DIGITAL BLAKE

Jerusalem

 Plate 64
EDITED BY

David V. Erdman

eE /beta -- this release offered for proof-reading
    please report errors to 
    blaketxt@virtual.park.uga.edu/

In a letter signed March 14, 1995, David V. Erdman and Virginia
B. Erdman convey David V. Erdman's permission to make freely
available a digital version of his edition of The Complete
Poetry and Prose of William Blake. Such unselfish generosity is
characteristic of David Erdman's political and intellectual
commitment throughout a life spent building up Jerusalem and 
making Blake more accessible to all.  As we read at - 700 - below:

     Go on   Go on.  such works as yours Nature & Providence 
   the Eternal Parents demand from their children how few 
   produce them in such perfection how Nature smiles on them. 
   how Providence rewards them.  How all your Brethren say,
   The sound of his harp & his flute heard from his secret 
   forest chears us to the labours of life. 

This file, the electronic Erdman (eE), makes a fitting new form
for a work which began over thirty years ago in the preparation
of a text for the printed Concordance to the poetry and prose
of William Blake and which now will serve as the basis for an
even more useful electronic version.

For assistance with this digital edition, I am grateful to the
University of Georgia Research Foundation and to University of
Georgia Department of English, especially its research assistants
William Cole, Margaret Crumpton, Patrick Darden, and Beth-Ann
Neighbors.  Alexander S. Gourlay gave extensive help and valuable
advice on several occasions.  Also offering assistance were Elisa
E. Beshero, Gregg A. Hecimovich, Thomas A. Vogler, and Paul
Yoder.  Thanks also to Mark Trevor Smith and Joseph Viscomi as
the first to spot needed corrections, and to Alexander Gourlay,
again, for many, many more.

This "beta" release of eE offers an ascii version of the 1988
Erdman text, with a line length of 65 characters.  The commentary
and most references to it are not included.  Line numbers and
headers have been deleted, and the superscript placement of
letters and numbers is not noted, but italics are indicated with
the markup tags .  Textual notes are indicated by a
lower-case "t" in the right margin or, rarely, in a tag (<t>) in
the midst of prose (the notes will be linked to the text in a
later release).  Longer passages of writing not by Blake (as in
the extracts which supply context for the marginalia and some of
the  textual notes) are set off by the tags <!WB></!WB>.  The
Erdman page numbers are at the bottom of each page of text,
surrounded by hyphen and space (- xxx -).  A very few
typographical errors in the printed text have been silently
corrected, and soft hyphenations have been eliminated.

Presently in preparation are an SGML version of this file, under
the auspices of the Blake Archive, and an online concordance.

Corrections, suggestions, and comments are most welcome.

Nelson Hilton
3 September 1996

Digital Blake Text Project
blaketxt@english.uga.edu

____________

https://www.academia.edu/22567812/The_Complete_Poetry_and_Prose_of_William_Blake 

https://www.academia.edu/22567812/The_Complete_Poetry_and_Prose_of_William_Blake

 

SWEET & LOVELY

 Wikipedia Commons

Song of Los 

Plate 5

Blake could have written nature poetry, like Wordsworth's, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, and occasionally he did. But like his character Enion he found it impossible to neglect the contrary nature of our world which is dark and dirty. 

 Milton, Plate 31 [34], (E 131)

"Thou percievest the Flowers put forth their precious Odours!
And none can tell how from so small a center comes such sweets
Forgetting that within that Center Eternity expands
Its ever during doors, that Og & Anak fiercely guard.
First eer the morning breaks joy opens in the flowery bosoms     
Joy even to tears, which the Sun rising dries; first the Wild Thyme
And Meadow-sweet downy & soft waving among the reeds.
Light springing on the air lead the sweet Dance: they wake
The Honeysuckle sleeping on the Oak: the flaunting beauty
Revels along upon the wind; the White-thorn lovely May           
Opens her many lovely eyes: listening the Rose still sleeps   
None dare to wake her. soon she bursts her crimson curtaind bed
And comes forth in the majesty of beauty; every Flower:
The Pink, the Jessamine, the Wall-flower, the Carnation
The Jonquil, the mild Lilly opes her heavens! every Tree,        
And Flower & Herb soon fill the air with an innumerable Dance
Yet all in order sweet & lovely, Men are sick with Love!
Such is a Vision of the lamentation of Beulah over Ololon"

