Page:The prophetic books of William Blake, Milton.djvu/60

 The River Storge (which is Arnon) into the Dead Sea:

Around this Polypus Los continual builds the Mundane Shell.

Four Universes round the Universe of Los remain Chaotic,

Four intersecting Globes, & the Egg form'd World of Los

In midst: stretching from Zenith to Nadir, in midst of Chaos.

One of these Ruin'd Universes is to the North, named Urthona:

One in the South, this was the glorious World of Urizen:

One to the East, of Luvah: One to the West, of Tharmas.

But when Luvah assumed the World of Urizen in the South

All fell towards the Center sinking-downward in dire Ruin.

Here in these Chaoses the Sons of Ololon took their abode,

In chasms of the Mundane Shell which open on all sides round,

Southward & by the East within the Breach of Milton's descent,

To watch the time, pitying & gentle to awaken Urizen.

They stood in a dark land of death, of fiery corroding waters,

Where lie in evil death the Four Immortals pale and cold,

And the Eternal Man, even Albion, upon the Rock of Ages.

Seeing Milton's Shadow, some Daughters of Beulah trembling

Return'd, but Ololon remain'd before the Gates of the Dead.

And Ololon looked down into the Heavens of Ulro in fear.

They said: How are the Wars of man which in Great Eternity

Appear around, in the External Spheres of Visionary Life,

Here render'd deadly within the Life & Interior Vision?

How are the Beasts & Birds & Fishes & Plants & Minerals

Here fix'd into a frozen bulk subject to decay & death?

Those Visions of Human Life & Shadows of Wisdom & Knowledge

P. 35 ARE here frozen to unexpansive deadly destroying terrors.

And War & Hunting, the Two Fountains of the River of Life,

Are become Fountains of bitter Death & of Corroding Hell:

Till Brotherhood is chang'd into a Curse & a Flattery,

By Differences between Ideas, that Ideas themselves, (which are

The Divine Members) may be slain in offerings for sin.

O dreadful Loom of Death! O piteous Female Forms compell'd

To weave the Woof of Death! On Camberwell Tirzah's Courts,

Malah's on Blackheath, Rahab & Noah dwell on Windsor's heights:

Where once the Cherubs of Jerusalem spread to Lambeth's Vale

Milcah's Pillars shine from Harrow to Hampstead, where Hoglah

On Highgate's heights magnificent Weaves over trembling Thames

To Shooters' Hill and thence to Blackheath the dark Woof; Loud, 36