve bright halls.
Every hall surrounded by bright Paradises of Delight
In which were towns & Cities, Nations, Seas, Mountains & Rivers.
Each Dome open’d toward four halls, & the Three Domes Encompass’d
The Golden Hall of Urizen, whose western side glow’d bright
With ever streaming fires beaming from his awful limbs.
His Shadowy Feminine Semblance here repos’d on a White Couch,
Or hover’d over his starry head; & when he smil’d she brighten’d
Like a bright Cloud in harvest; but when Urizen frown’d she wept
In mists over his carved throne; & when he turned his back
Upon his Golden hall & sought the Labyrinthine porches
Of his wide heaven, Trembling, cold, in jealous fears she sat
A shadow of Despair; therefore toward the West, Urizen form’d
A recess in the wall for fires to glow upon the pale
Female’s limbs in his absence, & her Daughters oft upon
A Golden Altar burnt perfumes: with Art Celestial form’d
Foursquare, sculptur’d & sweetly Engrav’d to please their shadowy mother.
Ascending into her misty garments the blue smoke roll’d to revive
Her cold limbs in the absence of her Lord. Also her sons,
With lives of Victims sacrificed upon an altar of brass
On the East side, Reviv’d her soul with lives of beasts & birds
Slain on the Altar, up ascending into her cloudy bosom.
Of terrible workmanship the Altar, labour of ten thousand Slaves,
One thousand Men of wondrous power spent their lives in its formation.
It stood on twelve steps nam’d after the names of her twelve sons,
And was erected at the chief entrance of Urizen’s hall.
But infinitely beautiful the wondrous work arose
In sorrow and care, a Golden World whose porches round the heavens
And pillar’d halls & rooms reciev’d the eternal wandering stars.
A wondrous golden Building, many a window, many a door
And many a division let in & out the vast unknown.
Circled in infinite orb immoveable, within its walls & cielings
The heavens were clos’d, and spirits mourn’d their bondage night & day,
And the Divine Vision appear’d in Luvah’s robes of blood.
 
Thus was the Mundane shell builded by Urizen’s strong Power.
[THE SONG OF ENITHARMON OVER LOS]
“I sieze the sphery harp. I strike the strings.
 
“At the first sound the Golden sun arises from the deep
And shakes his awful hair,
The Eccho wakes the moon to unbind her silver locks,
The golden sun bears on my song
And nine bright spheres of harmony rise round the fiery king.
 
“The joy of woman is the death of her most best beloved
Who dies for Love of her
In torments of fierce jealousy & pangs of adoration.
The Lovers’ night bears on my song
And the nine spheres rejoice beneath my powerful controll.
 
“They sing unceasing to the notes of my immortal hand.
The solemn, silent moon
Reverberates the living harmony upon my limbs,
The birds & beasts rejoice & play,
And every one seeks for his mate to prove his inmost joy.
 
“Furious & terrible they sport & red the nether deep;
The deep lifts up his rugged head,
And lost in infinite humming wings vanishes with a cry.
The fading cry is ever dying,
The living voice is ever living in its inmost joy.
 
“Arise, you little glancing wings & sing your infant joy!
Arise & drink your bliss!
For every thing that lives is holy; for the source of life
Descends to be a weeping babe;
For the Earthworm renews the moisture of the sandy plain.
 
“Now my left hand I stretch to earth beneath,
And strike the terrible string.
I wake sweet joy in dens of sorrow & I plant a smile
In forests of affliction,
And wake the bubbling springs of life in regions of dark death.
 
“O, I am weary ! lay thine hand upon me or I faint,
I faint beneath these beams of thine,
For thou hast touch’d my five senses & they answer’d thee.
Now I am nothing, & I sink
And on the bed of silence sleep till thou awakest me.”

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