Plate 86

To  reign in pride & to opress & to mix the Cup of Delusion

O thou that dwellest with Babylon! Come forth O lovely-one

PLATE 86

I see thy Form O lovely mild Jerusalem, Wingd with Six Wings

In the opacous Bosom of the Sleeper, lovely Three-fold

In Head & Heart & Reins, three Universes of love & beauty

Thy forehead bright: Holiness to the Lord, with Gates of pearl

Reflects Eternity beneath thy azure wings of feathery down     

Ribbd delicate & clothd with featherd gold & azure & purple

From thy white shoulders shadowing, purity in holiness!

Thence featherd with soft crimson of the ruby bright as fire

Spreading into the azure Wings which like a canopy

Bends over thy immortal Head in which Eternity dwells      
  

Albion beloved Land; I see thy mountains & thy hills

And valleys & thy pleasant Cities Holiness to the Lord

I see the Spectres of thy Dead O Emanation of Albion.
Thy Bosom white, translucent coverd with immortal gems

A sublime ornament not obscuring the outlines of beauty       

Terrible to behold for thy extreme beauty & perfection

Twelve-fold here all the Tribes of Israel I behold

Upon the Holy Land: I see the River of Life & Tree of Life

I see the New Jerusalem descending out of Heaven

Between thy Wings of gold & silver featherd immortal         

Clear as the rainbow, as the cloud of the Suns tabernacle

Thy Reins coverd with Wings translucent sometimes covering

And sometimes spread abroad reveal the flames of holiness

Which like a robe covers: & like a Veil of Seraphim

In flaming fire unceasing burns from Eternity to Eternity     

Twelvefold I there behold Israel in her Tents

A Pillar of a Cloud by day: a Pillar of fire by night

Guides them: there I behold Moab & Ammon & Amalek

There Bells of silver round thy knees living articulate

Comforting sounds of love & harmony & on thy feet           

Sandals of gold & pearl, & Egypt & Assyria before me

The Isles of Javan, Philistea, Tyre and Lebanon

Thus Los sings upon his Watch walking from Furnace to Furnace.

He siezes his Hammer every hour, flames surround him as

He beats: seas roll beneath his feet, tempests muster        

Arou[n]d his head. the thick hail stones stand ready to obey

His voice in the black cloud, his Sons labour in thunders

At his Furnaces; his Daughters at their Looms sing woes

His Emanation separates in milky fibres agonizing

Among the golden Looms of Cathedron sending fibres of love     

From Golgonooza with sweet visions for Jerusalem, wanderer.

Nor can any consummate bliss without being Generated

On Earth; of those whose Emanations weave the loves

Of Beulah for Jerusalem & Shiloh, in immortal Golgonooza

Concentering in the majestic form of Erin in eternal tears     

Viewing the Winding Worm on the Desarts of Great Tartary

Viewing Los in his shudderings, pouring balm on his sorrows

So dread is Los's fury, that none dare him to approach

Without becoming his Children in the Furnaces of affliction

And Enitharmon like a faint rainbow waved before him         

Filling with Fibres from his loins which reddend with desire

Into a Globe of blood beneath his bosom trembling in darkness

Of Albions clouds. he fed it, with his tears & bitter groans

Hiding his Spectre in invisibility from the timorous Shade

Till it became a separated cloud of beauty grace & love       

Among the darkness of his Furnaces dividing asunder till

She separated stood before him a lovely Female weeping

Even Enitharmon separated outside, & his Loins closed

And heal'd after the separation: his pains he soon forgot:

Lured by her beauty outside of himself in shadowy grief.      

Two Wills they had; Two Intellects: & not as in times of old.

Silent they wanderd hand in hand like two Infants wandring

From Enion in the desarts, terrified at each others beauty

Envying each other yet desiring, in all devouring Love,

(Erdman 245-6)  

Notes:

As the plate begins (someone) calls forth Babylon, but she in the form of Jerusalem.

She has three fold wings 

(as Ellie pointed out in the previous post, three fold is the mark of materiality (as opposed to Eternity); the number three in general points toward incompleteness.  

So this Jerusalem is not the Jerusalem that Blake loved and extolled (the eternal one), but a partial fallen substance called Jerusalem.  It “Reflects Eternity “ not the real thing (As St. Paul said, ‘we look through a glass darkly’.)

Blake turns to Albion, same thing, sleeping on his Rock:

Albion beloved Land; I see thy mountains & thy hills

And valleys & thy pleasant Cities Holiness to the Lord

I see the Spectres of thy Dead O Emanation of Albion.

Thy Bosom white, translucent coverd with immortal gems

Albion like Jerusalem is fallen.

With his imagination Blake sees the radiant possibility, the future:

Twelve-fold here all the Tribes of Israel I behold

Upon the Holy Land: I see the River of Life & Tree of Life

I see the New Jerusalem descending out of Heaven

Thus Los sings upon his Watch walking from Furnace to Furnace.

Los is the creative possibility: Like Ellie said,

He creates.

He vegetates.

He brings about birth (first and second).

Nor can any consummate bliss without being Generated

On Earth;  following the myth of Fall: creation, vegetation and birth.

Plate 86