Page:The poetical works of William Blake; a new and verbatim text from the manuscript engraved and letterpress originals (1905).djvu/284

 ROSSETTI MANUSCRIPT

III

cxxxii

THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL

Prefatory Note

poem—or rather rough studies for a poem which Blake never carried to completion—consists of a series of fragments scattered throughout the MS. Book. As these occur for the most part on vacant spaces of pages already partially filled with the draft of his catalogue 'for the year 1810,' it is plain that 'The Everlasting Gospel' was written not earlier (though probably not much later) than this date.

Three of these fragments (β, γ1, and γ2) are different treatments of the same theme, Christ's gentleness or humility; one (δ) is a mere note or suggestion; while all but the first few lines of another (η) have been lost to us through Blake's neglect to transcribe the remainder of the passage into the MS. Book. The several fragments in their present form contain repetitions of lines and overlapping of thought and expression which the author would doubtless have removed on final revision. At one stage in the evolution of the poem Blake marked the order in which he intended the parts then written to be placed, and this clue, with careful observance of the position of later marginal insertions, enables us to arrange the different sections of the poem in their proper sequence. To carry further the attempt to give unity to this unfinished piece would involve editorial omissions and transpositions contrary to the plan of the present work.

Fragment β, the 57ll. beginning 'Was Jesus gentle,' seems to have been the first draft of the initial section of the poem. Handling the same theme again in a different manner, Blake re-wrote the entire passage in the new form