Four Zoas, Night II , Page 35, (E 325)

"What is the price of Experience do men buy it for a song
Or wisdom for a dance in the street? No it is bought with the price
Of all that a man hath his house his wife his children
Wisdom is sold in the desolate market where none come to buy
And in the witherd field where the farmer plows for bread in vain

It is an easy thing to triumph in the summers sun
And in the vintage & to sing on the waggon loaded with corn
It is an easy thing to talk of patience to the afflicted
To speak the laws of prudence to the houseless wanderer

PAGE 36
To listen to the hungry ravens cry in wintry season
When the red blood is filld with wine & with the marrow of lambs

It is an easy thing to laugh at wrathful elements
To hear the dog howl at the wintry door, the ox in the slaughter house moan
To see a god on every wind & a blessing on every blast           
To hear sounds of love in the thunder storm that destroys our enemies house
To rejoice in the blight that covers his field, & the sickness that cuts off his children
While our olive & vine sing & laugh round our door & our children bring fruits & flowers

Then the groan & the dolor are quite forgotten & the slave grinding at the mill
And the captive in chains & the poor in the prison, & the soldier in the field
When the shatterd bone hath laid him groaning among the happier dead

It is an easy thing to rejoice in the tents of prosperity
Thus could I sing & thus rejoice, but it is not so with me!"
 

 

MORAVIAN MOTHER 7

 

 Wikipedia Commons

America

Frontispiece

When I posted on six different aspects of Blake's thought which are congruent with practices of the Moravian Church, I neglected to write on the attitude toward war. The Moravians were long known as a Peace Church although they have not always been completely committed to pacifism. Blake's attitude toward war evolved over time also. 

As a young man Blake was not opposed to the French Revolution or the American Revolution in principle. Later in life he expressed in his poem 'The Gray Monk' the idea that the violence of war could never accomplish the goals which the exercise of justice and mercy could. At the end of The Four Zoas when "The war of swords departed", the new age of science reigned for the pursuit of intellectual war. Blake knew that "the Religion of Jesus, Forgiveness of Sin, can never be the cause of a War."

When John Wesley traveled to the Colony of Georgia in 1736 he was a passenger on a ship with Moravians who like Wesley were  journeying as missionaries. Wesley made this observation of his fellow passengers:

"And every day had given them occasion of showing a meekness which no injury could move. If they were pushed, struck, or thrown down, they rose again and went away; but no complaint was found in their mouth. There was now an opportunity of trying whether they were delivered from the Spirit of fear, as well as from that of pride, anger, and revenge." 

This is testimony to the spirit of pacifism exhibited by Moravians during the lifetime of Blake's mother. William would have learned from his mother that one need not react against attacks if one were guided by mercy, peace and love within.  

On The Flaming Heretic blog Craig D. Atwood wrote of the history of Moravian pacifism: 

"The Brotherly Agreement they signed in 1727 stipulated that they would seek to live in peace with all people. Disputes were to be settled through conversation rather than violence."

"Some of the younger Moravians in Pennsylvania and North Carolina did enlist in the revolutionary army and were allowed to rejoin the church after the war."

"For four hundred years the Moravian Church maintained a fairly consistent peace witness, but this was largely forgotten during the titanic conflicts of the past two centuries." 

Read of the first Fourth of July celebration. 

Songs and Ballads, (E 478) 

 "Morning

To find the western path
Right thro the gates of Wrath
I urge my way
Sweet Mercy leads me on
With soft repentant moan         
I see the break of day

The war of swords & spears
Melted by dewy tears
Exhales on high
The Sun is freed from fears     
And with soft grateful tears
Ascends the sky." 

Songs and Ballads, (E 489)

  "The Grey Monk 

I die I die the Mother said
My Children die for lack of Bread               
What more has the merciless Tyrant said
The Monk sat down on the Stony Bed              

The blood red ran from the Grey Monks side 
His hands & feet were wounded wide
His Body bent his arms & knees
Like to the roots of ancient trees

His eye was dry no tear could flow
A hollow groan first spoke his woe 
He trembled & shudderd upon the Bed             
At length with a feeble cry he said

When God commanded this hand to write
In the studious hours of deep midnight
He told me the writing I wrote should prove     
The Bane of all that on Earth I lovd            

