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• The vision of Christ that thou dost see
• Is my vision's greatest enemy.
• This is the fare of all mankind,—
• Mine speaks in parables to the blind;
• Thine loves the same world that mine hates;
• Thy Heaven-doors are my Hell-gates.
• Socrates taught what Meletus
• Loathed as a nation's bitterest curse,
• And Caiaphus was in his own mind
• 10A benefactor to mankind.
page: [62v]  
Note: The number 2 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
• Both read the Bible day and night,
• But thou read'st black where I read white.

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• Was Jesus chaste, or did he *
• Give any lessons of chastity?—
• Jesis sat in Moses' chair;
• They brought the adulterous woman there;
• Moses commands she be stoned to death.
• What was the sound of Jesus' breath?
• He laid his hand on Moses' law:
• 20The ancient heavens in silent awe,
• Writ with curses from Pole to Pole,
• All away began to roll.
• The earth trembling and naked lay,
• In secret bed of mortal clay,
• And she heard the breath of God
• As she heard it by Eden's flood.
• “Good and evil are no more:
• Sinai's trumpets! cease to roar;
Transcribed Footnote (page [62v]):

* This was spoken by my spectre to Voltaire, Bacon, &c.

page: 63  
Note: The number 3 is crossed out and replaced by 63 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
• Cease, finger of God, to write—
• 30“The Heavens are not clean in thy sight.”
• To be good only, is to be
• A God, or else a Pharisee.
• Thou angel of the Presence Divine
• That did'st create this body of mine,
• Wherefore hast thou writ these laws
• And created Hell's dark jaws?
• My presence I will take from thee;
• A cold leper thou shalt be.
• Though thou was so pure and bright
• 40That Heaven was impure in thy sight,—
• Though thine oath turned Heaven pale,—
• Though thy covenant built Hell-jail,—
• Though thou didst all to Chaos roll
• With the serpent for its soul,—
• Still the breath divine doth move,
• And the breath divine is Love.
• Woman, fear not; let me see
page: [63v]  
Note: The number 4 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
• The seven devils that trouble thee;
• Hide not from my sight thy sin,
• 50That full forgiveness thou may'st win.
• Hath no man condemnèd thee?”

• “No man, Lord.”

• “Then what is he
• Who shall accuse thee? Come ye forth,
• Ye fallen fiends of heavenly birth!
• Ye shall bow before her feet,—
• Ye shall lick the dust for meat,—
• And though ye cannot love, but hate,
• Ye shall be beggars at Love's gate.
• 60What was thy love? Let me see't.
• Was it love, or dark deceit?”

• “Love too long from me hath fled:
• 'Twas dark deceit, to earn my bread;
page: 64  
Note: The number 5 is crossed out and replaced by 64 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
• 'Twas covet, or 'twas custom, or
• Some trifle not worth caring for.
• but these would call a shame and sin
• Love's temple that God dwelleth in.”

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• My spectre around me, night and day,
• Like a wild beast guards my way;
• My Emanation far within
• Weeps incessantly for my sin.

• A fathomless and boundless deep—
• There we wander, there we weep;
• On the hungry craving wind
• My spectre follows thee behind.

• He scents thy footsteps in the snow
• 10Wheresoever thou dost go.
• Through the wintry hail and rain
• When wilt thou return again?

• Dost thou not, in pride and scorn,
• Fill with tempests all my morn,
• And with jealousies and fears?—
• And fill my pleasant nights with tears?

• Till I turn from female love
• And root up the Infernal Grove,
• I shall never worthy be
• 20To step into Eternity.

• Seven of my sweet loves thy knife
• Has bereaved of their life:
• Their marble tombs I built with tears
• And with cold and shadowy fears.

• Seven more loves weep night and day
• Round the tombs where my loves lay,
• And seven more loves attend at night
• About my couch with torches bright,

• And seven more loves in my bed
• 30Crown with vine my mournful head;
• Pitying and forgiving all
• Thy transgressions, great and small.

• When wilt thou return, and view
• My loves, and then in life renew?
• When wilt thou return and live?
• When wilt thou pity as I forgive?

• Let us agree to give up love
• And root up the Infernal Grove;
• Then shall we return, and see
• 40The worlds of happy Eternity.

• Throughout all Eternity,
• I forgive you—you forgive me.
• As our dear Redeemer said:
• This the wine, and this the bread.

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• To find the western path,
• Right through the gates of wrath
• I urge my way;
• Sweet Morning leads me on;
• With soft repentant moan
• I see the break of day.

