Page:Works of William Blake; poetic, symbolic, and critical (1893) Volume 2.djvu/42

28 The expression, "dog at the wintry door," became a permanent symbol for the needs of the flesh. The new-born child was always the spirit of prophecy. The words " bought and sold" enable us to connect these verses with "Vala," Night I., 1. 462— written about 1797.

"Every tenth man is bought and sold and in dim night my word shall be their law."'

The tears that are chains are necessarily selfish, even where made by delusion from pity. The release is self-annihilation, as taught in " Milton," p. 39, 1. 40, contrary of the satanic teaching.

The "Gates of Paradise/' soon after the "Lafayette," are of incalculable value as interpreting the Prophetic books. Their "keys" will open the meaning of all the myth, though they will not, of course, explain its story.

The " Songs of Experience " would come in here chronologically, but as they have been placed for convenience with the " Songs of Innocence," some of the shorter pieces may be referred to next that need but few words of comment. The "Chapel of Gold" is not readily placed in the symbolic system because of the swine at the end. From a merely literary point of view it is evidently another form of " William Bond," and of "Mary." The golden chapel is the hot sunshine, in which love was first sought. The pig-stye is the moony night. The pigs are the naked and outcast. The serpent's poison is calumny. Each part of this poem finds its counterpart in the others. It seems to have a second meaning, in an artistic sense. The chapel suggests art, or the Temple of Fame. The serpent must be naturalism, the pig-stye the place to which the visionary artist betakes himself, not because, like the Prodigal Son, he has spent his fortune, but because, having none to start with, he refuses to acquire any in what he thinks, artistically considered, to be bad company.

"Love's Secret" and the "Wild Flower's Song" are laments over the impossibility of perfect unreserve in this world if a quiet