Plate 7

but when he [Los' spectre] saw that Los

(PLATE 7)
Was living: panting like a frighted wolf, and howling
He stood over the Immortal, in the solitude and darkness:
Upon the darkning Thames, across the whole Island westward.
A horrible Shadow of Death, among the Furnaces: beneath
The pillar of folding smoke; + by arguments of science & 

by terrors:
Terrors in every Nerve, by spasms & extended pains:
While Los answer'd unterrified to the opake blackening Fiend

And thus the Spectre spoke: Wilt thou still go on to destruction?
Till thy life is all taken away by this deceitful Friendship?    
He drinks thee up like water! like wine he pours thee
Into his tuns: thy Daughters are trodden in his vintage
He makes thy Sons the trampling of his bulls, they are plow'd
And harrowd for his profit, lo! thy stolen Emanation
Is his garden of pleasure! all the Spectres of his Sons mock thee
Look how they scorn thy once admired palaces! now in ruins
Because of Albion! because of deceit and friendship! For Lo!
Hand has peopled Babel & Nineveh: Hyle, Ashur & Aram:
Cobans son is Nimrod: his son Cush is adjoind to Aram,
By the Daughter of Babel, in a woven mantle of pestilence & war. 
They put forth their spectrous cloudy sails; which drive their
     immense
Constellations over the deadly deeps of indefinite Udan-Adan
Kox is the Father of Shem & Ham & Japheth, he is the Noah
Of the Flood of Udan-Adan. Hutn is the Father of the Seven
From Enoch to Adam; Schofield is Adam who was New-               
Created in Edom. I saw it indignant, & thou art not moved!
This has divided thee in sunder: and wilt thou still forgive?
O! thou seest not what I see! what is done in the Furnaces.
Listen, I will tell thee what is done in moments to thee unknown: 

- 149 -

Luvah was cast into the Furnaces of 

affliction and sealed,       
And Vala fed in cruel delight, the 

Furnaces with fire:
Stern Urizen beheld; urgd by 

necessity to keep
The evil day afar, and if perchance 

with iron power
He might avert his own despair: in 

woe & fear he saw
Vala incircle round the Furnaces 

where Luvah was clos'd:         
With joy she heard his howlings, 

& forgot he was her Luvah,
With whom she liv'd in bliss in 

times of innocence & youth!
Vala comes from the Furnace in a 

cloud, but wretched Luvah
Is howling in the Furnaces, in 

flames among Albions Spectres,
To prepare the Spectre of Albion to reign over thee O Los,       
Forming the Spectres of Albion according to his rage:
To prepare the Spectre sons of Adam, who is Scofield: the Ninth
Of Albions sons, & the father of all his brethren in the Shadowy
Generation. Cambel & Gwendolen wove webs of war & of
Religion, to involve all Albions sons, and when they had         
Involv'd Eight; their webs roll'd outwards into darkness
And Scofield the Ninth remaind on the outside of the Eight
And Kox, Kotope, & Bowen, One in him, a Fourfold Wonder
Involv'd the Eight--Such are the Generations of the Giant Albion,
To separate a Law of Sin, to punish thee in thy members.         

Los answer'd. Altho' I know not this! I know far worse than this:
I know that Albion hath divided me, and that thou O my Spectre,
Hast just cause to be irritated: but look stedfastly upon me:
Comfort thyself in my strength the time will arrive,
When all Albions injuries shall cease, and when we shall         
Embrace him tenfold bright, rising from his tomb in immortality.
They have divided themselves by Wrath. they must be united by
Pity: let us therefore take example & warning O my Spectre,
O that I could abstain from wrath! O that the Lamb
Of God would look upon me and pity me in my fury.                
In anguish of regeneration! in terrors of self annihilation:
Pity must join together those whom wrath has torn in sunder,
And the Religion of Generation which was meant for the
     destruction
Of Jerusalem, become her covering, till the time of the End.
O holy Generation! [Image] of regeneration!            t
O point of mutual forgiveness between Enemies!
Birthplace of the Lamb of God incomprehensible!
The Dead despise & scorn thee, & cast thee out as accursed:
Seeing the Lamb of God in thy gardens & thy palaces:
Where they desire to place the Abomination of Desolation.        
Hand sits before his furnace: scorn of others & furious pride:
Freeze round him to bars of steel & to iron rocks beneath
His feet: indignant self-righteousness like whirlwinds of the
     north:
               (End of Plate 7)

- 150 -

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Notes:

 "but when he [Los' spectre] saw that Los
(PLATE 7)
Was living: panting like a frighted wolf...
and he sought by other means, To lure Los: by tears,
....While Los answer'd unterrified to the opake blackening Fiend

 And thus the Spectre spoke: Wilt thou still go on to destruction? 

..................." 

Here the first paragraph of the text has been condensed, leaving out

a wealth of adjectival interpolations.  A speaking knowledge of 

elementary English grammar enables the reader to begin to get some

preliminary understanding of Blake's intentions.

Like so many English writers of every sort are fond of piling 

dependent clauses into their sentences to the point where an

ordinary reader is sure to miss what they're basically trying

to say. Short sentences tell us more than long involved complex

ones.  This failing is one of the primary deficiencies in 

understanding poetry (or prose for that matter).