Page:The prophetic books of William Blake, Milton.djvu/25



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AUGHTERS of Beulah! Muses who inspire the Poet's Song,

Record the journey of immortal Milton thro' your Realms

Of terror & mild moony lustre, in soft sexual delusions

Of varied beauty, to delight the wanderer and repose

His burning thirst & freezing hunger! Come into my hand

By your mild power; descending down the Nerves of my right arm

From out the Portals of my Brain, where by your ministry

The Eternal Great Humanity Divine planted his Paradise,

And in it caus'd the Spectres of the Dead to take sweet form

In likeness of himself. Tell also of the False Tongue! vegetated

Beneath your land of shadows: of its sacrifices, and

Its offerings: even till Jesus, the image of the Invisible God,

Became its prey; a curse, an offering, and an atonement

For Death Eternal in the heavens of Albion, & before the Gates

Of Jerusalem his Emanation, in the heavens beneath Beulah.

Say first! what mov'd Milton, who walk'd about in Eternity

One hundred years, pond'ring the intricate mazes of Providence,

Unhappy tho' in heav'n, he obey'd, he murmur'd not, he was silent,

Viewing his Sixfold Emanation scatter'd thro' the deep

In torment: To go into the deep her to redeem & himself perish?

That cause at length mov'd Milton to this unexampled deed,

A Bard's prophetic Song! for sitting at eternal tables,

Terrific among the Sons of Albion, in chorus solemn & loud

A Bard broke forth: all sat attentive to the awful man.

Mark well my words! they are of your eternal salvation!

Three Classes are Created by the Hammer of Los, & Woven

P. 4 FROM Golgonooza the spiritual Four-fold London eternal,

In immense labours & sorrows, ever building, ever falling,

Thro' Albion's four Forests which overspread all the Earth

From London Stone to Blackheath east: to Hounslow west:

To Finchley north: to Norwood south: and the weights

Of Enitharmon's Loom play lulling cadences on the winds of Albion

From Caithness in the north, to Lizard-point & Dover in the south. 1