That Heaven was Impure in thy Sight
Tho thy Oath turnd Heaven Pale
Tho thy Covenant built Hells Jail
Tho thou didst all to Chaos roll
With the Serpent for its soul
Still the breath Divine does move
And the breath Divine is Love
Mary Fear Not Let me see
The Seven Devils that torment thee
Hide not from my Sight thy Sin
That forgiveness thou maist win
Has no Man Condemned thee
No Man Lord! then what is he
Who shall Accuse thee. Come Ye forth
Fallen Fiends of Heavnly birth
That have forgot your Ancient love
And driven away my trembling Dove
You shall bow before her feet
You shall lick the dust for Meat
And tho you cannot Love but Hate
Shall be beggars at Loves Gate
What was thy love Let me see it
Was it love or Dark Deceit
Love too long from Me has fled.
Twas dark deceit to Earn my bread
Twas Covet or twas Custom or
Some trifle not worth caring for
That they may call a shame & Sin
Loves Temple that God dwelleth in
And hide in secret hidden Shrine
The Naked Human form divine
And render that a Lawless thing
On which the Soul Expands its wing
But this O Lord this was my Sin
When first I let these Devils in
In dark pretence to Chastity
Blaspheming Love blaspheming thee
Thence Rose Secret Adulteries
And thence did Covet also rise
My Sin thou hast forgiven me
Canst thou forgive my Blasphemy
Canst thou return to this dark Hell
And in my burning bosom dwell
And canst thou Die that I may live
And canst thou Pity & forgive
Then Rolld the shadowy Man away
From the Limbs of Jesus to make them his prey
An Ever devo[u]ring appetite
Glittering with festering Venoms bright
Crying Crucify this cause of distress
Who dont keep the secrets of Holiness
All Mental Powers by Diseases we bind
But he heals the Deaf & the Dumb & the Blind
Whom God has afflicted for Secret Ends
He comforts & Heals & calls them Friends
But when Jesus was Crucified
Then was perfected his glittring pride
In three Nights he devourd his prey
And still he devours the Body of Clay
For Dust & Clay is the Serpents meat
Which never was made for Man to Eat
Was Jesus gentle or did he
Give any marks of Gentility
When twelve years old he ran away
And left his Parents in dismay
When after three days sorrow found
Loud as Sinai’s trumpet sound
No Earthly Parents I confess
My Heavenly Fathers business
Ye understand not what I say
And angry force me to obey
Obedience is a duty then
And favour gains with God & Men
John from the Wilderness loud cried
Satan gloried in his Pride
Come said Satan come away
III soon see if youll obey
John for disobedience bled
But you can turn the stones to bread
Gods high king & Gods high Priest
Shall Plant their Glories in your breast
If Caiaphas you will obey
If Herod you with bloody Prey
Feed with the Sacrifice & be
Obedient fall down worship me
Thunders & lightnings broke around
And Jesus voice in thunders sound
Ye smiters with disease make way
I come Your King & God to sieze
Is God a Smiter with disease
The God of this World raged in vain
He bound Old Satan in his Chain
And bursting forth his furious ire
Became a Chariot of fire
Throughout the land he took his course
And traced Diseases to their Source
He cursd the Scribe & Pharisee
Trampling down Hipocrisy
Where eer his Chariot took its way
There Gates of Death let in the Day
Broke down from every Chain & Bar
And Satan in his Spiritual War
Dragd at his Chariot wheels loud howld
The God of this World louder rolld
The Chariot Wheels & louder still
His voice was heard from Zions hill
And in his hand the Scourge shone bright
He scourgd the Merchant Canaanite
From out the Temple of his Mind
And in his Body tight does bind
Satan & all his Hellish Crew
And thus with wrath he did subdue
The Serpent Bulk of Natures dross
Till he had naild it to the Cross
He took on Sin in the Virgins Womb
And put it off on the Cross & Tomb
To be Worshipd by the Church of Rome
The Vision of Christ that thou dost see
Is my Visions Greatest Enemy
Thine has a great hook nose like thine
Mine has a snub nose like to mine
Thine is the Friend of All Mankind
Mine speaks in parables to the Blind
Thine loves the same world that mine hates
Thy Heaven doors are my Hell Gates
Socrates taught what Melitus
Loathd as a Nations bitterest Curse
And Caiphas was in his own Mind
A benefactor of Mankind
Both read the Bible day & night
But thou readst black where I read white
Alphabetical List of Titles and First Lines
(Titles indicated in italics)
Abstinence sows sand all over
A fairy skipd upon my knee
Africa
A little Flower grew in a lonely Vale
America a Prophecy (excerpt)
Ancient Proverb, An
And did those feet in ancient time
An old maid early eer I knew
Answer to the Parson, An
Argument, The (from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell)
Asia
As I wanderd the forest
Auguries of Innocence
Awake awake my little Boy
Birds, The
Blind-man’s Buff
Book of Thel, The
Come hither my boy tell me what thou seest there
Come hither my sparrows
Come, Kings, and listen to my song
Cradle Song, A
Cruelty has a Human Heart
Crystal Cabinet, The
Day
Divine Image, A
Does the Eagle know what is in the pit?
