Beginning at Erdman Page 408 Miscellaneous were printed in 1783 when Blake was ca 26; some were written when he was as young as 13. Obviously during Blake's early years he became a great admirer of the 16th century British Poet Edmund Spenser, best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. The young Blake's poem was of course derivative, a hint of the ways that the mature Blake dealt with all his sources, very freely. ***************************************************************** AN IMITATION OF SPEN[S]ER. Golden Apollo, that thro' heaven wide Scatter'st the rays of light, and truth's beams! In lucent words my darkling verses dight, And wash my earthy mind in thy clear streams, That wisdom may descend in fairy dreams: All while the jocund hours in thy train Scatter their fancies at thy poet's feet; And when thou yields to night thy wide domain, Let rays of truth enlight his sleeping brain. For brutish Pan in vain might thee assay With tinkling sounds to dash thy nervous verse, Sound without sense; yet in his rude affray, (For ignorance is Folly's leesing nurse, And love of Folly needs none other curse;) Midas the praise hath gain'd of lengthen'd eares, For which himself might deem him neer the worse To sit in council with his modern peers, And judge of tinkling rhimes, and elegances terse. And thou, Mercurius, that with winged brow Dost mount aloft into the yielding sky, And thro' Heav'n's halls thy airy flight dost throw, Entering with holy feet to where on high Jove weighs the counsel of futurity; Then, laden with eternal fate, dost go Down, like a falling star, from autumn sky, And o'er the surface of the silent deep dost fly. If thou arrivest at the sandy shore, Where nought but envious hissing adders dwell, Thy golden rod, thrown on the dusty floor, Can charm to harmony with potent spell; Such is sweet Eloquence, that does dispel Envy and Hate, that thirst for human gore: And cause in sweet society to dwell Vile savage minds that lurk in lonely cell. O Mercury, assist my lab'ring sense, That round the circle of the world wou'd fly! As the wing'd eagle scorns the tow'ry fence Of Alpine bills round his high aery, And searches thro' the corners of the sky, Sports in the clouds to hear the thunder's sound, And see the winged lightnings as they fly, Then, bosom'd in an amber cloud, around Plumes his wide wings, and seeks Sol's palace high. And thou, O warrior maid, invincible, Arm'd with the terrors of Almighty Jove! Pallas, Minerva, maiden terrible, Lov'st thou to walk the peaceful solemn grove, In solemn gloom of branches interwove? Or bear'st thy Egis o'er the burning field, Where, like the sea, the waves of battle move? Or have thy soft piteous eyes beheld
The weary wanderer thro' the desert rove? Or
does th' afflicted man thy heav'nly bosom move? **************************************************** Notes: Golden Apollo: in Greek mythology Apollo was said to have golden hair. "That wisdom may descend in fairy dreams": well this is certainly where Blake lived; he calls it here "fairy dreams", but later 'heavenly visions'. Blake lived for the Visions; they came freely until ca 1782, departed until 1802. Thus we have the three periods of Blake's creative life: the inspiration of youth, the disillusionment of middle age, and the rebirth in ca 43. "brutish Pan" is an apt metaphor for what was to come for Blake: tinkling sound without sense. With the paragraph on Mercurius Blake gave a florid (Elizabethan?) account of the coming and departure of the Sun, making a day. Then he touches on the 'wing'd eagle'. Finally Pallas, a name for Athena; if you're acquainted with Blake's famous tempera, The Sea of Time and Space, you may remember that some interpreters identified the lady on the shore, beckoning to the wayfarer to take the southern path above as Athena.
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