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    The Complete Poems

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      For when Los joind with me he took me in his firy whirlwind

      My Vegetated portion was hurried from Lambeths shades

      He set me down in Felphams Vale & prepard a beautiful

      Cottage for me that in three years I might write all these Visions

      To display Natures cruel holiness: the deceits of Natural Religion[.]

      Walking in my Cottage Garden, sudden I beheld

      The Virgin Ololon & address’d her as a Daughter of Beulah

      Virgin of Providence fear not to enter into my Cottage

      What is thy message to thy friend? What am I now to do

      30 Is it again to plunge into deeper affliction? behold me

      Ready to obey, but pity thou my Shadow of Delight

      Enter my Cottage, comfort her, for she is sick with fatigue

      PLATE 37

      The Virgin answerd. Knowest thou of Milton who descended

      Driven from Eternity; him I seek! terrified at my Act

      In Great Eternity which thou knowest! I come him to seek

      So Ololon utterd in words distinct the anxious thought

      Mild was the voice, but more distinct than any earthly

      That Miltons Shadow heard & condensing all his Fibres

      Into a strength impregnable of majesty & beauty infinite

      I saw he was the Covering Cherub and within him Satan

      And Raha[b], in an outside which is fallacious! within

      10 Beyond the outline of Identity, in the Selfhood deadly

      And he appeard the Wicker Man of Scandinavia in whom

      Jerusalems children consume in flames among the Stars

      Descending down into my Garden, a Human Wonder of God

      Reaching from heaven to earth a Cloud & Human Form

      I beheld Milton with astonishment & in him beheld

      The Monstrous Churches of Beulah, the Gods of Ulro dark

      Twelve monstrous dishumanizd terrors Synagogues of Satan.

      A Double Twelve & Thrice Nine: such their divisions.

      And these their Names & their Places within the Mundane Shell

      20 In Tyre & Sidon I saw Baal & Ashtaroth. In Moab Chemosh

      In Ammon, Molech: loud his Furnaces rage among the Wheels

      Of Og, & pealing loud the cries of the Victims of Fire:

      And pale his Priestesses infolded in Veils of Pestilence, border’d

      With War; Woven in Looms of Tyre & Sidon by beautiful Ashtaroth.

      In Palestine Dagon, Sea Monster! worshipd o’er the Sea.

      Thammuz in Lebanon & Rimmon in Damascus curtaind

      Osiris: Isis: Orus: in Egypt: dark their Tabernacles on Nile

      Floating with solemn songs, & on the Lakes of Egypt nightly

      With pomp, even till morning break & Osiris appear in the sky

      30 But Belial of Sodom & Gomorrha, obscure Demon of Bribes

      And secret Assasinations, not worshipd nor adord; but

      With the finger on the lips & the back turnd to the light

      And Saturn Jove & Rhea of the Isles of the Sea remote

      These Twelve Gods, are the Twelve Spectre Sons of the Druid Albion

      And these the names of the Twenty-seven Heavens & their Churches

      Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch,

      Methuselah, Lamech: these are Giants mighty Hermaphroditic

      Noah, Shem, Arphaxad, Cainan the second, Salah, Heber,

      Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, these are the Female-Males

