An Immitation of Spenser

CHANGE LINE SPACING HERE

Beginning at Erdman Page 408 Miscellaneous were printed in 1783 when
Blake was ca 26; some were written when he was as young as 
13. Obviously during Blake's early years he became a great admirer 
of the 16th century British Poet Edmund Spenser,  best known for  
The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating 
the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I.
 
The young Blake's poem was of course derivative, a hint of the ways
that the mature Blake dealt with all his sources, very freely.
 *****************************************************************

                 AN
      IMITATION OF SPEN[S]ER.                                   

Golden Apollo, that thro' heaven wide
  Scatter'st the rays of light, and truth's beams!
In lucent words my darkling verses dight,
  And wash my earthy mind in thy clear streams,
  That wisdom may descend in fairy dreams:         
All while the jocund hours in thy train
Scatter their fancies at thy poet's feet;
  And when thou yields to night thy wide domain,                
Let rays of truth enlight his sleeping brain.

For brutish Pan in vain might thee assay          
  With tinkling sounds to dash thy nervous verse,
Sound without sense; yet in his rude affray,
  (For ignorance is Folly's leesing nurse,                      
  And love of Folly needs none other curse;)                    
Midas the praise hath gain'd of lengthen'd eares,                
  For which himself might deem him neer the worse

  To sit in council with his modern peers,
And judge of tinkling rhimes, and elegances terse.

And thou, Mercurius, that with winged brow
  Dost mount aloft into the yielding sky,      
And thro' Heav'n's halls thy airy flight dost throw,
Entering with holy feet to where on high
Jove weighs the counsel of futurity;
  Then, laden with eternal fate, dost go
Down, like a falling star, from autumn sky,        
And o'er the surface of the silent deep dost fly.

  If thou arrivest at the sandy shore,
Where nought but envious hissing adders dwell,
  Thy golden rod, thrown on the dusty floor,
Can charm to harmony with potent spell;       
Such is sweet Eloquence, that does dispel
  Envy and Hate, that thirst for human gore:
And cause in sweet society to dwell
Vile savage minds that lurk in lonely cell.

  O Mercury, assist my lab'ring sense,           
That round the circle of the world wou'd fly!
  As the wing'd eagle scorns the tow'ry fence
Of Alpine bills round his high aery,
And searches thro' the corners of the sky,
  Sports in the clouds to hear the thunder's sound,   
And see the winged lightnings as they fly,                      
  Then, bosom'd in an amber cloud, around
Plumes his wide wings, and seeks Sol's palace high.

  And thou, O warrior maid, invincible,                         
Arm'd with the terrors of Almighty Jove!           
  Pallas, Minerva, maiden terrible,
Lov'st thou to walk the peaceful solemn grove,
  In solemn gloom of branches interwove?
Or bear'st thy Egis o'er the burning field,
  Where, like the sea, the waves of battle move?   
Or have thy soft piteous eyes beheld 

The weary wanderer thro' the desert rove? Or 

does th' afflicted man thy heav'nly bosom move?
**************************************************** 
Notes:
Golden Apollo: in Greek mythology Apollo was said to 
have golden hair. 
"That wisdom may descend in fairy dreams": well this is
certainly where Blake lived; he calls it here "fairy dreams",
but later 'heavenly visions'.  Blake lived for the Visions;
they came freely until ca 1782, departed until 1802.
   Thus we have the three periods of Blake's creative life: the
inspiration of youth, the disillusionment of middle age, and
the rebirth in ca 43. 

"brutish Pan" is an apt metaphor for what was to come for
Blake: tinkling sound without sense. 
 
With the paragraph on Mercurius Blake gave a florid (Elizabethan?)
account of the coming and departure of the Sun, making a day. 

Then he touches on the 'wing'd eagle'.
 Finally Pallas, a name for Athena; if you're acquainted with 
Blake's famous tempera, The Sea of Time and Space, you may
remember that some interpreters identified the lady on the shore, 
beckoning to the wayfarer to take the southern path above as
Athena. 

Plate 6

PLATE 6
His spectre driv'n by the Starry Wheels of Albions sons, black
    and
Opake divided from his back; he labours and he mourns!

