Saturday, September 14, 2013

America 10



                     PLATE 9
Sound! sound! my loud war-trumpets & alarm my Thirteen Angels!
Loud howls the eternal Wolf! the eternal Lion lashes his tail!
America is darkned; and my punishing Demons terrified
Crouch howling before their caverns deep like skins dry'd in the
     wind.
They cannot smite the wheat, nor quench the fatness of the 
     earth.   
They cannot smite with sorrows, nor, subdue the plow and spade.
They cannot wall the city, nor moat round the castle of princes.
They cannot bring the stubbed oak to overgrow the hills.
For terrible men stand on the shores, &,in their robes I see
Children take shelter from the lightnings, there stands 
     Washington    
And Paine and Warren with their foreheads reard toward the east
But clouds obscure my aged sight. A vision from afar!
Sound! sound! my loud war-trumpets & alarm my thirteen Angels:
Ah vision from afar! Ah rebel form that rent the ancient
Heavens; Eternal Viper self-renew'd, rolling in clouds
I see thee in thick clouds and darkness on America's shore.
Writhing in pangs of abhorred birth; red flames the crest
     rebellious
And eves of death; the harlot womb oft opened in vain
Heaves in enormous circles, now the times are return'd upon thee,
Devourer of thy parent, now thy unutterable torment renews.      
Sound! sound! my loud war trumpets & alarm my thirteen Angels!
Ah terrible birth! a young one bursting! where is the weeping
     mouth?
And where the mothers milk? instead those ever-hissing jaws
And parched lips drop with fresh gore; now roll thou in the 
     clouds

Thy mother lays her length outstretch'd upon the shore beneath.  
Sound! sound! my loud war-trumpets & alarm my thirteen Angels!
Loud howls the eternal Wolf: the eternal Lion lashes his tail!
(Erdman 54-5)

                                           About the Text
This plate is like a song with three verses:

Sound! sound! my loud war-trumpets & alarm my Thirteen Angels! holds it all together.

War trumpet occurs also in Night 7 of 4Z: 
Loud sounds the war song round red Orc in his [?triumphant] fury 
And round the nameless shadowy Female in her howling terror 
When all the Elemental Gods joind in the wondrous Song 
Sound the War trumpet terrific Souls clad in attractive steel 
Sound the shrill fife serpents of war. I hear the northern drumAwake,(Erdman 363)

So Night 7 of 4Z  and America Plate 9 are celebrations of the American Revolution.

The Thirteen Angels of course represent the eternal dimension of the 13 colonies.

Loud howls the eternal Wolf! the eternal Lion lashes his tail
This line occurs in verse 1 and 3.
 
The lion and the wolf go together, as noted in MHH:
"Empire is no more! and now the lion & wolf shall cease."


From Damon 242:
In the Little Girl Lost and The Little Girl Found the lion is the Angel of Death; he carries Lyca to the Palace (Heaven).

So for Blake death does not mean mouldering in the ground, but promotion to Heaven. 

As for the wolf: here it means the same.



                                         About the Image
In the left border and the bottom we see the Wheat. The punishing demons are intimidated, which means perhaps that the King knows he cannot win.

At the bottom the 'wheat' has formed a crysalis in which resides a prone diminutive figure.

There's much talk about birth, as 'Ah terrible birth'. 

Flowers are found to left and right of the new born figure; the color shows up best at Copy M.

(This picture owes a lot to The Gospel of John: 12.24)

No comments: