Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Plate 12

Here's Blake's Jerusalem, Plate 12; Erdman 154-5:
(Erdman tells us that this plate may be thought of as single
pages. In his Illuminated Blake (page291) he  describes the
swan with five fish, one near it and the others running down
the right margin. You may also see two open mouthed eels.

Erdman also describes here the lower picture of Plate 11.) 

 
PLATE 12 text
Why wilt thou give to her a Body whose life is but a Shade?.
Her joy and love, a shade: a shade of sweet repose:
But animated and vegetated, she is a devouring worm:
What shall we do for thee O lovely mild Jerusalem?

And Los said. I behold the finger of God in terrors!           
Albion is dead! his Emanation is divided from him!
But I am living! yet I feel my Emanation also dividing
Such thing was never known! O pity me, thou all-piteous-one!
What shall I do! or how exist, divided from Enitharmon?
Yet why despair! I saw the finger of God go forth                
Upon my Furnaces, from within the Wheels of Albions Sons:
Fixing their Systems, permanent: by mathematic power
Giving a body to Falshood that it may be cast off for ever.
With Demonstrative Science piercing Apollyon with his own bow!
God is within, & without! he is even in the depths of Hell!      

Such were the lamentations of the Labourers in the Furnaces!

And they appeard within & without incircling on both sides
The Starry Wheels of Albions Sons, with Spaces for Jerusalem:
And for Vala the shadow of Jerusalem: the ever mourning shade:
On both sides, within & without beaming gloriously!              

Terrified at the sublime Wonder, Los stood before his Furnaces.
And they stood around, terrified with admiration at Erins Spaces
For the Spaces reachd from the starry heighth, to the starry
    depth;
And they builded Golgonooza: terrible eternal labour!
What are those golden builders doing? where was the burying-place
Of soft Ethinthus? near Tyburns fatal Tree? is that
Mild Zions hills most ancient promontory; near mournful
Ever weeping Paddington? is that Calvary and Golgotha?
Becoming a building of pity and compassion? Lo!
The stones are pity, and the bricks, well wrought affections:    
Enameld with love & kindness, & the tiles engraven gold
Labour of merciful hands: the beams & rafters are forgiveness:
The mortar & cement of the work, tears of honesty: 

the nails,
And the screws & iron braces, are well wrought blandishments,
And well contrived words, firm fixing, never 

forgotten,         
Always comforting the remembrance: the floors, 

humility,
The cielings, devotion: the hearths, thanksgiving:
Prepare the furniture O Lambeth in thy pitying looms!
The curtains, woven tears & sighs, wrought into lovely forms
For comfort. there the secret furniture of Jerusalems chamber    
Is wrought: Lambeth! the Bride the Lambs Wife loveth thee:
Thou art one with her & knowest not of self in thy supreme joy.

- 155 -

Go on, builders in hope: tho Jerusalem wanders far away,
Without the gate of Los: among the dark Satanic wheels.

Fourfold the Sons of Los in their divisions: and fourfold,       
The great City of Golgonooza: fourfold toward the north
And toward the south fourfold, & fourfold toward the east & west
Each within other toward the four points: that toward
Eden, and that toward the World of Generation,
And that toward Beulah, and that toward Ulro:                    
Ulro is the space of the terrible starry wheels of Albions sons:
But that toward Eden is walled up, till time of renovation:
Yet it is perfect in its building, ornaments & perfection.

And the Four Points are thus beheld in Great Eternity
West, the Circumference: South, the Zenith: North,               
The Nadir: East, the Center, unapproachable for ever.
These are the four Faces towards the Four Worlds of Humanity
In every Man. Ezekiel saw them by Chebars flood.
And the Eyes are the South, and the Nostrils are the East.
And the Tongue is the West, and the Ear is the North.            

And the North Gate of Golgonooza toward Generation;
Has four sculpturd Bulls terrible before the Gate of iron.
And iron, the Bulls: and that which looks toward Ulro,
Clay bak'd & enamel'd, eternal glowing as four furnaces:
Turning upon the Wheels of Albions sons with enormous power.     
And that toward Beulah four, gold, silver, brass, & iron:

import-plate-7

<pre>&nbsp; </pre>
<pre>but when he [Los' spectre] saw that Los
</pre>
<pre>(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 &amp;&nbsp;</pre>
<pre>by terrors:
Terrors in every Nerve, by spasms &amp; 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 &amp; Nineveh: Hyle, Ashur &amp; Aram:
Cobans son is Nimrod: his son Cush is adjoind to Aram,
By the Daughter of Babel, in a woven mantle of pestilence &amp; 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 &amp; Ham &amp; 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, &amp; 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:&nbsp;</pre>
<pre><a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/rbc/rbc0001/2003/2003rosen1811/0007q.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/rbc/rbc0001/2003/2003rosen1811/0007q.jpg" width="230" /></a>
- 149 -

Luvah was cast into the Furnaces of&nbsp;</pre>
<pre>affliction and sealed,      
And Vala fed in cruel delight, the&nbsp;</pre>
<pre>Furnaces with fire:
Stern Urizen beheld; urgd by&nbsp;</pre>
<pre>necessity to keep
The evil day afar, and if perchance&nbsp;</pre>
<pre>with iron power
He might avert his own despair: in&nbsp;</pre>
<pre>woe &amp; fear he saw
Vala incircle round the Furnaces&nbsp;</pre>
<pre>where Luvah was clos'd:        
With joy she heard his howlings,&nbsp;</pre>
<pre>&amp; forgot he was her Luvah,
With whom she liv'd in bliss in&nbsp;</pre>
<pre>times of innocence &amp; youth!
Vala comes from the Furnace in a&nbsp;</pre>
<pre>cloud, but wretched Luvah
Is howling in the Furnaces, in&nbsp;</pre>
<pre>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, &amp; the father of all his brethren in the Shadowy
Generation. Cambel &amp; Gwendolen wove webs of war &amp; 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, &amp; 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 &amp; 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! [<i>Image</i>] of regeneration!            t
O point of mutual forgiveness between Enemies!
Birthplace of the Lamb of God incomprehensible!
The Dead despise &amp; scorn thee, &amp; cast thee out as accursed:
Seeing the Lamb of God in thy gardens &amp; thy palaces:
Where they desire to place the Abomination of Desolation.       
Hand sits before his furnace: scorn of others &amp; furious pride:
Freeze round him to bars of steel &amp; to iron rocks beneath
His feet: indignant self-righteousness like whirlwinds of the
     north:
               (End of Plate 7)

- 150 -</pre>
<pre>**************************************************************</pre>
<pre>Notes:</pre>
<pre>&nbsp;"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?&nbsp;</pre>
<pre>..................." </pre>
<pre></pre>
<pre>Here the first paragraph of the text has been condensed, leaving out</pre>
<pre>a wealth of adjectival interpolations.  A speaking knowledge of&nbsp;</pre>
<pre>elementary English grammar enables the reader to begin to get some</pre>
<pre>preliminary understanding of Blake's intentions.</pre>
<pre></pre>
<pre>So many English writers of every sort are fond of piling&nbsp;</pre>
<pre>dependent clauses into their sentences to the point where an</pre>
<pre>ordinary reader is sure to miss what they're basically trying</pre>
<pre>to say. Short sentences tell us more than long involved complex</pre>
<pre>ones.  This failing is one of the primary <span class="st">deficiencies in&nbsp;</span></pre>
<pre><span class="st">understanding poetry (or prose for that matter). </span></pre>
<pre></pre>

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Plate 8




PLATE 8
Rose up against me thundering from the Brook of Albions River

- 150 -

From Ranelagh & Strumbolo, from Cromwells gardens & Chelsea
The place of wounded Soldiers. but when he saw my Mace
Whirld round from heaven to earth, trembling he sat: his cold
Poisons rose up: & his sweet deceits coverd them all over        
With a tender cloud. As thou art now; such was he O Spectre
I know thy deceit & thy revenges, and unless thou desist
I will certainly create an eternal Hell for thee. Listen!
Be attentive! be obedient! Lo the Furnaces are ready to recieve
     thee.
Courtesy of LC Rare Books and
Special Collections
--------------------------------
I will break thee into shivers! &
melt thee in the furnaces of
     death;       
I will cast thee into forms of
abhorrence & torment if thou
Desist not from thine own will,
& obey  not my stern command!
I am closd up from my children:
my Emanation is dividing
And thou my Spectre art divided
against me. But mark
I will compell thee to assist me
in my terrible labours. To beat 
These hypocritic Selfhoods on 
the Anvils of bitter Death
I am inspired: I act not for myself: 
for Albions sake
I now am what I am: a horror and 
an astonishment
Shuddring the heavens to look 
upon me: 
Behold what cruelties
Are practised in Babel & Shinar, 
& have approachd to Zions Hill  

While Los spoke, the terrible Spectre fell shuddring before him
Watching his time with glowing eyes to leap upon his prey
Los opend the Furnaces in fear. the Spectre saw to Babel & Shinar
Across all Europe & Asia. he saw the tortures of the Victims.
He saw now from the ou[t]side what he before saw & felt from 
     within
He saw that Los was the sole, uncontrolld Lord of the Furnaces
Groaning he kneeld before Los's iron-shod feet on London Stone,
Hungring & thirsting for Los's life yet pretending obedience.
While Los pursud his speech in threatnings loud & fierce.