My Brother starvd between two Walls
His Childrens Cry my Soul appalls
I mockd at the wrack & griding chain            
My bent body mocks their torturing pain         

Thy Father drew his sword in the North
With his thousands strong he marched forth      
Thy Brother has armd himself in Steel           
To avenge the wrongs thy Children feel          

But vain the Sword & vain the Bow 
They never can work Wars overthrow
The Hermits Prayer & the Widows tear
Alone can free the World from fear

For a Tear is an Intellectual Thing      
And a Sigh is the Sword of an Angel King 
And the bitter groan of the Martyrs woe    
Is an Arrow from the Almighties Bow

The hand of Vengeance found the Bed        
To which the Purple Tyrant fled
The iron hand crushd the Tyrants head 
And became a Tyrant in his stead"           

Milton, Plate 1, (E 95)

"I will not cease from Mental Fight,
     Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand
     Till we have built Jerusalem,                     
     In Englands green & pleasant Land."  

Jerusalem, Plate 52, (E 201) 

 "But you also charge the poor Monks & Religious with being the
causes of War: while you acquit & flatter the Alexanders &
Caesars, the Lewis's & Fredericks: who alone are its causes & its
actors.  But the Religion of Jesus, Forgiveness of Sin, can never
be the cause of a War nor of a single Martyrdom.
  Those who Martyr others or who cause War are Deists, but never
can be Forgivers of Sin.  The Glory of Christianity is, To
Conquer by Forgiveness.  All the Destruction therefore, in
Christian Europe has arisen from Deism, which is Natural
Religion.                          

  I saw a Monk of Charlemaine                       
Arise before my sight 
  I talkd with the Grey Monk as we stood            
In beams of infernal light

  Gibbon arose with a lash of steel                 
And Voltaire with a wracking wheel
  The Schools in clouds of learning rolld           
Arose with War in iron & gold.

  Thou lazy Monk they sound afar                    
In vain condemning glorious War                     
  And in your Cell you shall ever dwell             
Rise War & bind him in his Cell.

  The blood. red ran from the Grey Monks side
His hands & feet were wounded wide
  His body bent, his arms & knees          
Like to the roots of ancient trees

  When Satan first the black bow bent
And the Moral Law from the Gospel rent
  He forgd the Law into a Sword
And spilld the blood of mercys Lord.
     
  Titus! Constantine!  Charlemaine!                 
O Voltaire! Rousseau! Gibbon! Vain
  Your Grecian Mocks & Roman Sword                  
Against this image of his Lord!

  For a Tear is an Intellectual thing;               
And a Sigh is the Sword of an Angel King
  And the bitter groan of a Martyrs woe              
Is an Arrow from the Almighties Bow!"

Jerusalem, Plate 65, (E 216)

"Then left the Sons of Urizen the plow & harrow, the loom
The hammer & the chisel, & the rule & compasses; from London fleeing
They forg'd the sword on Cheviot, the chariot of war & the battle-ax,
The trumpet fitted to mortal battle, & the flute of summer in Annandale
And all the Arts of Life. they changd into the Arts of Death in Albion.
The hour-glass contemnd because its simple workmanship.
Was like the workmanship of the plowman, & the water wheel,
That raises water into cisterns: broken & burnd with fire:
Because its workmanship. was like the workmanship of the shepherd. 
And in their stead, intricate wheels invented, wheel without wheel:
To perplex youth in their outgoings, & to bind to labours in Albion
Of day & night the myriads of eternity that they may grind
And polish brass & iron hour after hour laborious task!
Kept ignorant of its use, that they might spend the days of wisdom
In sorrowful drudgery, to obtain a scanty pittance of bread:
In ignorance to view a small portion & think that All,
And call it Demonstration: blind to all the simple rules of life.

Now: now the battle rages round thy tender limbs O Vala
Now smile among thy bitter tears: now put on all thy beauty      
Is not the wound of the sword sweet! & the broken bone delightful?
Wilt thou now smile among the scythes when the wounded groan in the field?
We were carried away in thousands from London; & in tens
Of thousands from Westminster & Marybone in ships closd up:
Chaind hand & foot, compelld to fight under the iron whips       
Of our captains; fearing our officers more than the enemy."

