Page:Life of William Blake, Gilchrist.djvu/204

 Belonging also to early days at Felpham is the following:—

,

I thank you for your very beautiful and encouraging verses, which I account a crown of laurels, and I also thank you for your reprehension of follies by me fostered. Your prediction will, I hope, be fulfilled in me, and in future I am the determined advocate of religion and humility—the two bands of society. Having been so full of the business of settling the sticks and feathers of my nest, I have not got any forwarder with the Three Maries, or with any other of your commissions; but hope, now I have commenced a new life of industry, to do credit to that new life by improved works. Receive from me a return of verses, such as Felpham produces by me, though not such as she produces by her eldest son. However, such as they are, I cannot resist the temptation to send them to you:—

To my friend Butts I write

My first vision of light,

On the yellow sands sitting.

The sun was emitting

His glorious beams

From Heaven's high streams

Over sea, over land;

My eyes did expand

Into regions of air,

Away from all care;

Into regions of fire,

Remote from desire:

The light of the morning,

Heaven's mountains adorning.

In particles bright.

The jewels of light

Distinct shone and clear.

Amazed, and in fear,

I each particle gazed,

Astonish'd, amazed;

For each was a man

Human-formed. Swift I ran.

For they beckon'd to me,

Remote by the sea,

Saying: 'Each grain of sand,

Every stone on the land,

Each rock and each hill.

Each fountain and rill,

Each herb and each tree,

Mountain, hill, earth, and sea,

Cloud, meteor, and star,

Are men seen afar.'

I stood in the streams

Of heaven's bright beams,

And saw Felpham sweet

Beneath my bright feet,

In soft female charms;

And in her fair arms

My shadow I knew,

And my wife's shadow too,

And my sister and friend.

We like infants descend

In our shadows on earth,

Like a weak mortal birth.

My eyes more and more.

Like a sea without shore,

Continue expanding,

The heavens commanding,

Till the jewels of light,

Heavenly men beaming bright,

Appeared as one man,

Who complacent began

My limbs to infold

In his beams of bright gold;

Like dross purged away,

All my mire and my clay.

Soft consumed in delight.

In his bosom sun-bright