Thou art my Pride & Self-righteousness: I have found thee out:   
Thou art reveald before me in all thy magnitude & power
Thy Uncircumcised pretences to Chastity must be cut in sunder!
Thy holy wrath & deep deceit cannot avail against me
Nor shalt thou ever assume the triple-form of Albions Spectre
For I am one of the living: dare not to mock my inspired fury 
If thou wast cast forth from my life! if I was dead upon the
     mountains
Thou mightest be pitied & lovd: but now I am living; unless
Thou abstain ravening I will create an eternal Hell for thee.
Take thou this Hammer & in patience heave the thundering Bellows
Take thou these Tongs: strike thou alternate with me: labour     
     obedient                                                   
Hand & Hyle & Koban: Skofeld, Kox  &  Kotope, labour mightily
In the Wars of Babel & Shinar, all their Emanations were
Condensd. Hand has absorbd all his Brethren in his might
All the infant Loves & Graces were lost, for the mighty Hand
(Erdman 151)

Monday, November 28, 2011

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 -
**************************************************************
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). 

another one

 
                  Courtesy of LC Rosenwald Collection:


There are 100 plates in Blake’s Jerusalem
Blake’s Jerusalem has 100 plates; they may be published from the Library of Congress or from the Yale archives. Here is Plate 5.

Here’s the text of this plate:
PLATE 5
The banks of the Thames are clouded! the ancient porches of
    Albion are
Darken'd! they are drawn thro' unbounded space, scatter'd upon
The Void in incoherent despair! Cambridge & Oxford & London,
Are driven among the starry Wheels, rent away and dissipated,
In Chasms & Abysses of sorrow, enlarg'd without dimension,
    terrible[.]    
Albions mountains run with blood, the cries of war & of tumult
Resound into the unbounded night, every Human perfection
Of mountain & river & city, are small & wither'd & darken'd
Cam is a little stream! Ely is almost swallowd up!
Lincoln & Norwich stand trembling on the brink of Udan-Adan!     
Wales and Scotland shrink themselves to the west and to the
    north!
Mourning for fear of the warriors in the Vale of
    Entuthon-Benython
Jerusalem is scatterd abroad like a cloud of smoke thro'
    non-entity:
Moab & Ammon & Amalek & Canaan & Egypt & Aram
Recieve her little-ones for sacrifices and the delights of
    cruelty   

Trembling I sit day and night, my friends are astonish'd at me.
Yet they forgive my wanderings, I rest not from my great task!
To open the Eternal Worlds, to open the immortal Eyes
Of Man inwards into the Worlds of Thought: into Eternity
Ever expanding in the Bosom of God. the Human Imagination        
O Saviour pour upon me thy Spirit of meekness & love:
Annihilate the Selfhood in me, be thou all my life!
Guide thou my hand which trembles exceedingly upon the rock of
    ages,
While I write of the building of Golgonooza, & of the terrors of
    Entuthon:
Of Hand & Hyle & Coban, of Kwantok, Peachey, Brereton, Slayd &   
    Hutton:
Of the terrible sons & daughters of Albion. and their
    Generations.

Scofield! Kox, Kotope and Bowen, revolve most mightily upon
The Furnace of Los: before the eastern gate bending their fury.
They war, to destroy the Furnaces, to desolate Golgonooza:
And to devour the Sleeping  Humanity  of  Albion  in  rage  &
    hunger.   

They revolve into the Furnaces Southward & are driven forth
    Northward
Divided into Male and Female forms time after time.
From these Twelve all the Families of England spread abroad.

The Male is a Furnace of beryll; the Female is a golden Loom;
I behold them and their rushing fires overwhelm my Soul,    
In Londons darkness; and my tears fall day and night,
Upon the Emanations of Albions Sons! the Daughters of Albion
Names anciently rememberd, but now contemn'd as fictions!
Although in every bosom they controll our Vegetative powers.