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 139, (E 407)

"Urthona is arisen in his strength no longer now
Divided from Enitharmon no longer the Spectre Los                
Where is the Spectre of Prophecy where the delusive Phantom
Departed & Urthona rises from the ruinous walls
In all his ancient strength to form the golden armour of science
For intellectual War The war of swords departed now
The dark Religions are departed & sweet Science reigns           

                  End of The Dream" 

 MORAVIAN MOTHER  

ANCIENT BLISS

First posted June 2013

Humanity is continually at the edge of the abyss contemplating the offer of growing into the fullness of the image of God in whose likeness he was created. His alternative is to create a fallen word in the likeness of his own reflection in the mirror of nature. 

Tate

Allegory of the Bible

Northrop Frye in Fearful Symmetry makes these comments:

Page 255
"Now when a germ of life grows it recreates it original form: if there were no original form of the oak tree the acorn would not know what to do. Similarly, the original form of the germ of life that grew out of  the world long ago is most clearly indicated by the most mature and full-grown forms of life that exist in the world, that is, human societies."

Page 256
"Our present human society, then has evolved out of a seed of life dropped in a dead world from a preceding eternal human society, and we cannot ask where the eternal society in its turn came from, because that is pushing the idea of time further than it will go. If we study this image more carefully, we can see that the seed of life was the dead world, fallen from eternity, and that the seed will have achieved its original form when the dead world, including the sun and the stars, become again a city and a garden. The achievement of a permanent human civilization and culture is  the next stage in development, and if that is not the end, we shall see what the end is  more clearly from there."

Page 259
"Man stands at the level of conscious life: immediately in front of him is the power to visualize the eternal city and garden he is trying to regain; immediately behind him is the unconscious, involuntary and cyclic energy, much of which goes on inside his own body. Man is therefore a Luvah or form of life subject to two impulses, one the prophetic impulse leading him forward to vision, the other the natural impulse which drags him back to unconsciousness and finally to death." 

In the sixth chapter of Genesis we learn of God's disgust with the world of man turned away from the vision of God.  

Genesis 6
[5] And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
[6] And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
[7] And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
[8] But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

Blake wrote these words on his Laocoon engraving as his understanding of verse six of the above quote:

"He repented that he had made Adam
(of the Female, the Adamah)
 & it grieved him at his heart"

For 'man' Blake uses the word 'Adam'; for the earth (or dust) he uses the word 'Adamah' which is feminine in the Hebrew. Blake's interpretation is that God repented of making man by assimilating matter, the feminine principle, into his creation of man. God attempted a new beginning with Noah wiping out all but a remnant. However that strategy was unsuccessful as have been many subsequent attempts to set man on the right path. 

Blake sees that the sorrows of man are the sorrows of God too. The brokenness of our world will begin to be mended when the scattered body of man reassembles into the image of God.

Jerusalem, Plate 83, (E242)
[Los speaking]
"And sometimes the Earth shall roll in the Abyss & sometimes 
Stand in the Center & sometimes stretch flat in the Expanse,
According to the will of the lovely Daughters of Albion.
Sometimes it shall assimilate with mighty Golgonooza:
Touching its summits: & sometimes divided roll apart.
As a beautiful Veil so these Females shall fold & unfold      
According to their will the outside surface of the Earth
An outside shadowy Surface superadded to the real Surface;
Which is unchangeable for ever & ever Amen: so be it!
Separate Albions Sons gently from their Emanations,
Weaving bowers of delight on the current of infant Thames 
Where the old Parent still retains his youth as I alas!
Retain my youth eight thousand and five hundred years.
The labourer of ages in the Valleys of Despair!

The land is markd for desolation & unless we plant
The seeds of Cities & of Villages in the Human bosom

Albion must be a rock of blood:" 

