Title; E45|
VISIONS of the Daughters of Albion t152
VDAepigraph; E45|
The Eye sees more than the Heart knows.
VDAcolophon; E45|
Printed by Will:m Blake: 1793.
VDA; E45|
The Argument
VDAargument1; E45|
I loved Theotormon
VDAargument2; E45|
And I was not ashamed
VDAargument3; E45|
I trembled in my virgin fears
VDAargument4; E45|
And I hid in Leutha's vale!
VDAargument5; E45|
I plucked Leutha's flower,
VDAargument6; E45|
And I rose up from the vale;
VDAargument7; E45|
But the terrible thunders tore
VDAargument8; E45|
My virgin mantle in twain.
ED; E45|
VISIONS of the Daughters of Albion PLATE 1
VDA1title; E45|
Visions
VDA1.2; E45|
ENSLAV'D, the Daughters of Albion weep: a trembling lamentation
VDA1.3; E45|
Upon their mountains; in their valleys. sighs toward America.
VDA1.4; E45|
For the soft soul of America, Oothoon wanderd in woe,
VDA1.5; E45|
Along the vales of Leutha seeking flowers to comfort her;
VDA1.6; E45|
And thus she spoke to the bright Marygold of Leutha's vale
VDA1.7; E46|
Art thou a flower! art thou a nymph! I see thee now a flower;
VDA1.8; E46|
Now a nymph! I dare not pluck thee from thy dewy bed!
VDA1.9; E46|
The Golden nymph replied; pluck thou my flower Oothoon the mild
VDA1.10; E46|
Another flower shall spring, because the soul of sweet delight
VDA1.11; E46|
Can never pass away. she ceas'd & closd her golden shrine.
VDA1.12; E46|
Then Oothoon pluck'd the flower saying, I pluck thee from thy bed
VDA1.13; E46|
Sweet flower. and put thee here to glow between my breasts
VDA1.14; E46|
And thus I turn my face to where my whole soul seeks.
VDA1.15; E46|
Over the waves she went in wing'd exulting swift delight;
VDA1.16; E46|
And over Theotormons reign, took her impetuous course.
VDA1.17; E46|
Bromion rent her with his thunders. on his stormy bed
VDA1.18; E46|
Lay the faint maid, and soon her woes appalld his thunders hoarse
VDA1.19; E46|
Bromion spoke. behold this harlot here on Bromions bed,
VDA1.20; E46|
And let the jealous dolphins sport around the lovely maid;
VDA1.21; E46|
Thy soft American plains are mine, and mine thy north & south:
VDA1.22; E46|
Stampt with my signet are the swarthy children of the sun:
VDA1.23; E46|
They are obedient, they resist not, they obey the scourge:
VDA1.24; E46|
Their daughters worship terrors and obey the violent:
VDA2.1; E46|
Now thou maist marry Bromions harlot, and protect the child
VDA2.2; E46|
Of Bromions rage, that Oothoon shall put forth in nine moons time
VDA2.3; E46|
Then storms rent Theotormons limbs; he rolld his waves around.
VDA2.4; E46|
And folded his black jealous waters round the adulterate pair
VDA2.5; E46|
Bound back to back in Bromions caves terror & meekness dwell
VDA2.6; E46|
At entrance Theotormon sits wearing the threshold hard
VDA2.7; E46|
With secret tears; beneath him sound like waves on a desart shore
VDA2.8; E46|
The voice of slaves beneath the sun, and children bought with money.
VDA2.9; E46|
That shiver in religious caves beneath the burning fires
VDA2.10; E46|
Of lust, that belch incessant from the summits of the earth
VDA2.11; E46|
Oothoon weeps not: she cannot weep! her tears are locked up;
VDA2.12; E46|
But she can howl incessant writhing her soft snowy limbs.
VDA2.13; E46|
And calling Theotormons Eagles to prey upon her flesh.