      40 A Male within a Female hid as in an Ark & Curtains,

      Abraham, Moses, Solomon, Paul, Constantine, Charlemaine

      Luther, these seven are the Male-Females, the Dragon Forms

      Religion hid in War, a Dragon red & hidden Harlot

      All these are seen in Miltons Shadow who is the Covering Cherub

      The Spectre of Albion in which the Spectre of Luvah inhabits

      In the Newtonian Voids between the Substances of Creation

      For the Chaotic Voids outside of the Stars are measured by

      The Stars, which are the boundaries of Kingdoms, Provinces

      And Empires of Chaos invisible in the Vegetable Man

      50 The Kingdom of Og, is in Orion: Sihon is in Ophiucus

      Og has Twenty-seven Districts; Sihons Districts Twenty-one

      From Star to Star, Mountains & Valleys, terrible dimension

      Stretchd out, compose the Mundane Shell, a mighty Incrustation

      Of Forty-eight deformed Human Wonders of the Almighty

      With Caverns whose remotest bottoms meet again beyond

      The Mundane Shell in Golgonooza, but the Fires of Los, rage

      In the remotest bottoms of the Caves, that none can pass

      Into Eternity that way, but all descend to Los

      To Bowlahoola & Allamanda & to Entuthon Benython

      60 The Heavens are the Cherub, the Twelve Gods are Satan

      PLATE 38

      And the Forty-eight Starry Regions are Cities of the Levites

      The Heads of the Great Polypus, Four-fold twelve enormity

      In mighty & mysterious comingling enemy with enemy

      Woven by Urizen into Sexes from his mantle of years

      And Milton collecting all his fibres into impregnable strength

      Descended down a Paved work of all kinds of precious stones

      Out from the eastern sky; descending down into my Cottage

      Garden: clothed in black, severe & silent he descended.

      The Spectre of Satan stood upon the roaring sea & beheld

      10 Milton within his sleeping Humanity: trembling & sbuddring

      He stood upon the waves a Twenty-seven-fold mighty Demon

      Gorgeous & beautiful: loud roll his thunders against Milton

      Loud Satan thunderd, loud & dark upon mild Felpham shore

      Not daring to touch one fibre he howld round upon the Sea.

      I also stood in Satans bosom & beheld its desolations!

      A ruind Man: a ruind building of God not made with hands;

      Its plains of burning sand, its mountains of marble terrible:

      Its pits & declivities flowing with molten orc & fountains

      Of pitch & nitre: its ruind palaces & cities & mighty works;

      20 Its furnaces of affliction in which his Angels & Emanations

      Labour with blackend visages among its stupendous ruins

      Arches & pyramids & porches colonades & domes:

      In which dwells Mystery Babylon, here is her secret place

      From hence she comes forth on the Churches in delight

      Here is her Cup filld with its poisons, in these horrid vales

      And here her scarlet Veil woven in pestilence & war:

      Here is Jerusalem bound in chains, in the Dens of Babylon

      In the Eastern porch of Satans Universe Milton stood &said

      Satan! my Spectre! I know my power thee to annihilate

      30 And be a greater in thy place, & be thy Tabernacle

      A covering for thee to do thy will, till one greater comes

      And smites me as I smote thee & becomes my covering.

      Such are the Laws of thy false Heavns! but Laws of Eternity

      Are not such: know thou: I come to Self Annihilation

      Such are the Laws of Eternity that each shall mutually

      Annihilate himself for others good, as I for thee[.]

      Thy purpose & the purpose of thy Priests & of thy Churches

      Is to impress on men the fear of death; to teach

      Trembling & fear, terror, constriction; abject selfishness

      40 Mine is to teach Men to despise death & to go on

      In fearless majesty annihilating Self, laughing to scorn

      Thy Laws & terrors, shaking down thy Synagogues as webs

      I come to discover before Heavn & Hell the Self righteousness

      In all its Hypocritic turpitude, opening to every eye

      These wonders of Satans holiness shewing to the Earth

      The Idol Virtues of the Natural Heart
    , & Satans Seat

      Explore in all its Selfish Natural Virtue & put off

      In Self annihilation all that is not of God alone:

      To put off Self & all I have ever & ever Amen

      50 Satan heard! Coming in a cloud, with trumpets & flaming fire,

      Saying I am God the judge of all, the living & the dead

      Fall therefore down & worship me. submit thy supreme

      Dictate, to my eternal Will & to my dictate bow

      I hold the Balances of Right & Just & mine the Sword

      Seven Angels bear my Name & in those Seven I appear

      But I alone am God & I alone in Heavn & Earth

      Of all that live dare utter this, others tremble & bow

      PLATE 39

      Till All Things become One Great Satan, in Holiness

      Oppos’d to Mercy, and the Divine Delusion Jesus be no more

      Suddenly around Milton on my Path, the Starry Seven

      Burnd terrible! my Path became a solid fire, as bright

      As the clear Sun & Milton silent came down on my Path.

      And there went forth from the Starry limbs of the Seven: Forms

      Human; with Trumpets innumerable, sounding articulate

      As the Seven spake; and they stood in a mighty Column of Fire

      Surrounding Felphams Vale, reaching to the Mundane Shell, Saying

      10 Awake Albion awake! reclaim thy Reasoning Spectre. Subdue

      Him to the Divine Mercy, Cast him down into the Lake

      Of Los, that ever burneth with fire, ever & ever Amen!

