Blake seeks to provide the Golden String which can lead us through the labyrinth of our experience or his own poetry.

Sunday, May 31, 2015

SOUND OF TRUMPET



British Museum
Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts
'When the Cock crew, he wept'
The sounding of the Trumpet is a sign that an awakening impends. The sleep that man endures takes many forms. He is unconscious of Eternity, he submits to conditions which are self-destructive, he becomes the instrument that harms his brothers, and he continues along paths that lead him further and further from truth. The trumpet sounds to be his alarm-clock, shocking him out of slumber.


The sound of the trumpet frequently is not welcome. Man cannot respond to it without submitting to change. He fears the sound because the world will be turned upside down in response. Nevertheless, the trumpet will sound for those who dread the consequences, and for those who are prepared to be released into the 'glorious liberty of the children of God.'
You may remember that Blake's Title Page of the Four Zoas pictured the trumpet being sounded.
Ode On the Morning of Christ's Nativity
John Milton
Book XVI

"But wisest Fate says no
This must not yet be so,
   The Babe lies yet in smiling Infancy, That on the bitter cross Must redeem our loss;
   So both himself and us to glorify: Yet first to those ychain'd in sleep, The wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep,"
First Corinthians 15
[49
] And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
[50] Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
[51] Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
[52] In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
[53] For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

Romans 8
[21] Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
[22] For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

Europe, Plate 12, (E 64)
"They heard the voice of Albions Angel howling in flames of Orc,
Seeking the trump of the last doom"

Milton, Plate 25 [27], (E 121)
"And Los stood & cried to the Labourers of the Vintage in voice of awe.

Fellow Labourers! The Great Vintage & Harvest is now upon Earth
The whole extent of the Globe is explored: Every scatterd Atom
Of Human Intellect now is flocking to the sound of the Trumpet
All the Wisdom which was hidden in caves & dens, from ancient   
Time; is now sought out from Animal & Vegetable & Mineral

The Awakener is come. outstretchd over Europe! the Vision of God is fulfilled
The Ancient Man upon the Rock of Albion Awakes,
He listens to the sounds of War astonishd & ashamed;
He sees his Children mock at Faith and deny Providence" 

Milton, Plate 23 [25], (E 118)
"Awake thou sleeper on the Rock of Eternity Albion awake
The trumpet of Judgment hath twice sounded: all Nations are awake
But thou art still heavy and dull: Awake Albion awake!
.

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