VDA2.14; E46|
I call with holy voice! kings of the sounding air,
VDA2.15; E46|
Rend away this defiled bosom that I may reflect.
VDA2.16; E46|
The image of Theotormon on my pure transparent breast.
VDA2.17; E46|
The Eagles at her call descend & rend their bleeding prey;
VDA2.18; E46|
Theotormon severely smiles. her soul reflects the smile;
VDA2.19; E46|
As the clear spring mudded with feet of beasts grows pure & smiles.
VDA2.20; E46|
The Daughters of Albion hear her woes. & eccho back her sighs.
ED; E46|
VISIONS of the Daughters of Albion PLATE 6
VDA2.21; E47|
Why does my Theotormon sit weeping upon the threshold;
VDA2.22; E47|
And Oothoon hovers by his side, perswading him in vain:
VDA2.23; E47|
I cry arise O Theotormon for the village dog
VDA2.24; E47|
Barks at the breaking day. the nightingale has done lamenting.
VDA2.25; E47|
The lark does rustle in the ripe corn, and the Eagle returns
VDA2.26; E47|
From nightly prey, and lifts his golden beak to the pure east;
VDA2.27; E47|
Shaking the dust from his immortal pinions to awake
VDA2.28; E47|
The sun that sleeps too long. Arise my Theotormon I am pure.
VDA2.29; E47|
Because the night is gone that clos'd me in its deadly black.
VDA2.30; E47|
They told me that the night & day were all that I could see;
VDA2.31; E47|
They told me that I had five senses to inclose me up.
VDA2.32; E47|
And they inclos'd my infinite brain into a narrow circle,
VDA2.33; E47|
And sunk my heart into the Abyss, a red round globe hot burning
VDA2.34; E47|
Till all from life I was obliterated and erased.
VDA2.35; E47|
Instead of morn arises a bright shddow, like an eye
VDA2.36; E47|
In the eastern cloud: instead of night a sickly charnel house;
VDA2.37; E47|
That Theotormon hears me not! to him the night and morn
VDA2.38; E47|
Are both alike: a night of sighs, a morning of fresh tears;
ED; E47|
VISIONS of the Daughters of Albion PLATE 3
VDA3.1; E47|
And none but Bromion can hear my lamentations.
VDA3.2; E47|
With what sense is it that the chicken shuns the ravenous hawk?
VDA3.3; E47|
With what sense does the tame pigeon measure out the expanse?
VDA3.4; E47|
With what sense does the bee form cells? have not the mouse & frog
VDA3.5; E47|
Eyes and ears and sense of touch? yet are their habitations.
VDA3.6; E47|
And their pursuits, as different as their forms and as their joys:
VDA3.7; E47|
Ask the wild ass why he refuses burdens: and the meek camel
VDA3.8; E47|
Why he loves man: is it because of eye ear mouth or skin
VDA3.9; E47|
Or breathing nostrils? No. for these the wolf and tyger have.
VDA3.10; E47|
Ask the blind worm the secrets of the grave, and why her spires
VDA3.11; E47|
Love to curl round the bones of death; and ask the rav'nous snake
VDA3.12; E47|
Where she gets poison: & the wing'd eagle why he loves the sun
VDA3.13; E47|
And then tell me the thoughts of man, that have been hid of old.
VDA3.14; E47|
Silent I hover all the night, and all day could be silent.
VDA3.15; E47|
If Theotormon once would turn his loved eyes upon me;
VDA3.16; E47|
How can I be defild when I reflect thy image pure?
VDA3.17; E47|
Sweetest the fruit that the worm feeds on. & the soul prey'd on by
woe
VDA3.18; E47|
The new wash'd lamb ting'd with the village smoke & the bright swan
VDA3.19; E47|
By the red earth of our immortal river: I bathe my wings.
VDA3.20; E47|
And I am white and pure to hover round Theotormons breast.
