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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]
collapse sectionV. 
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]
 1. 
1
 2. 
2
 3. 
3
 4. 
4
 5. 
5
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6
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8
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9
 10. 
10
 11. 
11
 12. 
12
collapse sectionXV. 
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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FOR THE SEXES THE GATES of PARADISE

[Prologue]

Mutual Forgiveness of each Vice
Such are the Gates of Paradise
Against the Accusers chief desire
Who walkd among the Stones of Fire
Jehovahs Finger Wrote the Law
Then Wept! then rose in Zeal & Awe
And the Dead Corpse from Sinais heat
Buried beneath his Mercy Seat
O Christians Christians! tell me Why
You rear it on your Altars high
257

Frontispiece

[PLATE]

What is Man!
The Suns Light when he unfolds it
Depends on the Organ that beholds it.
[PLATES 1–16]
265

The Keys of the Gates

[See Plate:] 1

The Catterpiller on the Leaf
Reminds thee of thy Mothers Grief
My Eternal Man set in Repose
The Female from his darkness rose
And She found me beneath a Tree
A Mandrake & in her Veil hid me
Serpent Reasonings us entice
Of Good & Evil: Virtue & Vice

[See Plate:] 2

Doubt Self Jealous Watry folly

[See Plate:] 3

Struggling thro Earths Melancholy

[See Plate:] 4

Naked in Air in Shame & Fear

[See Plate:] 5

Blind in Fire with shield & spear
Two Horn'd Reasoning Cloven Fiction
In Doubt which is Self contradiction
A dark Hermaphrodite We stood
Rational Truth Root of Evil & Good
Round me flew the Flaming Sword
Round her snowy Whirlwinds roard
Freezing her Veil the Mundane Shell

[See Plate:] 6

I rent the Veil where the Dead dwell
When weary Man enters his Cave
He meets his Saviour in the Grave
Some find a Female Garment there
266

And some a Male, woven with care
Lest the Sexual Garments sweet
Should grow a devouring Winding sheet

[See Plate] 7

One Dies! Alas! the Living & Dead
One is slain & One is fled

[See Plate] 8

In Vain-glory hatcht & nurst
By double Spectres Self Accurst
My Son! my Son! thou treatest me
But as I have instructed thee

[See Plate] 9

On the shadows of the Moon
Climbing thro Nights highest noon

[See Plate] 10

In Times Ocean falling drownd
In Aged Ignorance profound

[See Plate] 11

Holy & cold I clipd the Wings
Of all Sublunary Things

[See Plate] 12

And in depths of my Dungeons
Closed the Father & the Sons

[See Plate] 13

But when once I did descry
The Immortal Man that cannot Die

[See Plate] 14

Thro evening shades I haste away
To close the Labours of my Day

[See Plate] 15

The Door of Death I open found
And the Worm Weaving in the Ground

[See Plate] 16

Thou'rt my Mother from the Womb
Wife, Sister, Daughter to the Tomb
Weaving to Dreams the Sexual strife
And weeping over the Web of Life

[Epilogue] To The Accuser who is The God of This World

Truly My Satan thou art but a Dunce
And dost not know the Garment from the Man
Every Harlot was a Virgin once
Nor canst thou ever change Kate into Nan
Tho thou art Worshipd by the Names Divine
Of Jesus & Jehovah: thou art still
The Son of Morn in weary Nights decline
The lost Travellers Dream under the Hill
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