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| British
Library Four Zoas Manuscript Page 103 |
Four Zoas, Night VIII, Page 103, (E 375)
"The sorrower of Eternity in love with tears submiss I rear
My Eyes to thy Pavilions hear my prayer for Luvahs sake
I see the murderer of my Luvah clothd in robes of bloodt
He who assured my Luvahs throne in times of Everlasting
Where hast thou hid him whom I love in what remote Abyss
Resides that God of my delight O might my eyes behold
My Luvah then could I deliver all the sons of God
From Bondage of these terrors & with influences sweet
As once in those eternal fields in brotherhood & Love
United we should live in bliss as those who sinned not
The Eternal Man is seald by thee never to be deliverd
We are all servants to thy will O King of Light relent
Thy furious power be our father & our loved King
But if my Luvah is no more If thou hast smitten him
And laid him in the Sepulcher Or if thou wilt revenge
His murder on another Silent I bow with dread
But happiness can never [come] to thee O King nor me
For he was source of every joy that this mysterious tree
Unfolds in Allegoric fruit. When shall the dead revive
Can that which has existed cease or can love & life Expire
Urizen heard the Voice & saw the Shadow. underneath
His woven darkness & in laws & deceitful religions
Beginning at the tree of Mystery circling its root
She spread herself thro all the branches in the power of Orc
A shapeless & indefinite cloud in tears of sorrow incessant
Steeping the Direful Web of Religion swagging heavy it fell
From heaven to heavn thro all its meshes altering the Vortexes
Misplacing every Center hungry desire & lust began
Gathering the fruit of that Mysterious tree till Urizen
Sitting within his temple furious felt the num[m]ing stupor
Himself tangled in his own net in sorrow lust repentance
Enitharmon wove in tears Singing Songs of Lamentations
And pitying comfort as she sighd forth on the wind the spectres
And wove them bodies calling them her belovd sons & daughters
Employing the daughters in her looms & Los employd the Sons
In Golgonoozas Furnaces among the Anvils of time & space
Thus forming a Vast family wondrous in beauty & love
And they appeard a Universal female form created
From those who were dead in Ulro from the Spectres of the dead
PAGE 104 (FIRST PORTION)
And Enitharmon namd the Female Jerusalem the holy
Wondring she saw the Lamb of God within Jerusalems Veil
The divine Vision seen within the inmost deep recess
Of fair Jerusalems bosom in a gently beaming fire"
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| Wiki Commons Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts |
The winged and veiled female records in her booklet the infractions which are among the fruits of the Tree of Mystery. The reclining figure, who seems to be inebriated, appears to represent the fallen level of Luvah who originally was the cup-bearer of the Eternal.
In contrast to the confused status of Luvah, Urizen, Vala and Orc, Blake writes of the joyous work in which Los and Enitharmon engage. The development here is that as an alternative to the Shadowy Female, there is formed a "Universal female form created From those who were dead in Ulro from the Spectres of the dead." The work of Los and Enitharmon has gone beyond giving life to the disembodied dead. In aggregate the enlivened souls bring forth Jerusalem as the Divine Vision, counterpart to Jesus.
The work performed by Los and Enitharmon is clarified in Blake's Four Zoas: The Design of a Dream by Brian Wilkie and Mary Lynn Johnson:
"Out of the unreal, deathly, antihuman, formlessness, Los and Enitharmon work continually to bring into full being whatever is potentially real, alive, and human: Los's transformation of war into love is one of the many points in Night VIII where opposites collide. Before evil, error, and death can be seen as non-entities to be cast off, all that is real under their dominion must be remade. What is left after that, since it is only delusion, will disappear in the mental fires of Night IX." (Page 175)
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