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

Friday, March 10, 2023

10 QUOTES FIRST

New York Public Library
America A Prophecy
Plate 14

I give you the end of a golden string, 
Only wind it into a ball:
It will lead you in at Heavens gate, 
Built in Jerusalems wall.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time. 
 If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would
appear  to man as it is: infinite.
   For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro'
narrow chinks of his cavern.
*
Man was made for Joy & Woe 
And when this we rightly know 
Thro the World we safely go
Joy & Woe are woven fine 
A Clothing for the soul divine  
And all must love the human form,
In heathen, turk or jew.
Where Mercy, Love & Pity dwell,
There God is dwelling too 
*
We are led to Believe a Lie 
When we see not Thro the Eye           
Which was Born in a Night to perish in a Night
When the Soul Slept in Beams of Light
God Appears & God is Light
To those poor Souls who dwell in Night 
But does a Human Form Display
To those who Dwell in Realms of day 
*
 He who sees the Infinite in all things sees
God.  He who sees the Ratio only sees himself only.

Therefore God becomes as we are, that we may be as he is
*
And we are put on earth a little space,
That we may learn to bear the beams of love,
And these black bodies and this sun-burnt face      
Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.
 
For when our souls have learn'd the heat to bear
The cloud will vanish we shall hear his voice.
Saying: come out from the grove my love & care,
And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice. 
*
When the stars threw down their spears       
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?                        
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?       

Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:                
What immortal hand or eye,             
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
 

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