Plate 79

PLATE 79
My tents are fall'n! My Pillars are in ruins! my children dashd
Upon Egypts iron floors, & the marble pavements of Assyria;
I melt my soul in reasonings among the towers of Heshbon;
Mount Zion is become a cruel rock & no more dew
Nor rain: no more the spring of the rock appears: but cold
Hard & obdurate are the furrows of the mountain of wine & oil:
The mountain of blessing is itself a curse & an astonishment:
The hills of Judea are fallen with me into the deepest hell
Away from the Nations of the Earth, & from the Cities of the
    Nations;
I walk to Ephraim. I seek for Shiloh: I walk like a lost sheep
Among precipices of despair: in Goshen I seek for light
In vain: and in Gilead for a physician and a comforter.
Goshen hath followd Philistea: Gilead hath joind with Og!They are become narrow places in a little and dark land:
How distant far from Albion! his hills & his valleys no more
Recieve the feet of Jerusalem: they have cast me quite away:
And Albion is himself shrunk to a narrow rock in the midst of the
    sea!
The plains of Sussex & Surrey, their hills of flocks & herds
No more seek to Jerusalem nor to the sound of my Holy-ones.

London coverd the whole Earth. England encompassd the The Fifty-two Counties of England are hardend against me
As if I was not their Mother, they despise me & cast me out:

And all the Nations of the Earth were seen in the Cities of Albion:
My pillars reachd from sea to sea: London beheld me come
From my east & from my west; he blessed me and gave
His children to my breasts, his sons & daughters to my knees
His aged parents sought me out in every city & village:
They discernd my countenance with joy! they shewd me to their
    sons
Saying Lo Jerusalem is here! she sitteth in our secret chambers Levi and Judah & Issachar: Ephra[i]m, Manesseh, Gad and Dan
Are seen in our hills & valleys: they keep our flocks & herds:
They watch them in the night: and the Lamb of God appears among
    us.
The river Severn stayd his course at my command:
Thames poured his waters into my basons and baths:
Medway mingled with Kishon: Thames recievd the heavenly Jordan
Albion gave me to the whole Earth to walk up & down; to pour
Joy upon every mountain; to teach songs to the shepherd & plowman
I taught the ships of the sea to sing the songs of Zion.
Italy saw me, in sublime astonishment: France was wholly mine:
As my garden & as my secret bath; Spain was my heavenly couch:
I slept in his golden hills: the Lamb of God met me there.
There we walked as in our secret chamber among our little ones
They looked upon our loves with joy: they beheld our secret joys:
With holy raptures of adoration rapd sublime in the Visions of
    God:
Germany; Poland & the North wooed my footsteps they found
My gates in all their mountains & my curtains in all their vales
The furniture of their houses was the furniture of my chamber
Turkey & Grecia saw my instr[u]ments of music, they arose
They siezd the harp: the flute: the mellow horn of Jerusalems joy
They sounded thanksgivings in my courts: Egypt & Lybia heard
The swarthy sons of Ethiopia stood round the Lamb of God
Enquiring for Jerusalem: he led them up my steps to my altar: And thou America! I once beheld thee but now behold no more
Thy golden mountains where my Cherubim & Seraphim rejoicd
Together among my little-ones. But now, my Altars run with blood!
My fires are corrupt! my incense is a cloudy pestilence
Of seven diseases! Once a continual cloud of salvation. rose
From all my myriads; once the Four-fold World rejoicd among
The pillars of Jerusalem, between my winged Cherubim:
But now I am closd out from them in the narrow passages
Of the valleys of destruction, into a dark land of pitch &
    bitumen.
From Albions Tomb afar and from the four-fold wonders of God
Shrunk to a narrow doleful form in the dark land of Cabul;
There is Reuben & Gad & Joseph & Judah & Levi, closd up
In narrow vales: I walk & count the bones of my beloveds
Along the Valley of Destruction, among these Druid Temples
Which overspread all the Earth in patriarchal pomp & cruel pride
Tell me O Vala thy purposes; tell me wherefore thy shuttles
Drop with the gore of the slain; why Euphrates is red with blood
Wherefore in dreadful majesty & beauty outside appears
Thy Masculine from thy Feminine hardening against the heavens
To devour the Human! Why dost thou weep upon the wind among
These cruel Druid Temples: O Vala! Humanity is far above
Sexual organization; & the Visions of the Night of Beulah
Where Sexes wander in dreams of bliss among the Emanations
Where the Masculine & Feminine are nurs'd into Youth & Maiden
By the tears & smiles of Beulahs Daughters till the time of Sleep is past.
Wherefore then do you realize these nets of beauty & delusion
In open day to draw the souls of the Dead into the light.Till Albion is shut out from every Nation under Heaven.
(Erdman 234-46)
     

Notes:

my children dashd Upon Egypts iron floors, & the marble pavements of Assyria;

This is an obvious reference to the Egyptian and Assyrian Captivity. 

no more the spring of the rock appears

When the children of Israel, recently delivered from Egypt, murmured over a shortage of water, Moses in anger struck a rock, out of which flowed a copious spring.

They are become narrow places in a little and dark land: Blake refers here to Palestine and England; he often compared these two and identified them together (like he did in the Preface to Milton)

The Fifty-two Counties of England are hardend against me
As if I was not their Mother, they despise me & cast me out: the voice is Jerusalem who feels that England has forsaken her, replacing Christianity with Deism.

Levi and Judah & Issachar: Ephra[i]m, Manesseh, Gad and Dan Are seen in our hills & valleys:


With these six names of "the lost tribes" Blake recalls the “good old days”.

and the Lamb of God appears among us.

Indeed!

the Lamb of God met me there. He’s still in the good old days.

And thou America! I once beheld thee but now behold no more Thy golden mountains.

Blake welcomed the American Revolution until he came to see that it was moving rapidly toward England’s depraved and corrupt government.

But now, my Altars run with blood!

with this fierce metaphor he excoriated the Warfare supported by the Church, as it has always done.

(From London (Songs of Experience) we read:

And the hapless Soldiers sigh

Runs in blood down Palace walls.

But now I am closd out from them in the narrow passages

Of the valleys of destruction

This might be an allusion to Elijah and the prophets of Baal.

Tell me O Vala thy purposes; tell me wherefore thy shuttles Drop with the gore of the slain

Vala makes garments of War and economic oppression. 

Till Albion is shut out from every Nation under Heaven.
England's suicidal foreign policy in Blake's day, much like America's today effectively alienated them from the rest of the world.