VDA3.21; E47|
Then Theotormon broke his silence. and he answered.
VDA3.22; E47|
Tell me what is the night or day to one o'erflowd with woe?
VDA3.23; E47|
Tell me what is a thought? & of what substance is it made?
VDA3.24; E47|
Tell me what is a joy? & in what gardens do joys grow?
VDA3.25; E47|
And in what rivers swim the sorrows? and upon what mountains
ED; E48|
VISIONS of the Daughters of AlbionPLATE 4
VDA4.1; E48|
Wave shadows of discontent? and in what houses dwell the wretched
VDA4.2; E48|
Drunken with woe forgotten. and shut up from cold despair.
VDA4.3; E48|
Tell me where dwell the thoughts forgotten till thou call them forth
VDA4.4; E48|
Tell me where dwell the joys of old! & where the ancient loves?
VDA4.5; E48|
And when will they renew again & the night of oblivion past?
t153
VDA4.6; E48|
That I might traverse times & spaces far remote and bring
VDA4.7; E48|
Comforts into a present sorrow and a night of pain
VDA4.8; E48|
Where goest thou O thought? to what remote land is thy flight?
VDA4.9; E48|
If thou returnest to the present moment of affliction
VDA4.10; E48|
Wilt thou bring comforts on thy wings. and dews and honey and balm;
VDA4.11; E48|
Or poison from the desart wilds, from the eyes of the envier.
VDA4.12; E48|
Then Bromion said: and shook the cavern with his lamentation
VDA4.13; E48|
Thou knowest that the ancient trees seen by thine eyes have fruit;
VDA4.14; E48|
But knowest thou that trees and fruits flourish upon the earth
VDA4.15; E48|
To gratify senses unknown? trees beasts and birds unknown:
VDA4.16; E48|
Unknown, not unpercievd, spread in the infinite microscope,
VDA4.17; E48|
In places yet unvisited by the voyager. and in worlds
VDA4.18; E48|
Over another kind of seas, and in atmospheres unknown:
VDA4.19; E48|
Ah! are there other wars, beside the wars of sword and fire!
VDA4.20; E48|
And are there other sorrows, beside the sorrows of poverty!
VDA4.21; E48|
And are there other joys, beside the joys of riches and ease?
VDA4.22; E48|
And is there not one law for both the lion and the ox?
VDA4.23; E48|
And is there not eternal fire, and eternal chains?
VDA4.24; E48|
To bind the phantoms of existence from eternal life?
VDA4.25; E48|
Then Oothoon waited silent all the day. and all the night,
ED; E48|
VISIONS of the Daughters of Albion PLATE 5
VDA5.1; E48|
But when the morn arose, her lamentation renewd,
VDA5.2; E48|
The Daughters of Albion hear her woes, & eccho back her sighs.
VDA5.3; E48|
O Urizen! Creator of men! mistaken Demon of heaven:
VDA5.4; E48|
Thy joys are tears! thy labour vain, to form men to thine image.
VDA5.5; E48|
How can one joy absorb another? are not different joys
VDA5.6; E48|
Holy, eternal, infinite! and each joy is a Love.
VDA5.7; E48|
Does not the great mouth laugh at a gift? & the narrow eyelids mock
VDA5.8; E48|
At the labour that is above payment, and wilt thou take the ape
VDA5.9; E48|
For thy councellor? or the dog, for a schoolmaster to thy children?
VDA5.10; E48|
Does he who contemns poverty, and he who turns with abhorrence
VDA5.11; E48|
From usury: feel the same passion or are they moved alike?
VDA5.12; E48|
How can the giver of gifts experience the delights of the merchant?
VDA5.13; E48|
How the industrious citizen the pains of the husbandman.
VDA5.14; E48|
How different far the fat fed hireling with hollow drum;
VDA5.15; E48|
Who buys whole corn fields into wastes, and sings upon the heath:
VDA5.16; E49|
How different their eye and ear! how different the world to them!
