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The Poetry and Prose of William Blake

Edited by David V. Erdman: Commentary by Harold Bloom
Blake, William (1757-1827)

collapse sectionI. 
I THE WORKS IN ILLUMINATED PRINTING
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THE BOOK of THEL
  
[epigraph]
 I. 
I
 II. 
II
 III. 
III.
 IV. 
IV.
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SONGS Of INNOCENCE and Of EXPERIENCE
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SONGS of Innocence
  
Introduction
  
The Shepherd.
  
The Ecchoing Green
  
The Lamb
  
The Little Black Boy.
  
The Blossom.
  
The Chimney Sweeper
  
The Little Boy lost
  
The Little Boy Found
  
Laughing Song
  
A CRADLE SONG
  
The Divine Image.
  
HOLY THURSDAY
  
Night.
  
Spring
  
Nurse's Song
  
Infant Joy
  
A Dream
  
On Anothers Sorrow
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SONGS of Experience
  
Introduction.
  
EARTH'S Answer
  
The CLOD & the PEBBLE
  
HOLY THURSDAY
  
The Little Girl Lost
  
The Little Girl Found
  
THE Chimney Sweeper
  
NURSES Song
  
The SICK ROSE
  
THE FLY.
  
The Angel
  
The Tyger
  
My Pretty ROSE TREE
  
AH! SUN-FLOWER
  
THE LILLY
  
The GARDEN of LOVE
  
The Little Vagabond
  
LONDON
  
The Human Abstract.
  
INFANT SORROW
  
A POISON TREE.
  
A Little BOY Lost
  
A Little GIRL Lost
  
To Tirzah
  
The School Boy
  
The Voice of the Ancient Bard.
  
A DIVINE IMAGE
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THE MARRIAGE of HEAVEN and HELL
  
The Argument.
  
A Memorable Fancy.
  
Proverbs of Hell.
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VISIONS of the Daughters of Albion
  
The Argument
  
Visions
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AMERICA a PROPHECY
  
PRELUDIUM
  
A PROPHECY
  
[Canceled Plates]
  
[Fragment]
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EUROPE a PROPHECY
  
[section]
  
PRELUDIUM
  
A PROPHECY
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THE SONG of LOS
  
AFRICA
  
ASIA
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THE [FIRST] BOOK of URIZEN
  
PRELUDIUM TO THE [FIRST] BOOK OF URIZEN
 I. 
Chap: I
 II. 
Chap: II.
 III. 
Chap: III.
collapse sectionIV. 
Chap: IV
  
[a]
  
[b]
 V. 
Chap: V.
 VI. 
Chap: VI.
 VII. 
Chap. VII.
 VIII. 
Chap. VIII.
 IX. 
Chap: IX
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THE BOOK of AHANIA
 I. 
Chap: Ist
 II. 
Chap: IId
 III. 
Chap: III
 IV. 
Chap: IV
 V. 
Chap: V
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THE BOOK of LOS
 I. 
Chap. I
 II. 
Chap: II
 III. 
Chap: III
 IV. 
Chap: IV
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MILTON
  
Preface.
 I. 
Book the First
 II. 
Book the Second.
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JERUSALEM
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[Frontispiece]
  
[Above the archway:]
  
[On right side of archway:]
  
[On left side, in reversed writing:]
  
To the Public
 I. 
Chap: I
  
[section]
  
To the Jews.
 2. 
Chap: 2.
  
To the Deists.
 3. 
Chap 3.
  
To the Christians.
 4. 
C[hap] 4
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FOR THE SEXES THE GATES of PARADISE
  
[Prologue]
  
Frontispiece
[PLATE]
  
The Keys of the Gates
  
[Epilogue] To The Accuser who is The God of This World
  
THE GHOST of ABEL
collapse sectionII. 
II [PROPHETIC WORKS, UNENGRAVED]
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TIRIEL
 1. 
1
 2. 
2
 3. 
3
 4. 
4
 5. 
5
 6. 
6
 7. 
7
 8. 
8
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THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
 1. 
BOOK THE FIRST.
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THE FOUR ZOAS
 1. 
VALA
 2. 
VALA
 3. 
VALA
 4. 
Vala
 5. 
Vala
 6. 
Vala
 7. 
Vala
 8. 
Vala
 9. 
Vala
 7. 
Vala
collapse sectionIII. 
III POETICAL SKETCHES.
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MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
  
TO SPRING.
  
TO SUMMER.
  
