Plate 58

Jerusalem, Plate 58, (E 207)

"In beauty the Daughters of Albion divide & unite at will

Naked & drunk with blood Gwendolen dancing to the timbrel

Of War: reeling up the Street of London she divides in twain

Among the Inhabitants of Albion. the People fall around.

The Daughters of Albion. divide & unite in jealousy & cruelty    

The Inhabitants of Albion at the Harvest & the Vintage

Feel their Brain cut round beneath the temples shrieking

Bonifying into a Scull, the Marrow exuding in dismal pain

They flee over the rocks bonifying: Horses: Oxen: feel the knife.

And while the Sons of Albion by severe War & Judgment, bonify    

The Hermaphroditic Condensations are divided by the Knife

The obdurate Forms are cut asunder by jealousy & Pity.

Rational Philosophy and Mathematic Demonstration

Is divided in the intoxications of pleasure & affection

Two Contraries War against each other in fury & blood,           

And Los fixes them on his Anvil, incessant his blows:

He fixes them with strong blows. placing the stones & timbers.

To Create a World of Generation from the World of Death:

Dividing the Masculine & Feminine: for the comingling

Of Albions & Luvahs Spectres was Hermaphroditic                  

Urizen wrathful strode above directing the awful Building:

As a Mighty Temple; delivering Form out of confusion[.]

Jordan sprang beneath its threshold bubbling from beneath

Its pillars: Euphrates ran under its arches: white sails

And silver oars reflect on its pillars, & sound on its ecchoing  

Pavements: where walk the Sons of Jerusalem who remain Ungenerate

But the revolving Sun and Moon pass thro its porticoes,

Day & night, in sublime majesty & silence they revolve

And shine glorious within! Hand & Koban archd over the Sun

In the hot noon, as he traveld thro his journey; Hyle & Skofield

Archd over the Moon at midnight & Los Fixd them there,

With his thunderous Hammer; terrified the Spectres rage & flee

Canaan is his portico; Jordan is a fountain in his porch;

A fountain of milk & wine to relieve the traveller:

Egypt is the eight steps within. Ethiopia supports his pillars;  

Lybia & the Lands unknown. are the ascent without;

Within is Asia & Greece, ornamented with exquisite art:

Persia & Media are his halls: his inmost hall is Great Tartary.

China & India & Siberia are his temples for entertainment

Poland & Russia & Sweden, his soft retired chambers              

France & Spain & Italy & Denmark & Holland & Germany

Are the temples among his pillars. Britain is Los's Forge;

America North & South are his baths of living waters.

Such is the Ancient World of Urizen in the Satanic Void

Created from the Valley of Middlesex by Londons River            

From Stone-henge and from London Stone, from Cornwall to Cathnes

The Four Zoa's rush around on all sides in dire ruin

Furious in pride of Selfhood the terrible Spectres of Albion

Rear their dark Rocks among the Stars of God: stupendous

Works! A World of Generation continually Creating; out of        

The Hermaphroditic Satanic World of rocky destiny."

Notes:

 

Yale Center for British Art 

Jerusalem

Plate 58

The Spectre with bat wings presides over the disorder and evil of Ulro:

(This batlike Spectre appears in Chapter One  on Plate 6 or here.

‘The Sons of Albion by severe War and Judgment, bonify...’

The bonified skelton appears as the lower picture.

(This from Paley’s Jerusalem page  223)

"the Daughters of Albion naked and drunk with blood."

Los goes to work on them  in his backsmithy.

Meanwhile Urizen directs construction of his ’Might Temple’ (Synagogue of Satan).

Blake has been describing the operation of the Fall: ’the ancient world of Urizen’.

 

The text of this Plate almost in its entirety concerns the chaos and disorder making up the Fall.