Thel

Second Plate of Thel


The second plate of Thel gives us the text. There are several ways to make it more readable. Try a ctrl shift plus. You may also see several versions of this plate by clicking on BlakeArchives. Click on one of them; at the bottom you may have an option to compare. Click on that and you should have a wide selection of the various copies of this plate.
**************************************************************************************
THEL"The daughters of Mne Seraphim led round their sunny flocks.
All but the youngest; she in paleness sought the secret air.
To fade away like morning beauty from her mortal day:
Down by the river of Adona her soft voice is heard:
And thus her gentle lamentation falls like morning dew.
O life of this our spring! why fades the lotus of the water?
Why fade these children of the spring? born but to smile & fall.
Ah! Thel is like a watry bow. and like a parting cloud.
Like a reflection in a glass. like shadows in the water.
Like dreams of infants. like a smile upon an infants face,
Like the doves voice, like transient day, like music in the air;
Ah! gentle may I lay me down, and gentle rest my head.
And gentle sleep the sleep of death. and gentle hear the voice
Of him that walketh in the garden in the evening time.
The Lilly of the valley breathing in the humble grass
Answer'd the lovely maid and said; I am a watry weed,
And I am very small, and love to dwell in lowly vales;
So weak, the gilded butterfly scarce perches on my head.
Yet I am visited from heaven and he that smiles on all.
Walks in the valley. and each morn over me spreads his hand
Saying, rejoice thou humble grass, thou new-born lilly flower,

Thou gentle maid of silent valleys. and of modest brooks;
For thou shalt be clothed in light, and fed with morning manna:
Till summers heat melts thee beside the fountains and the springs
To flourish in eternal vales: then why should Thel complain"
(Erdman 3-4)

*******************************************************************************************************
Who is Mne Seraphim? Like the Mother Superior of a convent?

From Milton we read:
"The Eternal Great Humanity Divine surrounded by His Cherubim & Seraphim in ever happy Eternity" (In this case the context would lead you off the track.) Of course the man who printed Thel in 1789 was an entirely different man from the one who printed Milton in 1804. The young man's ideas of seraphims may have been very different from whom the middle aged man meant.

What is the river of Adona?"Adonis was a young man who was loved by the goddess Venus, and perhaps the river
of Adona represents budding sexuality. The name may be cognate with Hebrew "Adonai" (G-d), and perhaps the
"river of Adona" is one of the rivers that flowed from the biblical Eden, or garden of God. (from Pathology Guy Enjoying the Book of Thel).

Thel complains: "O life of this our spring! why fades the lotus of the water?" The classic complaint of people in general: why do we have to die? Thel is answered by: "The Lilly of the valley breathing in the humble grass Answer'd the lovely maid and said; I am a watry weed, And I am very small..... "She's visited from Heaven and will be clothed in light, and fed with morning manna: Till summers heat melts thee beside the fountains and the springs To flourish in eternal vales."

These verses undoubtedly have many interpretations. I wonder if the Lilly of the Valley was sung in Blake's childhood days.
*******************************************************************************************************

Here's a good commentary on Thel.