JERUSALEM: The Emanation of The Giant Albion William Blake JERUSALEM: The Emanation of The Giant Albion Table of Contents JERUSALEM: The Emanation of The Giant Albion......................................................................................1 William Blake..........................................................................................................................................1 To the Public............................................................................................................................................2 Chap: I......................................................................................................................................................3 To the Jews............................................................................................................................................29 Chap: 2...................................................................................................................................................32 i JERUSALEM: The Emanation of The Giant Albion William Blake This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online. http://www.blackmask.com • To the Public • Chap: I • To the Jews. • Chap: 2. There is a Void, outside of Existence, which if enterd into Englobes itself & becomes a Womb, such was Albions Couch A pleasant Shadow of Repose calld Albions lovely Land His Sublime & Pathos become Two Rocks fixd in the Earth His Reason his Spectrous Power, covers them above Jerusalem his Emanation is a Stone laying beneath O [Albion behold Pitying] behold the Vision of Albion Half Friendship is the bitterest Enmity said Los As he enterd the Door of Death for Albions sake Inspired The long sufferings of God are not for ever there is a Judgment Every Thing has its Vermin O Spectre of the Sleeping Dead! SHEEP GOATS JERUSALEM: The Emanation of The Giant Albion 1 JERUSALEM: The Emanation of The Giant Albion 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 t25 The Enthusiasm of the following Poem, the Author hopes [no Reader will think presumptuousness or arroganc[e] 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 Of the Measure, in which the following Poem is written We who dwell on Earth can do nothing of ourselves, every thing is conducted by Spirits, no less than Digestion or Sleep. [to Note the last words of Jesus, To the Public 2 JERUSALEM: The Emanation of The Giant Albion <Greek>Edotha moi pasa exousia en ouranon kai epi ges</Greek>] When this Verse was first dictated to me 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 partsthe 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. Chap: I Of the Sleep of Ulro! and of the passage through Eternal Death! and of the awaking to Eternal Life. This theme calls me in sleep night after night, & ev'ry morn Awakes me at sun−rise, then I see the Saviour over me Spreading his beams of love, & dictating the words of this mild song. Awake! awake O sleeper of the land of shadows, wake! expand! I am in you and you in me, mutual in love divine: Fibres of love from man to man thro Albions pleasant land. In all the dark Atlantic vale down from the hills of Surrey A black water accumulates, return Albion! return! Thy brethren call thee, and thy fathers, and thy sons, Thy nurses and thy mothers, thy sisters and thy daughters Weep at thy souls disease, and the Divine Vision is darkend: Thy Emanation that was wont to play before thy face, Beaming forth with her daughters into the Divine bosom [ Where!!] Where hast thou hidden thy Emanation lovely Jerusalem From the vision and fruition of the Holy−one? I am not a God afar off, I am a brother and friend; Chap: I 3 JERUSALEM: The Emanation of The Giant Albion Within your bosoms I reside, and you reside in me: Lo! we are One; forgiving all Evil; Not seeking recompense! Ye are my members O ye sleepers of Beulah, land of shades! But the perturbed Man away turns down the valleys dark; [Saying. We are not One: we are Many, thou most simulative] Phantom of the over heated brain! shadow of immortality! Seeking to keep my soul a victim to thy Love! which binds Man the enemy of man into deceitful friendships: Jerusalem is not! her daughters are indefinite: By demonstration, man alone can live, and not by faith. My mountains are my own, and I will keep them to myself! The Malvern and the Cheviot, the Wolds Plinlimmon & Snowdon Are mine. here will I build my Laws of Moral Virtue! Humanity shall be no more: but war & princedom & victory! So spoke Albion in jealous fears, hiding his Emanation Upon the Thames and Medway, rivers of Beulah: dissembling His jealousy before the throne divine, darkening, cold! 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: Chap: I 4 JERUSALEM: The Emanation of The Giant Albion 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.