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 113 [109], (E 385)
"Listen I will tell thee what is done in the caverns of the grave 
Page 114 [110], 
The Lamb of God has rent the Veil of Mystery soon to return
In Clouds & Fires around the rock & the Mysterious tree
As the seed waits Eagerly watching for its flower & fruit
Anxious its little soul looks out into the clear expanse
To see if hungry winds are abroad with their invisible army 
So Man looks out in tree & herb & fish & bird & beast
Collecting up the scatterd portions of his immortal body
Into the Elemental forms of every thing that grows
He tries the sullen north wind riding on its angry furrows
The sultry south when the sun rises & the angry east 
When the sun sets when the clods harden & the cattle stand
Drooping & the birds hide in their silent nests. he stores his thoughts
As in a store house in his memory he regulates the forms
Of all beneath & all above   & in the gentle West
Reposes where the Suns heat dwells   he rises to the Sun
And to the Planets of the Night & to the stars that gild
The Zodiac & the stars that sullen stand to north & south
He touches the remotest pole & in the Center weeps
That Man should Labour & sorrow & learn & forget & return
To the dark valley whence he came to begin his labours anew
In pain he sighs in pain he labours in his universe
Screaming in birds over the deep & howling in the Wolf
Over the slain & moaning in the cattle & in the winds
And weeping over Orc & Urizen in clouds & flaming fires 
And in the cries of birth & in the groans of death his voice 
Is heard throughout the Universe whereever a grass grows
Or a leaf buds   The Eternal Man is seen is heard   is felt
And all his Sorrows till he reassumes his ancient bliss

Such are the words of Ahania & Enion. Los hears & weeps"       

 

COPPER FRAGMENT

This a print from the only fragment of one of Blake's original copper plates for his Illuminated Books. Presumably the other plates were melted down in order to reuse the copper.  The object is in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

Enhanced image from copper fragment of America, Plate 3.

Wikimedia Commons

America A Prophecy

Plate 3

America, Plate 3, (E 52)
                              " A PROPHECY

The Guardian Prince of Albion burns in his nightly tent,
Sullen fires across the Atlantic glow to America's shore:
Piercing the souls of warlike men, who rise in silent night,
Washington, Franklin, Paine & Warren, Gates, Hancock & Green;
Meet on the coast glowing with blood from Albions fiery Prince. 

Washington spoke; Friends of America look over the Atlantic sea;
A bended bow is lifted in heaven, & a heavy iron chain
Descends link by link from Albions cliffs across the sea to bind
Brothers & sons of America, till our faces pale and yellow;
Heads deprest, voices weak, eyes downcast, hands work-bruis'd,
Feet bleeding on the sultry sands, and the furrows of the whip
Descend to generations that in future times forget.----

The strong voice ceas'd; for a terrible blast swept over the heaving sea;
The eastern cloud rent; on his cliffs stood Albions wrathful Prince
A dragon form clashing his scales at midnight he arose,          
And flam'd red meteors round the land of Albion beneath[.] 

His voice, his locks, his awful shoulders, and his glowing eyes, 

Plate 4 
Appear to the Americans upon the cloudy night.

Solemn heave the Atlantic waves between the gloomy nations,
Swelling, belching from its deeps red clouds & raging Fires!
Albion is sick. America faints! enrag'd the Zenith grew.
As human blood shooting its veins all round the orbed heaven     
Red rose the clouds from the Atlantic in vast wheels of blood
And in the red clouds rose a Wonder  o'er the Atlantic sea;
Intense! naked! a Human fire fierce glowing, as the wedge
Of iron heated in the furnace; his terrible limbs were fire
With myriads of cloudy terrors banners dark & towers             
Surrounded; heat but not light went thro' the murky atmosphere

The King of England looking westward trembles at the vision"

ZOAS IN PSYCHE

Yale Center for British Art

Jerusalem

Plate 36, Detail

 In 2020 there were 7 posts on the topic of READING WITCUTT. Blake: a Psychological Study is a small book written by William Purcell Witcutt in 1946. In his Introduction Witcutt calls Blake's work 'a veritable jungle of symbols.' Witcutt proposes to 'provide a plan of the maze' encountered when studying Blake's Prophetic Books. An understanding of mythology, symbolism and psychology are the keys he supplies to unlocking Blake's dense poetry. 

We had the good fortune to come across this book in the Arlington County Library in 1978. This was the beginning of Larry's interest in Blake. The linking of Blake with Jung made a profound impact on Larry and redirected his studies in the direction of Blake.

Perhaps Witcutt's book is flawed in some ways, but there seems to have been few other scholars who pursued the connections between Jungian psychology and Blake's poetry as thoroughly. As Witcutt explores Blake's characters, they seen to be active and recognizable in our own psyches, expanding our consciousness. Blake and Witcutt pursued their own paths as their own consciousness expanded. Would that we could do likewise.