TO AUTUMN
  
TO WINTER.
  
TO THE EVENING STAR
  
TO MORNING
  
FAIR ELENOR
  
SONG
  
SONG
  
SONG
  
SONG
  
SONG
  
MAD SONG
  
SONG
  
SONG
  
TO THE MUSES
  
GWIN, KING OF NORWAY
  
AN IMITATION OF SPEN[S]ER.
  
BLIND-MAN'S BUFF
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KING EDWARD THE THIRD.
 1. 
SCENE [1]
 2. 
SCENE [2]
 3. 
SCENE [3]
 4. 
SCENE [4]
 5. 
SCENE [5]
 6. 
SCENE [6]
  
PROLOGUE, INTENDED FOR A DRAMATIC PIECE OF KING EDWARD THE FOURTH.
  
A WAR SONG TO ENGLISHMEN.
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IV [AN ISLAND IN THE MOON]
collapse section3. 
Chap 3d
  
[Little Phebus came strutting in]
  
[Honour & Genius is all I ask]
collapse section6. 
Chap 6
  
[When old corruption first begun]
collapse section8. 
Chap 8
  
[Hear then the pride & knowledge of a Sailor]
  
[Phebe drest like beauties Queen]
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Chap 9
  
[Lo the Bat with Leathern wing]
  
[I cry my matches as far as Guild hall]
  
[As I walkd forth one may morning]
  
[This frog he would a wooing ride]
  
[Fa ra so bo ro]
  
[Hail Matrimony made of Love]
  
[To be or not to be]
  
[This city & this country has brought forth many mayors]
collapse section11. 
Chap 11
  
[Upon a holy thursday their innocent faces clean]
  
[When the tongues of children are heard on the green]
  
[O father father where are you going]
  
[O I say you Joe]
  
[Leave O leave [me] to my sorrows]
  
[Theres Doctor Clash]
  
[A crowned king]
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V [SONGS AND BALLADS]
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[subsection]
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[Written in a copy of Poetical Sketches]
  
SONG 1st BY A SHEPHERD
  
SONG BY AN OLD SHEPHERD
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[From Blake's Notebook]
  
[Never pain to tell thy love]
  
[I feard the fury of my wind]
  
[I saw a chapel all of gold]
  
[I laid me down upon a bank]
  
A cradle song
  
[I askéd a thief to steal me a peach]
  
in a mirtle shade
  
To my Mirtle
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[To go] on 1 Plate
  
[O lapwing thou fliest around the heath]
  
An answer to the parson
  
[Experiment]
  
Riches
  
[If you trap the moment before its ripe]
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[subsection]
  
Eternity
  
[I heard an Angel singing]
  
[Silent Silent Night]
  
To Nobodaddy
  
[Are not the joys of morning sweeter]
  
[How came pride in Man]
  
[How to know Love from Deceit]
  
The wild flowers song
  
Soft Snow
  
Merlins prophecy
  
[Why should I care for the men of thames]
  
Day
  
[The sword sung on the barren heath]
  
[Abstinence sows sand all over]
  
[In a wife I would desire]
  
Lacedemonian Instruction
  
[An old maid early eer I knew]
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Several Questions Answerd
  
[He who binds to himself a joy]
  
[The look of love alarms]
  
[Soft deceit & Idleness]
  
[What is it men in women do require]
  
An ancient Proverb
  
The Fairy
  
The Kid
  
[My Spectre around me night & day]
  
[Postscript]
  
[Mock on Mock on Voltaire Rousseau]
  
Morning
  
[Terror in the house does roar]
  
The Birds
  
[I will tell you what Joseph of Arimathea]
  
[Why was Cupid a Boy]
  
[Now Art has lost its mental Charms]
  
TO THE QUEEN
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[From Blake's Notebook]
  
[The Caverns of the Grave Ive seen]
  
[I rose up at the dawn of day]
  
[A fairy skipd upon my knee]
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[With Blake's Illustrations to Gray's Poems]
  
[Around the Springs of Gray my wild root weaves]
  
To Mrs Ann Flaxman
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[The Pickering Manuscript]
  
The Smile
  
The Golden Net
  
The Mental Traveller
  
The Land of Dreams
  
Mary
  
The Crystal Cabinet
  
The Grey Monk
  
Auguries of Innocence
  
Auguries of Innocence
  
Long John Brown & Little Mary Bell
  
William Bond
collapse sectionVI. 
VI [SATIRIC VERSES AND EPIGRAMS]
  