These are united into Tirzah and her Sisters, on Mount Gilead,   
Cambel & Gwendolen & Conwenna &  Cordella & Ignoge.
And these united into Rahab in the Covering Cherub on Euphrates
Gwiniverra & Gwinefred, & Gonorill & Sabrina beautiful,
Estrild, Mehetabel & Ragan, lovely Daughters of Albion
They are the beautiful Emanations of the Twelve Sons of Albion   

The Starry Wheels revolv'd heavily over the Furnaces;
Drawing Jerusalem in anguish of maternal love,
Eastward a pillar of a cloud with Vala upon the mountains
Howling in pain, redounding from the arms of Beulahs Daughters,
Out from the Furnaces of Los above the head of Los.              
A pillar of smoke writhing afar into Non-Entity, redounding
Till the cloud reaches afar outstretch'd among the Starry Wheels
Which revolve heavily in the mighty Void above the Furnaces

O what avail the loves & tears of Beulahs lovely Daughters
They hold the Immortal Form in gentle bands & tender tears       
But all within is open'd into the deeps of Entuthon Benython
A dark and unknown night, indefinite, unmeasurable, without end.
Abstract Philosophy warring in enmity against Imagination
(Which is the Divine Body of the Lord Jesus. blessed for ever).
And there Jerusalem wanders with Vala upon the mountains,        
Attracted by the revolutions of those Wheels the Cloud of smoke
Immense, and Jerusalem & Vala weeping in the Cloud
Wander away into the Chaotic Void, lamenting with her Shadow
Among the Daughters of Albion, among the Starry Wheels;
Lamenting for her children, for the sons & daughters of Albion   

Los heard her lamentations in the deeps afar! his tears fall
Incessant before the Furnaces, and his Emanation divided in pain,
Eastward toward the Starry Wheels. But Westward, a black Horror,


Notes on Plate 5:
These incoherent words would yield meaning only to continuous intensive study. 

New One


There are 100 plates in Blake’s Jerusalem


Blake’s Jerusalem has 100 plates; they may be published from the Library of Congress or from the Yale archives. Here is Plate 5.

Here’s the text of this plate:
PLATE 5
The banks of the Thames are clouded! the ancient porches of
    Albion are
Darken'd! they are drawn thro' unbounded space, scatter'd upon
The Void in incoherent despair! Cambridge & Oxford & London,
Are driven among the starry Wheels, rent away and dissipated,
In Chasms & Abysses of sorrow, enlarg'd without dimension,
    terrible[.]    
Albions mountains run with blood, the cries of war & of tumult
Resound into the unbounded night, every Human perfection
Of mountain & river & city, are small & wither'd & darken'd
Cam is a little stream! Ely is almost swallowd up!
Lincoln & Norwich stand trembling on the brink of Udan-Adan!     
Wales and Scotland shrink themselves to the west and to the
    north!
Mourning for fear of the warriors in the Vale of
    Entuthon-Benython
Jerusalem is scatterd abroad like a cloud of smoke thro'
    non-entity:
Moab & Ammon & Amalek & Canaan & Egypt & Aram
Recieve her little-ones for sacrifices and the delights of
    cruelty   

Trembling I sit day and night, my friends are astonish'd at me.
Yet they forgive my wanderings, I rest not from my great task!
To open the Eternal Worlds, to open the immortal Eyes
Of Man inwards into the Worlds of Thought: into Eternity
Ever expanding in the Bosom of God. the Human Imagination        
O Saviour pour upon me thy Spirit of meekness & love:
Annihilate the Selfhood in me, be thou all my life!
Guide thou my hand which trembles exceedingly upon the rock of
    ages,
While I write of the building of Golgonooza, & of the terrors of
    Entuthon:
Of Hand & Hyle & Coban, of Kwantok, Peachey, Brereton, Slayd &   
    Hutton:
Of the terrible sons & daughters of Albion. and their
    Generations.

Scofield! Kox, Kotope and Bowen, revolve most mightily upon
The Furnace of Los: before the eastern gate bending their fury.
They war, to destroy the Furnaces, to desolate Golgonooza:
And to devour the Sleeping  Humanity  of  Albion  in  rage  &
    hunger.   

They revolve into the Furnaces Southward & are driven forth
    Northward
Divided into Male and Female forms time after time.
From these Twelve all the Families of England spread abroad.

The Male is a Furnace of beryll; the Female is a golden Loom;
I behold them and their rushing fires overwhelm my Soul,    
In Londons darkness; and my tears fall day and night,
Upon the Emanations of Albions Sons! the Daughters of Albion
Names anciently rememberd, but now contemn'd as fictions!
Although in every bosom they controll our Vegetative powers.

