The Norton Anthology of English literature. Volume 2

25 The lark does rustle in the ripe corn, and the Eagle returns From nightly prey, and lifts his golden beak to the pure east, Shaking the dust from his immortal pinions to awake The sun that sleeps too long. Arise my Theotormon, I am pure; Because the night is gone that clos'd me in its deadly black.'

30 They told me that the night & day were all that I could see; They told me that I had five senses to inclose me up, And they inclos'd my infinite brain into a narrow circle, And sunk my heart into the Abyss, a red round globe hot burning, Till all from life I was obliterated and erased.

35 Instead of morn arises a bright shadow, like an eye In the eastern cloud,6 instead of night a sickly charnel house, That Theotormon hears me not! to him the night and morn Are both alike: a night of sighs, a morning of fresh tears;

PLATE 3

And none but Bromion can hear my lamentations.

"With what sense is it that the chicken shuns the ravenous hawk? With what sense does the tame pigeon measure out the expanse? With what sense does the bee form cells? have not the mouse & frog

5. The implied parallel is to Zeus's punishment of ceived by the constricted ("inclos'd," line 32) sen- Prometheus for befriending the human race, by sible eye and "the breaking day" (line 24) of a new setting an eagle to devour his liver. era perceived by Oothoon's liberated vision. 6. The contrast is between the physical sun per

 .

106 / WILLIAM BLAKE

Eyes and ears and sense of touch? yet are their habitations And their pursuits as different as their forms and as their joys. Ask the wild ass why he refuses burdens, and the meek camel Why he loves man; is it because of eye, ear, mouth, or skin, Or breathing nostrils? No, for these the wolf and tyger have. Ask the blind worm the secrets of the grave, and why her spires Love to curl round the bones of death; and ask the rav'nous snake Where she gets poison, & the wing'd eagle why he loves the sun, And then tell me the thoughts of man, that have been hid of old.7

"Silent I hover all the night, and all day could be silent, If Theotormon once would turn his loved eyes upon me. How can I be defild when I reflect thy image pure? Sweetest the fruit that the worm feeds on, & the soul prey'd on by woe, The new wash'd lamb ting'd with the village smoke, & the bright swan By the red earth of our immortal river:8 I bathe my wings, And I am white and pure to hover round Theotormon's breast."

Then Theotormon broke his silence, and he answered:

"Tell me what is the night or day to one o'erflowd with woe? Tell me what is a thought? & of what substance is it made? Tell me what is a joy? & in what gardens do joys grow? And in what rivers swim the sorrows? and upon what mountains

PLATE 4

Wave shadows of discontent? and in what houses dwell the wretched Drunken with woe, forgotten, and shut up from cold despair?

"Tell me where dwell the thoughts, forgotten till thou call them forth? Tell me where dwell the joys of old! & where the ancient loves? And when will they renew again & the night of oblivion past? That I might traverse times & spaces far remote and bring Comforts into a present sorrow and a night of pain. Where goest thou, O thought? to what remote land is thy flight? If thou returnest to the present moment of affliction Wilt thou bring comforts on thy wings and dews and honey and balm, Or poison from the desart wilds, from the eyes of the envier?"

Then Bromion said, and shook the cavern with his lamentation:

"Thou knowest that the ancient trees seen by thine eyes have fruit; But knowest thou that trees and fruits flourish upon the earth To gratify senses unknown? trees beasts and birds unknown: Unknown, not unpercievd, spread in the infinite microscope, In places yet unvisited by the voyager, and in worlds Over another kind of seas, and in atmospheres unknown?

7. Oothoon implies that "thoughts" (powers of Hebrew name "Adam" (cf. The Marriage ofHea conceiving a liberated life in a better world) are as and Hell 2.13, p. 111). The "immortal riv innate to human beings as instinctual patterns of accordingly, may refer to the "river" that "went behavior are to other species of living things. of Eden" (Genesis 2.10). 8. "Red earth" is the etymological meaning of the

 .

VISIONS OF THE DAUGHTERS OF ALBION / 107

Ah! are there other wars, beside the wars of sword and fire? And are there other sorrows, beside the sorrows of poverty? And are there other joys, beside the joys of riches and ease? And is there not one law for both the lion and the ox?9 And is there not eternal fire, and eternal chains? To bind the phantoms of existence from eternal life?"

Then Oothoon waited silent all the day and all the night,

PLATE 5

But when the morn arose, her lamentation renewd. The Daughters of Albion hear her woes, & eccho back her sighs.

"O Urizen!1 Creator of men! mistaken Demon of heaven: Thy joys are tears! thy labour vain, to form men to thine image. How can one joy absorb another? are not different joys Holy, eternal, infinite! and each joy is a Love.