• The war of swords and spears,
• Melted by dewy tears,
• Exhales on high;
• 10The sun is freed from fears,
• And with soft grateful tears
• Ascends the sky.

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• Beneath the white thorn stood in May
• Three virgins at the break of day;
• They bore a net of golden twine
• To hang upon the branches fine:
• The first was clothed in iron wire,
• The second was clothed in tears and sighs,
• Dazzling bright before my eyes.
• Pitying I wept to see the woe
• That Love and Beauty undergo,—
• 10to be clothed in burning fires
• And in ungratified desires,
• And in tears clothed night and day:
• It melted all my soul away.
• When they saw me weep, a smile
• Which did heaven itself beguile
• Bore the golden net aloft,
• As by downy pinions soft,
• O'er the morning of my day.
page: [66v]  
Note: The number 10 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
• Underneath the net I stray,—
• 20Now entreating Flaming-fire,
• Now entreating Iron-wire,
• Now entreating Tears-and-sighs.
• O when will the morning rise?

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• “I see, I see!” the mother said,
• “My children will die for lack of bread!
• What more hath the merciless tyrant said?”
• The monk sat him down on her stony bed.

• His eye was dry,—no tear could flow,—
• A hollow groan first spoke his woe;
• He trembled and shuddered upon the bed;
• At length, with a feeble cry, he said:

• “When God commanded this hand to write
• 10In the shadowy hours of deep midnight,
page: 67  
Note: The number 11 is crossed out and replaced by 67 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
• He told me that all I wrote should prove
• The bane of all that on earth I love.

• “My brother starved between two walls;
• Thy children's crying my soul appals;
• I mocked at the rack and griding chain,—
• My bent body mocks at their torturing pain.

• “Thy father drew his sword in the north,—
• By his strong courage he is marched forth;
• Thy brother has armèd himself in steel,
• 20To revenge the wrongs that thy Children feel.

• “But vain the sword and vain the bow,—
• They never can work War's overthrow;
• The hermit's prayer and the Widows tear
• Alone can free the World from fear.”

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• (He.) Where thou dwellest, in what grove,
• Tell me, fair one, tell me, love;
• Where thou thy charming nest dost built.
• O thou pride of every field.

• (She.) Yonder stands a lovely tree,—
• There I live and mourn for thee;
• Morning drinks my silent tear
• And evening winds my sorrow hear.

• (He.) O thou Summer's harmony,
• 10I have lived and mourned for thee;
• Each day I mourn along the wood,
• And night hath heard my sorrow loud.

• (She.) Dost thou truly long for me?
• And am I thus sweet to thee?
• Sorrow now is at an end,
page: 68  
Note: The number 13 is crossed out and replaced by 68 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
• O my lover and my friend.

• (He.) Come, on wings of joy will fly
• To where my bower is hung on high;
• Come, and make thy calm retreat
• 20Among green leaves and blossoms sweet.

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• Why was Cupid a boy,
• And why a boy was he?
• He should have been a girl
• For aught that I can see.

• For he shoots with his bow,
• And the girl shoots with her eye,
• And they both are merry and glad
• And laugh when we do cry.

• Then to make Cupid a boy
page: [68v]  
Note: The number 14 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
• 10Was surely a woman's plan,
• For a boy never learns so much
• Till he is become a man.

• And then he's so pierced with cares
• And wounded with arrowy smarts,
• That the whole business of his life
• Is to pick out the heads of the darts.

• 'Twas the Greek love of war
• That turned love into a boy
• And woman into a statue of stone;
• 20And away fled every joy.

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• If e'er I grow to man's estate,
• O give to me a woman's fate;
• May I govern all both great and small,
• Have the last word, and take the wall.

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• Sleep, sleep, beauty-bright,
• Dreaming, in the joys of night;
• Sleep, sleep, in thy sleep
• Little sorrows sit and weep.

• Sweet babe, in thy face
• Soft desires I can trace,
• Secret joys and secret smiles;
• Little pretty infant wiles.

• As thy softest limbs I feel,
• 10Smiles as of the morning steal
• O'er thy cheek, and o'er thy breast
• Where thy little heart doth rest.

• O the cunning wiles that creep
• In thy little heart asleep!
• When thy little heart does wake,
• Then the dreadful light shall break.

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• When the voices of children are heard on the green
• And whisperings are in the dale,
• The days of youth rise fresh in my mind
• And my face turns grave and pale.