      Let the Four Zoa’s awake from Slumbers of Six Thousand Years

      Then loud the Furnaces of Los were heard! & seen as Seven Heavens

      Stretching from south to north over the mountains of Albion

      Satan heard; trembling round his Body, he incircled it

      He trembled with exceeding great trembling & astonishment

      Howling in his Spectre round his Body hungring to devour

      But fearing for the pain for if he touches a Vital,

      20 His torment is unendurable: therefore he cannot devour:

      But howls round it as a lion round his prey continually.

      Loud Satan thunderd, loud & dark upon mild Felphams Shore

      Coming in a Cloud with Trumpets & with Fiery Flame

      An awful Form eastward from midst of a bright Paved-work

      Of precious stones by Cherubim surrounded: so permitted

      (Lest he should fall apart in his Eternal Death) to imitate

      The Eternal Great Humanity Divine surrounded by

      His Cherubim & Seraphim in every happy Eternity

      Beneath sat Chaos: Sin on his right hand Death on his left

      30 And Ancient Night spread over all the heavn his Mantle of Laws

      He trembled with exceeding great trembling & astonishment

      Then Albion rose up in the Night of Beulah on his Couch

      Of dread repose seen by the visionary eye; his face is toward

      The east, toward Jerusalems Gates: groaning he sat above

      His rocks. London & Bath & Legions & Edinburgh

      Are the four pillars of his Throne; his left foot near London

      Covers the shades of Tyburn: his instep from Windsor

      To Primrose Hill stretching to Highgate & Holloway

      London is between his knees: its basements fourfold

      40 His right foot stretches to the sea on Dover cliffs, his heel

      On Canterbutys ruins; his right hand covers lofty Wales

      His left Scotland; his bosom girt with gold involves

      York, Edinburgh, Durham & Carlisle & on the front

      Bath, Oxford, Cambridge, Norwich; his right elbow

      Leans on the Rocks of Erins Land, Ireland ancient nation[.]

      His head bends over London: he sees his embodied Spectre

      Trembling before him with exceeding great trembling & fear

      He views Jerusalem & Babylon, his tears flow down

      He movd his right foot to Cornwall, his left to the Rocks of Bognor

      50 He strove to rise to walk into the Deep. but strength failing

      Forbad & down with dreadful groans he sunk upon his Couch

      In moony Beulah. Los his strong Guard walks round beneath the Moon

      Urizen faints in terror striving among the Brooks of Arnon

      With Miltons Spirit: as the Plowman or Artificer or Shepherd

      While in the labours of his Calling sends his Thought abroad

      To labour in the ocean or in the starry heaven, So Milton

      Labourd in Chasms of the Mundane Shell, tho here before

      My Cottage midst the Starry Seven, where the Virgin Ololon

      Stood trembling in the Porch: loud Satan thunder’d on the stormy Sea

      60 Circling Albions Cliffs in which the Four-fold World resides

      Tho seen in fallacy outside: a fallacy of Satans Churches

      PLATE 40

      Before Ololon Milton stood & percievd the Eternal Form

      Of that mild Vision; wondrous were their acts by me unknown

      Except remotely; and I heard Ololon say to Milton

      I see thee strive upon the Brooks of Arnon. there a dread

      And awful Man I see, oercoverd with the mantle of years.

      I behold Los & Urizen. I behold Orc & Tharmas!

      The Four Zoa’s of Albion & thy Spirit with them striving

      In Self annihilation giving thy life to thy enemies

      Are those who contemn Religion & seek to annihilate it

      10 Become in their Femin[in]e portions the causes & promoters

      Of these Religions, how is this thing? this Newtonian Phantasm

      This Voltaire & Rousseau: this Hume & Gibbon & Bolingbroke

      This Natural Religion! this impossible absurdity

      Is Ololon the cause of this? O where shall I hide my face

      These tears fall for the little-ones: the Children of Jerusalem

      Lest they be annihilated in thy annihilation.

