POEMS FROM THE ROSSETTI MANUSCRIPT PART II

William Blake

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  • APPENDIX TO THE EARLIER POEMS IN THE ROSSETTI MANUSCRIPT
  • POEMS FROM THE ROSSETTI MANUSCRIPT PART II

  • APPENDIX TO THE EARLIER POEMS IN THE ROSSETTI MANUSCRIPT

    A Fairy leapt upon my knee
    Singing and dancing merrily;
    I said, `Thou thing of patches, rings,
    Pins, necklaces, and such-like things,
    Disgracer of the female form,
    Thou paltry, gilded, poisonous worm!'
    Weeping, he fell upon my thigh,
    And thus in tears did soft reply:
    `Knowest thou not, O Fairies' lord!
    How much by us contemn'd, abhorr'd,
    Whatever hides the female form
    That cannot bear the mortal storm?
    Therefore in pity still we give
    Our lives to make the female live;
    And what would turn into disease
    We turn to what will joy and please.'

    POEMS FROM THE ROSSETTI MANUSCRIPT PART II

    Written circa 1800-1810

    My Spectre around me night and day

    i

    My spectre around me night and day
    Like a wild beast guards my way;
    My Emanation far within
    Weeps incessantly for my sin.
    ii

    `A fathomless and boundless deep,
    There we wander, there we weep;
    On the hungry craving wind
    My Spectre follows thee behind.
    iii

    `He scents thy footsteps in the snow,
    Wheresoever thou dost go,
    Thro' the wintry hail and rain.
    When wilt thou return again?
    iv

    `Dost thou not in pride and scorn
    Fill with tempests all my morn,
    And with jealousies and fears
    Fill my pleasant nights with tears?
    v

    `Seven of my sweet loves thy knife
    Has bereavèd of their life.
    Their marble tombs I built with tears,
    And with cold and shuddering fears.
    vi

    `Seven more loves weep night and day
    Round the tombs where my loves lay,
    And seven more loves attend each night
    Around my couch with torches bright.
    vii

    `And seven more loves in my bed
    Crown with wine my mournful head,
    Pitying and forgiving all
    Thy transgressions great and small.
    viii

    `When wilt thou return and view
    My loves, and them to life renew?
    When wilt thou return and live?
    When wilt thou pity as I forgive?'
    a

    `O'er my sins thou sit and moan:
    Hast thou no sins of thy own?
    O'er my sins thou sit and weep,
    And lull thy own sins fast asleep.
    b

    `What transgressions I commit
    Are for thy transgressions fit.
    They thy harlots, thou their slave;
    And my bed becomes their grave.
    ix

    `Never, never, I return:
    Still for victory I burn.
    Living, thee alone I'll have;
    And when dead I'll be thy grave.
    x

    `Thro' the Heaven and Earth and Hell
    Thou shalt never, never quell:
    I will fly and thou pursue:
    Night and morn the flight renew.'
    c

    `Poor, pale, pitiable form
    That I follow in a storm;
    Iron tears and groans of lead
    Bind around my aching head.
    xi

    `Till I turn from Female love
    And root up the Infernal Grove,
    I shall never worthy be
    To step into Eternity.
    xii

    `And, to end thy cruel mocks,
    Annihilate thee on the rocks,
    And another form create
    To be subservient to my fate.
    xiii

    `Let us agree to give up love,
    And root up the Infernal Grove;
    Then shall we return and see
    The worlds of happy Eternity.
    xiv

    `And throughout all Eternity
    I forgive you, you forgive me.
    As our dear Redeemer said:
    "This the Wine, and this the Bread."'

    When Klopstock England defied

    When Klopstock England defied,
    Uprose William Blake in his pride;
    For old Nobodaddy aloft
    . . . and belch'd and cough'd;
    Then swore a great oath that made Heaven quake,
    And call'd aloud to English Blake.
    Blake was giving his body ease,
    At Lambeth beneath the poplar trees.
    From his seat then started he
    And turn'd him round three times three.
    The moon at that sight blush'd scarlet red,
    The stars threw down their cups and fled,
    And all the devils that were in hell,
    Answerèd with a ninefold yell.
    Klopstock felt the intripled turn,
    And all his bowels began to churn,
    And his bowels turn'd round three times three,
    And lock'd in his soul with a ninefold key; . . .
    Then again old Nobodaddy swore
    He ne'er had seen such a thing before,
    Since Noah was shut in the ark,
    Since Eve first chose her hellfire spark,
    Since 'twas the fashion to go naked,
    Since the old Anything was created . . .

    Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau

    Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau;
    Mock on, mock on; 'tis all in vain!
    You throw the sand against the wind,
    And the wind blows it back again.

    And every sand becomes a gem
    Reflected in the beams divine;
    Blown back they blind the mocking eye,
    But still in Israel's paths they shine.

    The Atoms of Democritus
    And Newton's Particles of Light
    Are sands upon the Red Sea shore,
    Where Israel's tents do shine so bright.

    I saw a Monk of Charlemaine

    i

    I saw a Monk of Charlemaine
    Arise before my sight:
    I talk'd to the Grey Monk where he stood
    In beams of infernal light.

    ii

    Gibbon arose with a lash of steel,
    And Voltaire with a wracking wheel:
    The Schools, in clouds of learning roll'd,
    Arose with War in iron and gold.

    iii

    `Thou lazy Monk,' they said afar,
    `In vain condemning glorious War,
    And in thy cell thou shall ever dwell.
    Rise, War, and bind him in his cell!'

    iv

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

    v

    `I see, I see,' the Mother said,
    `My children will die for lack of bread.
    What more has the merciless tyrant said?'
    The Monk sat down on her stony bed.

    vi

    His eye was dry, no tear could flow;
    A hollow groan first spoke his woe.
    He trembled and shudder'd upon the bed;
    At length with a feeble cry he said:

    vii

    `When God commanded this hand to write
    In the studious hours of deep midnight,
    He told me that all I wrote should prove
    The bane of all that on Earth I love.

    viii

    `My brother starv'd between two walls;
    Thy children's cry my soul appals:
    I mock'd at the wrack and griding chain;
    My bent body mocks at their torturing pain.

    ix

    `Thy father drew his sword in the North;
    With his thousands strong he is marchèd forth;
    Thy brother has armèd himself in steel
    To revenge the wrongs thy children feel.

    x

    `But vain the sword and vain the bow,
    They never can work War's overthrow;
    The hermit's prayer and the widow's tear
    Alone can free the world from fear.

    xi

    `The hand of Vengeance sought the bed
    To which the purple tyrant fled;
    The iron hand crush'd the tyrant's head,
    And became a tyrant in his stead.

    xii

    `Until the tyrant himself relent,
    The tyrant who first the black bow bent,
    Slaughter shall heap the bloody plain:
    Resistance and War is the tyrant's gain.

    xiii

    `But the tear of love — and forgiveness sweet,
    And submission to death beneath his feet —
    The tear shall melt the sword of steel,
    And every wound it has made shall heal.

    xiv

    `For the tear is an intellectual thing,
    And a sigh is the sword of an Angel King,
    And the bitter groan of the martyr's woe
    Is an arrow from the Almighty's bow.'

    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 and spears,
    Melted by dewy tears,
    Exhales on high;
    The Sun is freed from fears,
    And with soft grateful tears
    Ascends the sky.

    The Birds

    He. Where thou dwellest, in what grove,
    Tell me Fair One, tell me Love;
    Where thou thy charming nest dost build,
    O thou pride of every field!

    She. Yonder stands a lonely tree,
    There I live and mourn for thee;
    Morning drinks my silent tear,
    And evening winds my sorrow bear.

    He. O thou summer's harmony,
    I have liv'd and mourn'd for thee;
    Each day I mourn along the wood,
    And night hath heard my sorrows loud.

    She. Dost thou truly long for me?
    And am I thus sweet to thee?
    Sorrow now is at an end,
    O my Lover and my Friend!

    He. Come, on wings of joy we'll fly
    To where my bower hangs on high;
    Come, and make thy calm retreat
    Among green leaves and blossoms sweet.

    You don't believe

    You don't believe — I won't attempt to make ye:
    You are asleep — I won't attempt to wake ye.
    Sleep on! sleep on! while in your pleasant dreams
    Of Reason you may drink of Life's clear streams.
    Reason and Newton, they are quite two things;
    For so the swallow and the sparrow sings.