VDA5.17; E49|
With what sense does the parson claim the labour of the farmer?
VDA5.18; E49|
What are his nets & gins & traps. & how does he surround him
VDA5.19; E49|
With cold floods of abstraction, and with forests of solitude,
VDA5.20; E49|
To build him castles and high spires. where kings & priests may dwell.
VDA5.21; E49|
Till she who burns with youth. and knows no fixed lot; is bound
VDA5.22; E49|
In spells of law to one she loaths: and must she drag the chain
VDA5.23; E49|
Of life, in weary lust! must chilling murderous thoughts. obscure
VDA5.24; E49|
The clear heaven of her eternal spring? to bear the wintry rage
VDA5.25; E49|
Of a harsh terror driv'n to madness, bound to hold a rod
VDA5.26; E49|
Over her shrinking shoulders all the day; & all the night
VDA5.27; E49|
To turn the wheel of false desire: and longings that wake her womb
VDA5.28; E49|
To the abhorred birth of cherubs in the human form
VDA5.29; E49|
That live a pestilence & die a meteor & are no more.
VDA5.30; E49|
Till the child dwell with one he hates. and do the deed he loaths
VDA5.31; E49|
And the impure scourge force his seed into its unripe birth
VDA5.32; E49|
E'er yet his eyelids can behold the arrows of the day.
VDA5.33; E49|
Does the whale worship at thy footsteps as the hungry dog?
VDA5.34; E49|
Or does he scent the mountain prey, because his nostrils wide
VDA5.35; E49|
Draw in the ocean? does his eye discern the flying cloud
VDA5.36; E49|
As the ravens eye? or does he measure the expanse like the vulture?
VDA5.37; E49|
Does the still spider view the cliffs where eagles hide their young?
VDA5.38; E49|
Or does the fly rejoice. because the harvest is brought in?
VDA5.39; E49|
Does not the eagle scorn the earth & despise the treasures beneath?
VDA5.40; E49|
But the mole knoweth what is there, & the worm shall tell it thee.
VDA5.41; E49|
Does not the worm erect a pillar in the mouldering church yard?
VDA6.1; E49|
And a palace of eternity in the jaws of the hungry grave
VDA6.2; E49|
Over his porch these words are written. Take thy bliss O Man!
VDA6.3; E49|
And sweet shall be thy taste & sweet thy infant joys renew!
VDA6.4; E49|
Infancy, fearless, lustful, happy! nestling for delight
VDA6.5; E49|
In laps of pleasure; Innocence! honest, open, seeking
VDA6.6; E49|
The vigorous joys of morning light; open to virgin bliss.
VDA6.7; E49|
Who taught thee modesty, subtil modesty! child of night & sleep
VDA6.8; E49|
When thou awakest, wilt thou dissemble all thy secret joys
VDA6.9; E49|
Or wert thou not awake when all this mystery was disclos'd!
VDA6.10; E49|
Then com'st thou forth a modest virgin knowing to dissemble
VDA6.11; E49|
With nets found under thy night pillow, to catch virgin joy,
VDA6.12; E49|
And brand it with the name of whore; & sell it in the night,
VDA6.13; E49|
In silence. ev'n without a whisper, and in seeming sleep:
VDA6.14; E49|
Religious dreams and holy vespers, light thy smoky fires:
VDA6.15; E49|
Once were thy fires lighted by the eyes of honest morn
VDA6.16; E49|
And does my Theotormon seek this hypocrite modesty!
VDA6.17; E49|
This knowing, artful, secret, fearful, cautious, trembling hypocrite.
VDA6.18; E50|
Then is Oothoon a whore indeed! and all the virgin joys
VDA6.19; E50|
Of life are harlots: and Theotormon is a sick mans dream
VDA6.20; E50|
And Oothoon is the crafty slave of selfish holiness.