• Then come home, my children, the sun is
• gone down
• And the dews of night arise:
• Your spring and your day are wasted in play,
• And your winter and night in disguise.

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• The look of love alarms
• Because 'tis filled with fire,
• But the look of soft deceit
• Shall win the lover's hire.
• Soft deceit and idleness,
• These are beauty's sweetest dress.

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• I heard an Angel singing
• When the day was springing:
• “Mercy, Pity, and Peace,
• Are the world's release.”

• So he sang all day
• Over the new-mown hay,
• Till the sun went down
• And haycocks looked brown.

• I heard a devil curse
• 10Over the heath and the furze:
• “Mercy could be no more
• If there were nobody poor,—
• And Pity no more could be
• If all were happy as ye,—
• And mutual fear brings Peace.
• Misery's increase
• Are Mercy, Pity, Peace.”

• At his curse the sun went down,
• And the heavens gave a frown.

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• I give you the end of a golden string;
• Only wind it into a ball,
• It will lead you in at Heaven's gate
• Built in Jerusalem's wall.

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• I laid me down upon a bank
• Where Love lay sleeping;
• I heard among the rushes dank
• Weeping, weeping.

• Then I went to the heath and the wild,
• To the thistles and thorns of the waste;
• And they told me how they were beguil'd,
• Driven out, and compelled to be chaste.

• I went to the garden of love,
• 10And I saw what I never had seen;
• A chapel was built in the midst,
• Where I used to play on the green.

• And the gates of this chapel were shut,
• And “ Thou shalt not,” writ over the door;
• So I turned to the garden of love
• Which so many sweet flowers bore.

• And I saw it was filled with graves,
• And tombstones where flowers should be;
• And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
• 20And choking binding [?] with briars my joys and desires.

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• A flower was offer'd to me,
• Such a flower as May never bore;
• But I said “I've a pretty rose-tree,”
• And I passed the sweet flower o'er.

• Then I went to my pretty rose-tree,
• To tend her it [?] by day and by [?]night;
• But my rose turned away with jealousy,
• And her thorns were my only delight.

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• The angel who presided o'er my birth
• Said: “Little creature, formed of joy and mirth,
• Go, love without the help of anything on earth”

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• I saw a chapel all of gold
• That none did dare to enter in;
• And many weeping stood without,
• Weeping, mourning, worshipping.

• I saw a serpent rise between
• The white pillars of the door,
• And he forced and forced and forced
• Till Down he the golden hinges tore;

• And along the pavement sweet
• 10Set with pearls and rubies bright,
• All his slimy length he drew,
• Till upon the altar white

• He vomited his poison out
• On the bread and on the wine.
• So I turned into a sty,
• And laid me down among the swine.

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• Never seek to tell thy love,
• Love that never told can be;
• For the gentle wind doth does move
• Silently, invisibly.

• I told my love, I told my love,—
• I told her all my heart,
• Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears.
• Ah! she did doth depart.

• Soon after she was gone from me,
• 10A traveller came by,
• Silently, invisibly:
• He took her with a sigh.

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• Great things are done when men and mountains meet;
• These are not done by jostling in the street.

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• As I wandered (ni ) the forest
• The green leaves among,
• I heard a wild-flower
• Singing a song:

• “I slept in the earth,
• In the silent night;
• I murmured my thoughts fears,
• And I felt delight.

• “In the morning I went,
• 10As rosy as morn,
• To seek for new joy;
• But I met with scorn.”

   

• The errors of a wise man make your rule,
• Rather than the perfections of a fool.

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• O rose, thou art sick;
• The invisible worm,
• That flies in the night
• In the howling storm,
• Hath found out thy bed
• Of crimson joy,
• And his dark secret love
• Doth thy life destroy.

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• Nought loves another as itself,
• Nor venerates another so;
• Nor is it possible to thought
• A greater than itself to know.

• Then, father, how can I love you
• Or any of my brothers more?
• I love you like the little bird
• That picks up crumbs before the door.

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• Tiger, tiger, burning bright
• In the forest of the night,
• What immortal hand or eye
• Framed thy fearful symmetry?

• In what distant deeps or skies
• Burned the fervour of thine eyes?
• On what wings dare he aspire—
• What the hand dare seize the fire?

• And what shoulder and what art
page: 74  
Note: The number 25 is crossed out and replaced by 74 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
• 10Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
• When thy heart began to beat,
• What dread hand formed thy dread feet?

• What the hammer, what the chain,
• Formed thy strength and forged thy brain?
• What the anvil? What dread grasp
• Dare thy deadly terrors clasp?

