Page:Works of William Blake; poetic, symbolic, and critical (1893) Volume 2.djvu/32

 MINOR POEMS.

It has been suggested that in order to understand the poem "William Bond," we must read the title "William Blake." Then we are to remember that Blake is supposed to have at one time intended to add a concubine to his establishment in imitation of the characters in the Old Testament, but Mrs. Blake cried, and he gave up the plan. There is at least as much to be said against this interpretation as in favour of it.

The fairies and angels are of sufficient importance in the poem to be considered first. In "Jerusalem," p. 13, l. 29, sixty-four thousand fairies guard the southern gate. In p. 36, ll. 34, 37, fairies are named first of the quaternary, and are ravening death-like forms of the elements, and as states permanently fixed by the Divine Power. On p. 63, l. 14, when the giants and witches and ghosts of Albion dance with Thor and Friga, fairies lead the moon along the valley of Cherubim, bleeding in torrents from mountain to mountain, a lonely victim. The fairy that dictates "Europe" is a mocking and cruel little sprite, who demands to be fed of thoughts of love and sparkling poetic fancies.

Fairies need no more explanation. They are small copies of Fuzon. They belong to the South—eyes, marriage. They receive orders from male desire and give it to that of the