    Reason says `Miracle': Newton says `Doubt.'
    Aye! that's the way to make all Nature out.
    `Doubt, doubt, and don't believe without experiment':
    That is the very thing that Jesus meant,
    When He said `Only believe! believe and try!
    Try, try, and never mind the reason why!'

    If it is true what the Prophets write

    If it is true, what the Prophets write,
    That the heathen gods are all stocks and stones,
    Shall we, for the sake of being polite,
    Feed them with the juice of our marrow-bones?

    And if Bezaleel and Aholiab drew
    What the finger of God pointed to their view,
    Shall we suffer the Roman and Grecian rods
    To compel us to worship them as gods?

    They stole them from the temple of the Lord
    And worshipp'd them that they might make inspirèd art abhorr'd;

    The wood and stone were call'd the holy things,
    And their sublime intent given to their kings.
    All the atonements of Jehovah spurn'd,
    And criminals to sacrifices turn'd.

    I will tell you what Joseph of Arimathea

    I will tell you what Joseph of Arimathea
    Said to my Fairy: was not it very queer?
    `Pliny and Trajan! What! are you here?
    Come before Joseph of Arimathea.
    Listen patient, and when Joseph has done
    `Twill make a fool laugh, and a fairy fun.'

    Why was Cupid a boy

    Why was Cupid a boy,
    And why a boy was he?
    He should have been a girl,
    For aught that I can see.

    For he shoots with his bow,
    And the girl shoots with her eye,
    And they both are merry and glad,
    And laugh when we do cry.

    And to make Cupid a boy
    Was the Cupid girl's mocking plan;
    For a boy can't interpret the thing
    Till he is become a man.

    And then he's so pierc'd with cares,
    And wounded with arrowy smarts,
    That the whole business of his life
    Is to pick out the heads of the darts.

    'Twas the Greeks' love of war
    Turn'd Love into a boy,
    And woman into a statue of stone—
    And away fled every joy.

    Now Art has lost its mental charms

    `Now Art has lost its mental charms
    France shall subdue the world in arms.'
    So spoke an Angel at my birth;
    Then said `Descend thou upon earth,
    Renew the Arts on Britain's shore,
    And France shall fall down and adore.
    With works of art their armies meet
    And War shall sink beneath thy feet.
    But if thy nation Arts refuse,
    And if they scorn the immortal Muse,
    France shall the arts of peace restore
    And save thee from the ungrateful shore.'

    Spirit who lov'st Britannia's Isle
    Round which the fiends of commerce smile —

    Cetera desunt

    I rose up at the dawn of day

    I rose up at the dawn of day—
    `Get thee away! get thee away!
    Pray'st thou for riches? Away! away!
    This is the Throne of Mammon grey.'

    Said I: This, sure, is very odd;
    I took it to be the Throne of God.
    For everything besides I have:
    It is only for riches that I can crave.

    I have mental joy, and mental health,
    And mental friends, and mental wealth;
    I've a wife I love, and that loves me;
    I've all but riches bodily.

    I am in God's presence night and day,
    And He never turns His face away;
    The accuser of sins by my side doth stand,
    And he holds my money-bag in his hand.

    For my worldly things God makes him pay,
    And he'd pay for more if to him I would pray;
    And so you may do the worst you can do;
    Be assur'd, Mr. Devil, I won't pray to you.

    Then if for riches I must not pray,
    God knows, I little of prayers need say;
    So, as a church is known by its steeple,
    If I pray it must be for other people.

    He says, if I do not worship him for a God,
    I shall eat coarser food, and go worse shod;
    So, as I don't value such things as these,
    You must do, Mr. Devil, just as God please.

    The Caverns of the Grave I've seen

    The Caverns of the Grave I've seen,
    And these I show'd to England's Queen.
    But now the Caves of Hell I view,
    Who shall I dare to show them to?
    What mighty soul in Beauty's form
    Shall dauntless view the infernal storm?
    Egremont's Countess can control
    The flames of Hell that round me roll;
    If she refuse, I still go on
    Till the Heavens and Earth are gone,
    Still admir'd by noble minds,
    Follow'd by Envy on the winds,
    Re-engrav'd time after time,
    Ever in their youthful prime,
    My designs unchang'd remain.
    Time may rage, but rage in vain.
    For above Time's troubled fountains,
    On the great Atlantic Mountains,
    In my Golden House on high,
    There they shine eternally.