Motto to the Songs of Innocence & of Experience
  
[Let the Brothels of Paris be opened]
  
[Who will exchange his own fire side]
  
[When Klopstock England defied]
  
On the Virginity of the Virgin Mary & Johanna Southcott
  
[You dont believe I wont attempt to make ye]
  
[If it is True What the Prophets write]
  
[I am no Homers Hero you all know]
  
[The Angel that presided oer my birth]
  
[Some Men created for destruction come]
  
[If I eer Grow to Mans Estate]
  
From Cratelos
  
[If Men will act like a maid smiling over a Churn]
  
[Anger & Wrath my bosom rends]
  
An Epitaph
  
Another [Epitaph]
  
Another [Epitaph]
  
[He is a Cock would]
  
[And his legs carried it like a long fork]
  
[Was I angry with Hayley who usd me so ill]
  
Blakes apology for his Catalogue
  
[Cosway Frazer & Baldwin of Egypts Lake]
  
[My title as [a] Genius thus is provd]
  
To H
  
[P--- loved me not as he lovd his Friends]
  
[The Sussex Men are Noted Fools]
  
[Of H]
  
[To forgive Enemies H--- does pretend]
  
On H---ys Friendship
  
To H---
  
On H--- the Pick thank
  
Imitation of Pope A Compliment to the Ladies
  
William Cowper Esqre
  
[The only Man that eer I knew]
  
[Madman I have been calld Fool they call thee]
  
To F---
  
[Hes a Blockhead who wants a proof of what he Can't Percieve]
  
To Nancy F---
  
To F---
  
[S--- in Childhood on the Nursery floor]
  
[He has observd the Golden Rule]
  
To S---d
  
On S---
  
[old acquaintance well renew]
  
On F--- & S---
  
Mr Stothard to Mr Cromek
  
Mr Cromek to Mr Stothard
  
[Cr--- loves artists as he loves his Meat]
  
[A Petty sneaking Knave I knew]
  
Cromek Speaks
  
English Encouragement of Art
  
English Encouragement of Art
  
[When you look at a picture you always can see]
  
[The Cunning sures & the Aim at yours]
  
[All Pictures thats Panted with Sense & with Thought]
  
[You say their Pictures well Painted be]
  
[The Errors of a Wise Man make your Rule]
  
[Great things are done when Men & Mountains meet]
  
[If you play a Game of Chance know before you begin]
  
[No real Style of Colouring ever appears]
  
[Can there be any thing more mean]
  
[Sir Joshua Praises Michael Angelo]
  
[Sir Jo[s]hua praised Rubens with a Smile]
  
Florentine Ingratitude
  
A Pitiful Case
  
To the Royal Academy
  
[The Cripple every step Drudges & labours]
  
[I Rubens am a Statesman & a Saint]
  
To English Connoisseurs
  
[Swelld limbs, with no outline that you can descry]
  
A Pretty Epigram for the Entertainment of those who have Paid Great Sums in the Venetian & Flemish Ooze
  
[These are the Idiots chiefest arts]
  
[Rafael Sublime Majestic Graceful Wise]
  
On the Great Encouragement Given by English Nobility & Gentry to Correggio Rubens Rembrandt Reynolds Gainsborough Catalani DuCrowe & Dilbury Doodle
  
[Give pensions to the Learned Pig]
  
[When I see a Rubens Rembrant Correggio]
  
[Delicate Hands & Heads will never appear]
  
[I askd my Dear Friend Orator Prigg]
  
[O dear Mother outline of knowledge most sage]
  
To Venetian Artists
  
[Great Men & Fools do often me Inspire]
  
[Some people admire the work of a Fool]
  
[Her whole Life is an Epigram smack smooth & neatly pend]
  
[When a Man has Married a Wife he finds out whether]
  
[Grown old in Love from Seven till Seven times Seven]
  
[The Hebrew Nation did not write it]
  
To God
  
[Since all the Riches of this World]
  
[To Chloes breast young Cupid slily stole]
  
[Nail his neck to the Cross nail it with a nail]
  
[A Woman Scaly & a Man all Hairy]
  
The Washer Womans Song
collapse sectionVII. 
VII THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL
  
[The Everlasting Gospel]
collapse sectionXII. 
XII [THE MARGINALIA]
  
Advice of the Popes who succeeded the Age of Rafael
  
[Some look. to see the sweet Outlines]
  
[When Sr Joshua Reynolds died]
  
[When Nations grow Old. The Arts grow Cold]
  