VDA6.21; E50|
But Oothoon is not so, a virgin fill'd with virgin fancies
VDA6.22; E50|
Open to joy and to delight where ever beauty appears
VDA6.23; E50|
If in the morning sun I find it: there my eyes are fix'd
VDA7.1; E50|
In happy copulation; if in evening mild. wearied with work;
VDA7.2; E50|
Sit on a bank and draw the pleasures of this free born joy.
VDA7.3; E50|
The moment of desire! the moment of desire! The virgin
VDA7.4; E50|
That pines for man; shall awaken her womb to enormous joys
VDA7.5; E50|
In the secret shadows of her chamber; the youth shut up from
VDA7.6; E50|
The lustful joy. shall forget to generate. & create an amorous image
VDA7.7; E50|
In the shadows of his curtains and in the folds of his silent pillow.
VDA7.8; E50|
Are not these the places of religion? the rewards of continence?
VDA7.9; E50|
The self enjoyings of self denial? Why dost thou seek religion?
VDA7.10; E50|
Is it because acts are not lovely, that thou seekest solitude,
VDA7.11; E50|
Where the horrible darkness is impressed with reflections of desire.
VDA7.12; E50|
Father of jealousy. be thou accursed from the earth!
VDA7.13; E50|
Why hast thou taught my Theotormon this accursed thing?
VDA7.14; E50|
Till beauty fades from off my shoulders darken'd and cast out,
VDA7.15; E50|
A solitary shadow wailing on the margin of non-entity.
VDA7.16; E50|
I cry, Love! Love! Love! happy happy Love! free as the mountain wind!
VDA7.17; E50|
Can that be Love, that drinks another as a sponge drinks water?
VDA7.18; E50|
That clouds with jealousy his nights, with weepings all the day:
VDA7.19; E50|
To spin a web of age around him. grey and hoary! dark!
VDA7.20; E50|
Till his eyes sicken at the fruit that hangs before his sight.
VDA7.21; E50|
Such is self-love that envies all! a creeping skeleton
VDA7.22; E50|
With lamplike eyes watching around the frozen marriage bed.
VDA7.23; E50|
But silken nets and traps of adamant will Oothoon spread,
VDA7.24; E50|
And catch for thee girls of mild silver, or of furious gold;
VDA7.25; E50|
I'll lie beside thee on a bank & view their wanton play
VDA7.26; E50|
In lovely copulation bliss on bliss with Theotormon:
VDA7.27; E50|
Red as the rosy morning, lustful as the firstborn beam,
VDA7.28; E50|
Oothoon shall view his dear delight, nor e'er with jealous cloud
VDA7.29; E50|
Come in the heaven of generous love; nor selfish blightings bring.
VDA7.30; E50|
Does the sun walk in glorious raiment. on the secret floor
VDA8.1; E50|
Where the cold miser spreads his gold? or does the bright cloud drop
VDA8.2; E50|
On his stone threshold? does his eye behold the beam that brings
VDA8.3; E50|
Expansion to the eye of pity? or will he bind himself
VDA8.4; E50|
Beside the ox to thy hard furrow? does not that mild beam blot
VDA8.5; E51|
The bat, the owl, the glowing tyger, and the king of night.
VDA8.6; E51|
The sea fowl takes the wintry blast. for a cov'ring to her limbs:
VDA8.7; E51|
And the wild snake, the pestilence to adorn him with gems & gold.
VDA8.8; E51|
And trees. & birds. & beasts. & men. behold their eternal joy.
VDA8.9; E51|
Arise you little glancing wings, and sing your infant joy!
VDA8.10; E51|
Arise and drink your bliss, for every thing that lives is holy!
VDA8.11; E51|
Thus every morning wails Oothoon. but Theotormon sits
VDA8.12; E51|
Upon the margind ocean conversing with shadows dire.
VDA8.13; E51|
The Daughters of Albion hear her woes, & eccho back her sighs.
VDAend; E51|
The End