These are united into Tirzah and her Sisters, on Mount Gilead,   
Cambel & Gwendolen & Conwenna &  Cordella & Ignoge.
And these united into Rahab in the Covering Cherub on Euphrates
Gwiniverra & Gwinefred, & Gonorill & Sabrina beautiful,
Estrild, Mehetabel & Ragan, lovely Daughters of Albion
They are the beautiful Emanations of the Twelve Sons of Albion   

The Starry Wheels revolv'd heavily over the Furnaces;
Drawing Jerusalem in anguish of maternal love,
Eastward a pillar of a cloud with Vala upon the mountains
Howling in pain, redounding from the arms of Beulahs Daughters,
Out from the Furnaces of Los above the head of Los.              
A pillar of smoke writhing afar into Non-Entity, redounding
Till the cloud reaches afar outstretch'd among the Starry Wheels
Which revolve heavily in the mighty Void above the Furnaces

O what avail the loves & tears of Beulahs lovely Daughters
They hold the Immortal Form in gentle bands & tender tears       
But all within is open'd into the deeps of Entuthon Benython
A dark and unknown night, indefinite, unmeasurable, without end.
Abstract Philosophy warring in enmity against Imagination
(Which is the Divine Body of the Lord Jesus. blessed for ever).
And there Jerusalem wanders with Vala upon the mountains,        
Attracted by the revolutions of those Wheels the Cloud of smoke
Immense, and Jerusalem & Vala weeping in the Cloud
Wander away into the Chaotic Void, lamenting with her Shadow
Among the Daughters of Albion, among the Starry Wheels;
Lamenting for her children, for the sons & daughters of Albion   

Los heard her lamentations in the deeps afar! his tears fall
Incessant before the Furnaces, and his Emanation divided in pain,
Eastward toward the Starry Wheels. But Westward, a black Horror,


Notes on Plate 5

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Plate 3 of Jerusalem

Contents



Text
Picture
Notes
This is to take up space.


Text
PLATE 3 SHEEP GOATS To the Public

After my three years slumber on the banks of the Ocean,
I again display my Giant forms to the Public:
My former Giants & Fairies having reciev'd the highest reward possible:
the [love] and friendship of those with whom to be connected, is to be blessed:
I cannot doubt that this more consolidated & extended Work, will be as kindly recieved The Enthusiasm of the following Poem, the Author hopes no Reader will think presumptuousness or arrogance when he is reminded that the Ancients acknowledge their love to their Deities, to the full as Enthusiastically as I have who Acknowledge mine for my Saviour and Lord, for they were wholly absorb'd in their Gods.] I also hope the Reader will be with me, wholly One in Jesus our Lord, who is the God [of Fire] and Lord [of Love] to whom the Ancients look'd and saw his day afar off, with trembling & amazement. The Spirit of Jesus is continual forgiveness of Sin: he who waits to be righteous before he enters into the Saviours kingdom, the Divine Body; will never enter there. I am perhaps the most sinful of men! I pretend not to holiness! yet I pretend to love, to see, to converse with daily, as man with man, & the more to have an interest in the Friend of Sinners. Therefore [Dear] Reader, [forgive] what you do not approve, & [love] me for this energetic exertion of my talent. Reader! [lover] of books! [lover] of heaven, And of that God from whom [all books are given,] Who in mysterious Sinais awful cave To Man the wond'rous art of writing gave, Again he speaks in thunder and in fire! Thunder of Thought, & flames of fierce desire: Even from the depths of Hell his voice I hear, Within the unfathomd caverns of my Ear. Therefore I print; nor vain my types shall be: Heaven, Earth & Hell, henceforth shall live in harmony
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Pictures
Here's Plate 3 of Jerusalem
courtesy of LC banner
From the Rare Book and Special Collections Division


We who dwell on Earth can do nothing of ourselves, everything is conducted by Spirits, no less than Digestion or Sleep.
I consider'd a Monotonous Cadence like that used by Milton & Shakspeare & all writers of English Blank Verse, derived from the modern bondage of Rhyming; to be a necessary and indispensible part of Verse. But I soon found that in the mouth of a true Orator
such monotony was not only awkward, but as much a bondage as rhyme itself. I therefore have produced a variety in every line, both of cadences & number of syllables. Every word and every letter is studied and put into its fit place: the terrific numbers are reserved for the terrific parts--the mild & gentle, for the mild & gentle parts, and the prosaic, for inferior parts: all are necessary to each other. Poetry Fetter'd, Fetters the Human Race! Nations are Destroy'd, or Flourish, in proportion as Their Poetry Painting and Music, are Destroy'd or Flourish! The Primeval State of Man, was Wisdom, Art, and Science.






Notes
we need some notes here.