On the Venetian Painter
  
[A Pair of Stays to mend the Shape]
  
[Venetian; all thy Colouring is no more]
  
[O Reader behold the Philosophers Grave.]
collapse sectionXIII. 
XIII [INSCRIPTIONS AND NOTES ON OR FOR PICTURES]
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[Descriptions of Illustrations to Milton's L'Allegro and Il Penseroso]
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XV [LETTERS, A SELECTION]
  
To My Dearest Friend, John Flaxman, these lines
  
To my dear Friend Mrs Anna Flaxman
  
[To] Mr [Thomas] Butts, Great Marlborough Street
  
To Mrs Butts
  
[To] Mr Butts, Great Marlborough Street, Oxford Street, London
  
[To Thomas Butts, 22 November 1802]
  
[To] Mr Butts, Gr Marlborough St, London

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Eternity

He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sun rise

[I heard an Angel singing]

I heard an Angel singing
When the day was springing
Mercy Pity Peace
Is the worlds release
462

Thus he sung all day
Over the new mown hay
Till the sun went down
And haycocks looked brown
I heard a Devil curse
Over the heath & the furze
Mercy could be no more
If there was nobody poor
And pity no more could be
If all were as happy as we
At his curse the sun went down
And the heavens gave a frown
Down pourd the heavy rain
Over the new reapd grain
And Miseries increase
Is Mercy Pity Peace

[Silent Silent Night]

Silent Silent Night
Quench the holy light
Of thy torches bright
For possessd of Day
Thousand spirits stray
That sweet joys betray
Why should joys be sweet
Used with deceit
Nor with sorrows meet
But an honest joy
Does itself destroy
For a harlot coy

To Nobodaddy

Why art thou silent & invisible
Father of Jealousy
Why dost thou hide thyself in clouds
From every searching Eye
Why darkness & obscurity
In all thy words & laws
That none dare eat the fruit but from
463

The wily serpents jaws
Or is it because Secrecy
gains females loud applause

[Are not the joys of morning sweeter]

Are not the joys of morning sweeter
Than the joys of night
And are the vigrous joys of youth
Ashamed of the light
Let age & sickness silent rob
The vineyards in the night
But those who burn with vigrous youth
Pluck fruits before the light

[How came pride in Man]

How came pride in Man
From Mary it began
How Contempt & Scorn
What a world is Man
His Earth

[How to know Love from Deceit]

Love to faults is always blind
Always is to joy inclind
Lawless wingd & unconfind
And breaks all chains from every mind
Deceit to secresy confind
Lawful cautious & refind
To every thing but interest blind
And forges fetters for the mind

The wild flowers song

As I wanderd the forest
The green leaves among
I heard a wild flower
Singing a song
I slept in the earth
In the silent night
I murmurd my fears
And I felt delight
464

In the morning I went
As rosy as morn
To seek for new Joy
But I met with scorn

Soft Snow

I walked abroad in a snowy day
I askd the soft snow with me to play
She playd & she melted in all her prime
And the winter calld it a dreadful crime

Merlins prophecy

The harvest shall flourish in wintry weather
When two virginities meet together
The King & the Priest must be tied in a tether
Before two virgins can meet together

[Why should I care for the men of thames]

Why should I care for the men of thames
Or the cheating waves of charterd streams
Or shrink at the little blasts of fear
That the hireling blows into my ear
Tho born on the cheating banks of Thames
Tho his waters bathed my infant limbs
The Ohio shall wash his stains from me
I was born a slave but I go to be free

Day

The Sun arises in the East
Clothd in robes of blood & gold
Swords & spears & wrath increast
All around his bosom rolld
Crownd with warlike fires & raging desires

[The sword sung on the barren heath]

The sword sung on the barren heath
The sickle in the fruitful field
The sword he sung a song of death
But could not make the sickle yield
465

[Abstinence sows sand all over]

Abstinence sows sand all over
The ruddy limbs & flaming hair
But Desire Gratified
Plants fruits of life & beauty there

[In a wife I would desire]

In a wife I would desire
What in whores is always found
The lineaments of Gratified desire

Lacedemonian Instruction

Come hither my boy tell me what thou seest there
A fool tangled in a religious snare

[An old maid early eer I knew]

An old maid early eer I knew
Ought but the love that on me grew
And now Im coverd oer & oer
And wish that I had been a Whore
O I cannot cannot find
The undaunted courage of a Virgin Mind
For Early I in love was crost
Before my flower of love was lost
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