The Poetry and Prose of William Blake Edited by David V. Erdman: Commentary by Harold Bloom |
 | I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
 | V. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| VI. |
| VII. |
| XII. |
| XIII. |
| XV. |
 | Chap: II The Poetry and Prose of William Blake |  |
91
Chap: II
1
The Immortal stood frozen amidstThe vast rock of eternity; times
And times; a night of vast durance:
Impatient, stifled, stiffend, hardned.
2
Till impatience no longer could bearThe hard bondage, rent: rent, the vast solid
With a crash from immense to immense
3
Crack'd across into numberless fragments[.]The Prophetic wrath, strug'ling for vent
Hurls apart, stamping furious to dust
And crumbling with bursting sobs; heaves
The black marble on high into fragments
4
Hurl'd apart on all sides, as a fallingRock: the innumerable fragments away
Fell asunder; and horrible vacuum
Beneath him & on all sides round.
5
Falling, falling! Los fell & fellSunk precipitant heavy down down
Times on times, night on night, day on day
Truth has bounds. Error none: falling, falling:
Years on years, and ages on ages
Still he fell thro' the void, still a void
Found for falling day & night without end.
For tho' day or night was not; their spaces
Were measurd by his incessant whirls
In the horrid vacuity bottomless.
6
The Immortal revolving; indignantFirst in wrath threw his limbs, like the babe
New born into our world: wrath subsided
And contemplative thoughts first arose
Then aloft his head rear'd in the Abyss
And his downward-borne fall chang'd oblique
7
Many ages of groans: till there grewBranchy forms: organizing the Human
Into finite inflexible organs.
8
Till in process from falling he boreSidelong on the purple air, wafting
The weak breeze in efforts oerwearied
92
9
Incessant the falling Mind labour'dOrganizing itself: till the Vacuum
Became element, pliant to rise,
Or to fall, or to swim, or to fly:
With ease searching the dire vacuity
| Chap: II The Poetry and Prose of William Blake | |