- 148 -
For as his Emanation divided, his Spectre also divided
In terror of those starry wheels: and the Spectre stood over Los
Howling in pain: a blackning Shadow, blackning dark & opake      
Cursing the terrible Los: bitterly cursing him for his friendship
To Albion, suggesting murderous thoughts against Albion.

Los rag'd and stamp'd the earth in his might & terrible wrath!
He stood and stampd the earth! then he threw down his hammer in
    rage &
In fury: then he sat down and wept, terrified! Then arose        
And chaunted his song, labouring with the tongs and hammer:
But still the Spectre divided, and still his pain increas'd!

In pain the Spectre divided: in pain of hunger and thirst:
To devour Los's Human Perfection, but when he saw that Los
(PLATE 7
Was living: panting like a frighted wolf,.....)

Plate 26

PLATE 26                                                        t

   SUCH VISIONS HAVE APPEARD TO ME 
     AS I MY ORDERD RACE HAVE RUN 
      JERUSALEM IS NAMED LIBERTY 
       AMONG THE SONS OF ALBION

Plate 25

 
 
The scene is Ulro- a dangerous place. When Albion fell asleep, all
sorts of bad things happens, typified by the daughters of Beulah 
clothing Albion with a dreadful garment. The yarn that they used, going 
straight to his navel and around his backside, looks suspiciously like the
serpent (devil) who rules the world. 

The Sun, the Moon, the Stars are part of Albion, everything material, temporal,
opposed to Albion's true nature, which is Eternal.
Erdman (304) refers to Albion as a victim of Druid sacrifice. He calls the
three maidens the three fates; he cites Plates 9, 14, 19, 22, 24 with similar
messages. (Look at them again.)
 
(The garment is the material person. The soul is the Eternal person.)
 
 The two bright stars: on his arm Jupiter or Mars and on his leg Venus. 
 
 Vala in the center holds up what Erdman calls an operating tent.
 
The three females could be thought of as Vala, Rahab  and Tirzah. 

Vala has many identities (the Four Zoas was first called Vala, she was the 

emanation of Luvah, and as the contrary of Jerusalem; Vala was always veiled, 

Jerusalem always naked.
 

Tirzah is the religion of nature and materialism while Rahab represents the 

religion of law, sin, and punishment; Jerusalem is the relgiion of Love and God. 
The last quote from Peter Berger's William Blake Poet and Mystic.
The others primarily from Erdmans Illuminated Blake. 

Plate 24



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:
The Sun fled from the Britons forebead: 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
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
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    

- 169 -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,
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:
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
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

(Erdman 169-70)

The Picture:
(This discussion comes from Erdman p 303.)
At the top is what Erdman  calls a 'moon ark' and rain, reminiscent of the Genesis story of the Flood.  Within the moon is a dove with wings spread (See Genesis 6:7). A few lines down, across the plate and down the right border you may see a long row of fenale figures, which illustrates,
"Thundring the Veil rushes from his hand Vegetating Knot by
Knot, Day by Day, Night by Night;" the first one on the border enlarged as a seductive Vala. (It looks much like the figure in Milton, Plate 26).

Plate 31

PLATE 45 [31]
His western heaven with rocky clouds of death & despair.

Fearing that Albion should turn his back against the Divine
     Vision
Los took his globe of fire to search the interiors of Albions
Bosom, in all the terrors of friendship, entering the caves
Of despair & death, to search the tempters out, walking among 
Albions rocks & precipices! caves of solitude & dark despair,
And saw every Minute Particular of Albion degraded & murderd
But saw not by whom; they were hidden within in the minute
     particulars
Of which they had possessd themselves; and there they take up
The articulations of a mans soul, and laughing throw it down   
Into the frame, then knock it out upon the plank, & souls are
     bak'd
In bricks to build the pyramids of Heber & Terah. But Los
Searchd in vain: closd from the minutia he walkd, difficult.
He came down from Highgate thro Hackney & Holloway towards London
Till he came to old Stratford & thence to Stepney & the Isle     
Of Leuthas Dogs, thence thro the narrows of the Rivers side
And saw every minute particular, the jewels of Albion, running
     down
The kennels of the streets & lanes as if they were abhorrd.
Every Universal Form, was become barren mountains of Moral
Virtue: and every Minute Particular hardend into grains of sand:
And all the tendernesses of the soul cast forth as filth & mire,
Among the winding places of deep contemplation intricate
To where the Tower of London frownd dreadful over Jerusalem:
A building of Luvah builded in Jerusalems eastern gate to be
His secluded Court: thence to Bethlehem where was builded   
Dens of despair in the house of bread: enquiring in vain
Of stones and rocks he took his way, for human form was none:
And thus he spoke, looking on Albions City with many tears