Letters, To  Thomas Butts, (E713)

     "In his beams of bright gold
     Like dross purgd away
     All my mire & my clay
     Soft consumd in delight
     In his bosom sun bright
     I remaind.  Soft he smild
     And I heard his voice Mild
     Saying This is My Fold
     O thou Ram hornd with gold
     Who awakest from sleep
     On the sides of the Deep
     On the Mountains around
     The roarings resound
     Of the lion & wolf
     The loud sea & deep gulf
     These are guards of My Fold
     O thou Ram hornd with gold
     And the voice faded mild
     I remaind as a Child
     All I ever had known
     Before me bright Shone
     I saw you & your wife
     By the fountains of Life
     Such the Vision to me
     Appeard on the Sea"

 Links to posts in 2022.

READING WITCUTT

READING WITCUTT 2

READING WITCUTT  3

READING WITCUTT  4

READING WITCUTT  5

READING WITCUTT  6

READING WITCUTT  7

 

 

IMAGE OF GOD

Wikisource

Jerusalem

Plate 99

In the thought of C G Jung the dynamic of individuation involves the ego/self axis which connects the conscious and unconscious functioning of the psyche. The ego, or consciousness, arises from the original state of unconsciousness which is the undifferentiated psyche. Jung calls the total psyche the Self; Blake calls the total psyche Albion (or Jesus or the Imagination.)

Jung and Blake discern that when consciousness develops, the connection between conscious mental processing and the unconscious totality is fractured. This is imaged as the division into the four functions in Jung and into the Four Zoas in Blake. Both men directed their thoughts to the restoration of the psyche as a unified whole which would incorporate the sundered parts and express each without division or competition.

In Blake the Zoa which became dominant was Urizen, the reasoning power of man. In Jung the ego which acted as the executive of the psyche was the thinking function. Blake and Jung agree that thought - not emotion, sensation, or intuition - governed the conscious functioning of the psyche.

Blake portrays the aspects of the psyche which are not dominant as struggling to wrest control from the rational function. This represents a tug of war in the individual as the separate parts seek expression. Luvah, Tharmas and Los battle with Urizen until the Eternal form of Los - Urthona - brings all into a unity as it was in the unconscious before the psyche interacted with the external world.

The parallel process takes place in Jung's system. The divided psyche which is under control of the rational mind or ego reconnects with the unified unconscious called the Self. Through the process of individuation the ego experiences that the totality of the psyche is the Self and the ego is drawn back into the greater reality.   

Blake discerned that the ultimate reconciliation restored to man the ability to perceive the Infinite Eternal Divine. Jung expressed the resolution of the process of restoring wholeness to the psyche in terms of the ego gradually subordinating itself to the completeness of the Self which is as close to a God-image as Jung goes.

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 191, (E 391) 

"And the Eternal Man Said Hear my words O Prince of Light 

PAGE 122 
Behold Jerusalem in whose bosom the Lamb of God
Is seen tho slain before her Gates he self renewd remains
Eternal & I thro him awake to life from deaths dark vale
The times revolve the time is coming when all these delights
Shall be renewd & all these Elements that now consume            
Shall reflourish. Then bright Ahania shall awake from death
A glorious Vision to thine Eyes a Self renewing Vision  

Jerusalem, Plate 27, (E 171)

You have a tradition, that Man anciently containd in his mighty
limbs all things in Heaven & Earth: this you recieved from the
Druids.
  "But now the Starry Heavens are fled from the mighty limbs of
Albion" 

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 133, (E 402)

"Not for ourselves but for the Eternal family we live
Man liveth not by Self alone but in his brothers face            
Each shall behold the Eternal Father & love & joy abound

So spoke the Eternal at the Feast they embracd the New born Man
Calling him Brother image of the Eternal Father. they sat down
At the immortal tables sounding loud their instruments of joy
Calling the Morning into Beulah the Eternal Man rejoicd"   

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 136), (E 404)

"This dreadful Non Existence is worse than pains of Eternal Birth
Eternal Death who can Endure. let us consume in fires
In waters stifling or in air corroding or in earth shut up
The Pangs of Eternal birth are better than the Pangs of Eternal Death"

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 138, (E 406)

"Such are the works of Dark Urthona  Tharmas sifted the corn
Urthona made the Bread of Ages & he placed it
In golden & in silver baskets in heavens of precious stone
And then took his repose in Winter in the night of Time

The Sun has left his blackness & has found a fresher morning     
And the mild moon rejoices in the clear & cloudless night 
And Man walks forth from midst of the fires  the evil is all consumd"