Everlasting Gospel, The (excerpts)
[Experiment]
Fair Elenor
Fairy, The
Fresh from the dewy hill, the merry year
Golden Apollo, that thro’ heaven wide
Golden Net, The
Great things are done when Men & Mountains meet
Grey Monk, The
Gwin, King of Norway
Hail Matrimony made of Love
He who binds to himself a joy
How sweet I roam’d from field to field
[How to know Love from Deceit]
I die I die the Mother said
I feard the fury of my wind
If I eer Grow to Mans Estate
If you play a
Game of Chance know before you begin
If you trap the moment before its ripe
I heard an Angel singing
I laid me down upon a bank
I love the jocund dance
Imitation of Spenser, An
In a wife I would desire
In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy
I rose up at the dawn of day
I saw a chapel all of gold
I saw a Monk of Charlemaine
I traveld thro’ a Land of Men
I walked abroad in a snowy day
I will sing you a song of Los. The Eternal Prophet
I wonder whether the Girls are mad
Lacedemonian Instruction
Land of Dreams, The
Let the Brothels of Paris be opened
Love and harmony combine
Love to faults is always blind
Mad Song
Marriage of Heaven and Hell, The, (excerpts)
Mary
Memory, hither come
Mental Traveller, The
Merlins Prophecy
Milton (excerpt)
Mock on Mock on Voltaire Rousseau
Morning
Motto to the Songs of Innocence & of Experience
My silks and fine array
My Spectre around me night & day
Never pain to tell thy Love
O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stained
Oer my Sins Thou sit & moan
O father father where are you going
O holy virgin! clad in purest white
O I say you Joe
O lapwing thou fliest around the heath
O thou who passest thro’ our vallies in
O thou, with dewy locks, who lookest down
O Winter! bar thine adamantine doors
[Postscript]
Preludium (from America a Prophecy)
Proverbs of Hell
Remove away that blackning church
Riches
Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burdend air
Several Questions Answerd
Silent Silent Night
Sleep Sleep beauty bright
Smile, The
Soft deceit & Idleness
Soft Snow
Song (“Fresh from the dewy hill, the merry year”)
Song (“How Sweet I roam’d from field to field”)
Song (“I love the jocund dance”)
Song (“Love and harmony combine”)
Song (“Memory, hither come”)
Song (“My silks and fine array”)
Song (“When early morn walks forth in sober grey”)
Song 1st by a Shepherd
Song of Liberty, A
Song of Los, The
Song 3d by an Old Shepherd
Sweet Mary the first time she ever was there
The bell struck one, and shook the silent tower
The Caverns of the Grave Ive seen
The countless gold of a merry heart
The daughters of Mne Seraphim led round their sunny flocks
The door of Death is made of Gold
The Eternal Female groand! it was heard over all the Earth
The fields from Islington to Marybone
The Good are attracted by Mens perceptions
The harvest shall flourish in wintry weather
The Kings of Asia heard
Thel
The look of love alarms
Thel’s Motto
The Maiden caught me in the Wild
There is a Smile of Love
Theres Doctor Clash
The shadowy daughter of Urthona stood before red Ore
The Sun arises in the East
The sword sung on the barren heath
The wild winds weep
This city & this country has brought forth many mayors
Thou fair-hair’d angel of the evening
Thou hast a lap full of seed
Three Virgins at the break of day
To a lovely mirtle bound
To Autumn
To be or not to be
To find the western path
To Morning
To Mrs Ann Flaxman
To My Mirtle
To Nobodaddy
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
To Spring
To Summer
To the Evening Star
To the Muses
To the Queen
To Winter
Upon a holy thursday their innocent faces clean
Welcome stranger to this place
What is it men in women do require
When early morn walks forth in sober grey
When Klopstock England defied
When old corruption first begun
When silver Snow decks Susan’s cloaths
When silver Snow decks Sylvio’s clothes
When the tongues of children are heard on the green
Where thou dwellest in what Grove
Whether on Ida’s shady brow
Who will exchange his own fire side
Why art thou silent & invisible
Why of the sheep do you not learn peace
Why should I care for the men of thames
Why was Cupid a Boy
Wild Flowers Song, The
William Bond
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1 Printed by Blake “Spencer” and left uncorrected.
2 Title supplied by Professor Erdman.
3 This title was added by the poet after composition and later deleted.
4 Title supplied by Professor Erdman.
5 Following the lead of John Sampson, who printed the text in ms order followed by a “revised version for those who may prefer to read the poem as a whole, instead of as a number of disconnected proverb-couplets,” and assisted by the specific suggestions of John Grant (in correspondence), I have presented a thematically grouped rearrangement. I concede that Blake may have wished each reader to cope with this “Riddle” by himself. The “editorial arrangement” is not presented as in any sense an improvement upon the text but as a thematic analysis of it.
6 The word “Famine” was deleted but not replaced by Blake.
7 This poem, out of its context and retitled Jerusalem, is famous as a hymn, the music composed by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918).