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Selections from William Blake's Early Poetry
There Is No Natural Religion
A
The Argument. Man has no notion of moral fitness but from Education. Naturally he is only a natural organ subject to Sense.
I.
Man cannot naturally Perceive but through his natural or bodily organs.
II Man by his reasoning power can only compare & judge of what he has
already perceiv'd.
III. From a perception of only 3 senses or 3 elements none could deduce a fourth
or fifth.
IV. None could have other than natural or organic thoughts if he had none but
organic perceptions.
V. Man's desires are limited by his perceptions; none can desire what he has not
perceiv'd.
VI. The desires & perceptions of man, untaught by any thing but organs of
sense, must be limited to objects of sense.
Conclusion. If it were not for the Poetic or Prophetic character the Philosophic & Experimental would soon be at the ratio [rational calculation] of all things, & stand still unable to do other than repeat the same dull round over again.
There is No Natural Religion
B
I.
Man's perceptions are not bounded by organs of perception; he perceives more
than sense (tho' ever so acute) can discover.
II. Reason, or the ratio of all we have already known, is not the same that it
shall be when we know more.
III. [missing]
IV. The bounded is loathed by its possessor. The same dull round even of a
universe would soon become a mill with complicated wheels.
V. If the many become the same as the few when possess'd, More! More! is the cry
of a mistaken soul. Less than All cannot satisfy Man.
VI. If any could desire what he is incapable of possessing, despair must be his
eternal lot.
VII. The desire of Man being Infinite, the possession is Infinite & himself
Infinite.
Application. He who sees the Infinite in all things sees God. He who sees the Ratio only sees himself only.
Therefore God becomes as we are, that we may be as he is.
(Etched by William Black in 1788, as a critique of Deistic natural philosophy)
Nurse's Song
When
the voices of children are heard on the green
And laughing is heard on the hill,
My heart is at rest within my breast
And everything else is still.
"Then
come home my children, the sun is gone
down
5
And the dews of night arise;
Come, come, leave off play, and let us away
Till the morning appears in the skies."
"No,
no, let us play, for it is yet day
And we cannot go to
sleep;
10
Besides, in the sky, the little birds fly
And the hills are all covered with sheep."
"Well,
well, go & play till the light fades away
And then go home to bed."
The little ones leaped & shouted & laugh'd
15
And all the hills ecchoed.
Nurse's Song
When
the voices of children, are heard on the green
And whisprings are in the dale,
The days of my youth rise fresh in my mind,
My face turns green and pale.
Then come home my children, the sun is gone
down
5
And the dews of night arise;
Your spring & your day are wasted in play,
And your winter and night in disguise.
The Tyger (1794)
Tyger!
Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In
what distant deeps or
skies
5
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
And
what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy
heart?
10
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What
the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread
grasp
15
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When
the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make
thee?
20
Tyger!
Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
The Garden of Love
I
went to the Garden of Love,
And 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,
5
And "Thou shalt not" writ over the door;
So turn'd to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore,
And
I saw it was filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should
be:
10
And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys & desires.
From The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence.
The Voice of the Devil
All Bibles or sacred codes have been the causes of the following Errors:
1. That Man has two real existing principles; Viz: a Body & a Soul.
2. That Energy, calld Evil, is alone from the Body, & that Reason, calld Good, is alone from the Soul.
3. That God will torment Man in Eternity for following his Energies.
But the following Contraries to these are True:
1 Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that called Body is a portion of Soul discernd by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age.
2. Energy is the only life, and is from the Body; and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy.
3. Energy is Eternal Delight.
Selected Proverbs of Hell
Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
Prudence is rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.
He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
The cut worm forgives the plow.
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock; but of wisdom, no clock can measure.
No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.
Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
The nakedness of woman is the work of God.
What is now proved was once only imagin'd.
The fox provides for himself, but God provides for the lion.
The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.
Where man is not, nature is barren.
Mock on, Mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau
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
5
Reflected in the beams divine:
Blown back, they blind the mocking Eye,
But still in Israel's paths they shine.
The
Atoms of Democritus
And Newton's Particles of
light
10
Are sands upon the Red Sea shore,
Where Israel's tents do shine so bright.
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