What shall I do! what could I do, if I could find these 
     Criminals
I could not dare to take vengeance; for all things are so
     constructed    
And builded by the Divine hand, that the sinner shall always
     escape,
And he who takes vengeance alone is the criminal of Providence;
If I should dare to lay my finger on a grain of sand
In way of vengeance; I punish the already punishd: O whom
Should I pity if I pity not the sinner who is gone astray!       
O Albion, if thou takest vengeance; if thou revengest thy wrongs
Thou art for ever lost! What can I do to hinder the Sons
Of Albion from taking vengeance? or how shall I them perswade.


So spoke Los, travelling thro darkness & horrid solitude:
And he beheld Jerusalem in Westminster & Marybone,    
Among the ruins of the Temple: and Vala who is her Shadow,
Jerusalems Shadow bent northward over the Island white.
At length he sat on London Stone, & heard Jerusalems voice.

Albion I cannot be thy Wife. thine own Minute Particulars,
Belong to God alone. and all thy little ones are holy            
They are of Faith & not of Demonstration: wherefore is Vala
Clothd in black mourning upon my rivers currents, Vala awake!
I hear thy shuttles sing in the sky, and round my limbs
I feel the iron threads of love & jealousy & despair.

Vala reply'd. Albion is mine! Luvah gave me to Albion            
And now recieves reproach & hate. Was it not said of old
Set your Son before a man & he shall take you & your sons
For slaves: but set your Daughter before a man & She
Shall make him & his sons & daughters your slaves for ever!
And is this Faith? Behold the strife of Albion, & Luvah          
Is great in the east, their spears of blood rage in the eastern
     heaven
Urizen is the champion of Albion, they will slay my Luvah:
And thou O harlot daughter! daughter of despair art all
This cause of these shakings of my towers on Euphrates.
Here is the House of Albion, & here is thy secluded place        
And here we have found thy sins: & hence we turn thee forth,
For all to avoid thee: to be astonishd at thee for thy sins:
Because thou art the impurity & the harlot: & thy children!
Children of whoredoms: born for Sacrifice: for the meat & drink
Offering: to sustain the glorious combat & the battle & war      
That Man may be purified by the death of thy delusions.

So saying she her dark threads cast over the trembling River:
And over the valleys; from the hills of Hertfordshire to the
     hills
Of Surrey across Middlesex & across Albions House
Of Eternity! pale stood Albion at his eastern gate, 

(Erdman 194-5) 

31

This is a new post in abiword with ubuntu font and plain text



Then Albion broke silence and with groans reply'd

PLATE 21
O Vala! O Jerusalem! do you delight in my groans
You O lovely forms, you have prepared my death-cup:
The disease of Shame covers me from bead to feet: I have no hope
Every boil upon my body is a separate & deadly Sin.
Doubt first assaild me, then Shame took possession of me
Shame divides Families. Shame hath divided Albion in sunder!
First fled my Sons, & then my Daughters, then my Wild Animations
My Cattle next, last ev'n the Dog of my Gate. the Forests fled
The Corn-fields, & the breathing Gardens outside separated
The Sea; the Stars: the Sun: the Moon: drivn forth by my disease
All is Eternal Death unless you can weave a chaste
Body over an unchaste Mind! Vala! O that thou wert pure!
That the deep wound of Sin might be clos'd up with the Needle,
And with the Loom: to cover Gwendolen & Ragan with costly Robes
Of Natural Virtue, for their Spiritual forms without a Veil
Wither in Luvahs Sepulcher. I thrust him from my presence
And all my Children followd his loud howlings into the Deep.
Jerusalem! dissembler Jerusalem! I look into thy bosom:
I discover thy secret places: Cordella! I behold
Thee whom I thought pure as the heavens in innocence & fear:
Thy Tabernacle taken down, thy secret Cherubim disclosed

PLATE 31

Art thou broken? Ah me Sabrina, running by my side:
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
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:
I see them distant from my bosom scoured 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: warshipped
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!

Then Vala answerd spreading her scarlet Veil over Albion