      No sooner she had spoke but Rahab Babylon appeard

      Eastward upon the Paved work across Europe & Asia

      Glorious as the midday Sun in Satans bosom glowing

      20 A Female hidden in a Male, Religion hidden in War

      Namd Moral Virtue; cruel two-fold Monster shining bright

      A Dragon red & hidden Harlot which John in Patmos saw

      And all beneath the Nations innumerable of Ulro

      Appeard, the Seven Kingdoms of Canaan & Five Baalim

      Of Philistea, into Twelve divided, calld after the Names

      Of Israel: as they are in Eden, Mountain, River & Plain

      City & sandy Desart intermingled beyond mortal ken

      But turning toward Ololon in terrible majesty Milton

      Replied. Obey thou the Words of the Inspired Man

      30 All that can be annihilated must be annihilated

      That the Children of Jerusalem may be saved from slavery

      There is a Negation, & there is a Contrary

      The Negation must be destroyd to redeem the Contraries

      The Negation is the Spectre; the Reasoning Power in Man

      This is a false Body: an Incrustation over my Immortal

      Spirit; a Selfhood, which must be put off & annihilated alway

      To cleanse the Face of my Spirit by Self-examination.

      PLATE 41

      To bathe in the Waters of Life; to wash off the Not Human

      I come in Self-annihilation & the grandeur of Inspiration

      To cast off Rational Demonstration by Faith in the Saviour

      To cast off the rotten rags of Memory by Inspiration

      To cast off Bacon, Locke & Newton from Albions covering

      To take off his filthy garments, & clothe him with Imagination

      To cast aside from Poetry, all that is not Inspiration

      That it no longer shall dare to mock with the aspersion of Madness

      Cast on the Inspired, by the tame high finisher of paltry Blots,

     
    10 Indefinite, or paltry Rhymes; or paltry Harmonies,

      Who creeps into State Government like a catterpiller to destroy

      To cast off the idiot Questioner who is always questioning,

      But never capable of answering; who sits with a sly grin

      Silent plotting when to question, like a thief in a cave;

      Who publishes doubt & calls it knowledge; whose Science is Despair,

      Whose pretence to knowledge is Envy, whose whole Science is

      To destroy the wisdom of ages to gratify ravenous Envy

      That rages round him like a Wolf day & night without rest

      He smiles with condescension; he talks of Benevolence & Virtue

      20 And those who act with Benevolence & Virtue, they murder time on time

      These are the destroyers of Jerusalem, these are the murderers

      Of Jesus, who deny the Faith & mock at Eternal Life:

      Who pretend to Poetry that they may destroy Imagination;

      By imitation of Natures Images drawn from Remembrance

      These are the Sexual Garments, the Abomination of Desolation

      Hiding the Human Lineaments as with an Ark & Curtains

      Which Jesus rent: & now shall wholly purge away with Fire

      Till Generation is swallowd up in Regeneration.

      Then trembled the Virgin Ololon & replyd in clouds of despair

      30 Is this our Femin[in]e Portion the Six-fold Miltonic Female

      Terribly this Portion trembles before thee O awful Man

      Altho’ our Human Power can sustain the severe contentions

      Of Friendship, our Sexual cannot: but flies into the Ulro.

      Hence arose all our terrors in Eternity! & now remembrance

      Returns upon us! are we Contraries O Milton, Thou & I

      O Immortal: how were we led to War the Wars of Death

      Is this the Void Outside of Existence, which if enter’d into

      PLATE 42

      Becomes a Womb? & is this the Death Couch of Albion

      Thou goest to Eternal Death & all must go with thee

      So saying, the Virgin divided Six-fold & with a shriek

      Dolorous that ran thro all Creation a Double Six-fold Wonder:

      Away from Ololon she divided & fled into the depths

      Of Miltons Shadow as a Dove upon the stormy Sea.

      Then as a Moony Ark Ololon descended to Felphams Vale

      In clouds of blood, in streams of gore, with dreadful thunderings

      Into the Fires of Intellect that rejoic’d in Felphams Vale

      10 Around the Starry Eight: with one accord the Starry Eight became

      One Man Jesus the Saviour. wonderful! round his limbs

      The Clouds of Ololon folded as a Garment dipped in blood

     
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