• When the stars threw down their spheres
• And watered heaven with their tears,
• Did he smile, his work to see?
• 20Did he who made the lamb make thee?

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• I walked abroad on a snowy day,
• I asked the soft snow with me to play;
• She played and she melted in all her prime.
• Ah! that sweet love should be thought a crime!

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• “Love seeketh not itself to please,
• Nor for itself hath any care,—
• But for another's gives its ease,
• And builds a heaven in hell's despair.”

• So sung a little clod of clay,
• Trodden with the cattle's feet;
• But a pebble of the wood
• Warbled out these metres meet:—

• “Love seeketh only self to please,
• 10To bind another to its delight,—
• Joys in another's loss of ease,
• And builds a hell in heaven's despite.”

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• I was angry with my friend;
• I told my wrath,—my wrath did end.
• I was angry with my foe;
• I told it not,—my wrath did grow.

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• Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau,
• Mock on, mock on,—'tis all in vain!
• You throw the sand against the wind
• And the wind blows it back again.

• And every sand becomes a gem
• Reflected in the beams divine;
• Blown back, they blind the mocking eye,
• But still in Israel's paths they shine.

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• Why should I care for the men of Thames,
• Or the cheating waters of chartered streams?—
• Or shrink at the little blasts of fear
• That the hireling blows into mine ear?

• Though born on the cheating banks of Thames,—
• Though 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.

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• I rose up at the dawn of day.
• “Get thee away, get thee away.
• Pray'st thou for riches? away, away!
• This is the Throne of Mammon grey.”

• Said I: “This sure is very odd;
• I took it to be the throne of God;
• Everything besides I have,—
• It is only for riches that I can crave.

• “I have mental joys and mental health,
• 10Mental friends and mental wealth;
• I've a wife that I love and that loves me;
• I've all but riches bodily.
• Then if for riches I must not pray,
• God knows it's little prayers I need say.”

• I am in God's presence night and day;
• He never turns his face away:
page: 76  
Note: The number 29 is crossed out and replaced by 76 written in the upper right corner in pencil.
• The accuser of sins by my side doth stand
• And he holds my money-bag in his hand;
• For my worldly things God makes him pay,
• 20And he'd pay for more if to him I would pray:
• He says, if I worship not him for a God
• I shall eat coarser food and go worse shod;
• But as I don't value such things as these,
• You must do, M ^r. Devil, just as God please.

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• Dear mother, dear mother, the church is cold,
• But the alehouse is healthy and pleasant and warm;
• Besides, I can tell when I am used well;
• The poor parsons with wind like a blown bladder swell.

• But if at the church they would give us some ale
• And a pleasant fire our souls to regale,
• We'd stay and we'd pray all the livelong day,
• Nor ever once wish from the church to stray.

• Then God, like a father rejoicing to see
• 10His children as pleasant and happy as he,
• Would have no more quarrel with the Devil or the barrel,
• But shake hands and kiss him, and there'd be no more hell.

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• I asked a thief to steal me a peach;—
• He turned up his eyes.
• I asked a lithe lady to lie down;—
• Holy and meek, she cries.

• As soon as I went,
• An angel came;
• He winked at the thief,
• And smiled at the dame;
• And without one word spoke,
• 10Had a peach from the tree,—
• And 'twixt earnest and joke,
• Enjoyed the lady.

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• To Chloe's heart young Cupid slyly stole,
• But he crept in at Myra's pocket-hole.

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• The caverns of the Grave I've seen,
• And these I showed to England's queen;
• But now the caves of Hell I view,—
• Whom shall I dare to show them to?
• What mighty soul in beauty's form
• Shall dauntless view the infernal storm?
• Egremont's Countess can control
• The flames of hell that round me roll.
• If she refuse, I still go on
• 10Till the heavens and earth are gone;—
• Still admired by noble minds,
page: [77v]  
Note: The number 32 is written in the upper left corner in pencil.
• Followed by envy on the winds.
• Re-engraved time after time,
• Ever in their youthful prime,
• My designs unchanged remain;
• Time may rage, but rage in vain;
• For above time's troubled fountains
• On the great Atlantic mountains,
• In my Golden House on high,
• 20There they shine eternally.

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• The countless gold of a merry heart,
• The rubies and pearls of a loving eye,
• The idle man never can bring to the mart
• Nor the cunning hoard up in his treasury.

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• He's a blockhead who wants a proof of what he can't perceive,
• And he's a fool who tries to make such a blockhead believe.

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The End.

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