Page:Works of William Blake; poetic, symbolic, and critical (1893) Volume 2.djvu/45




 * THE MENTAL TRAVELLER.


 * 1.
 * I travelled through a land of men,
 * A land of men and women, too,
 * And saw and heard such dreadful things
 * As cold earth-wanderers never knew.
 * 2.
 * For there the babe is born in joy
 * That was begotten in dire woe,
 * Just as we reap in joy the fruit
 * That we in bitter tears did sow.
 * 3.
 * And if the babe is born a boy
 * He's given to a woman old
 * Who nails him down upon a rock,
 * Catches his shrieks in cups of gold.
 * 4.
 * She binds iron thorns about his head,
 * She pierces both his hands and feet,
 * She cuts his heart out at his side
 * To make it feel both cold and heat.
 * 5.
 * Her fingers number every nerve,
 * Just as a miser counts his gold ;
 * She lives upon his shrieks and cries,
 * And she grows young as he grows old.
 * 6.
 * Till he becomes a bleeding youth,
 * And she becomes a virgin bright ;
 * Then he rends up his manacles
 * And binds her down for his delight.
 * 7.
 * He plants himself in all her nerves,
 * Just as a husbandman his mould,
 * And she becomes his dwelling-place
 * And garden fruitful seventyfold.
 * 8.
 * An aged shadow, soon he fades,
 * Wandering round an earthly cot,
 * Full filled all with gems and gold
 * Which he by industry has got.