my
nostrils
drink the lives of mMen
[[line]]
The Villages Lament.
[[line]]
The Villages Lament.
Blake - Zoas
the ?
earthbound bride & bridegroom ?
sulk]
And Los & Enitharmon sat in discontent & scorn
The Nuptial Song arose from all the thousand thousand spirits {A strike line through "thousand thousand spirits" is erased, the phrase replaced with "orbits high" which is then erased and replaced with "demons by the thousands out of a golden cloud [illegible text]" which runs into the margin. GD}
Over the joyful Earth & Sea, and ascended into the Heavens {It looks as though a strike line crossing out this line has been erased. GD}
For Elemental Gods their thunderous Organs blew; creating
Delicious Viands. Demons of Waves their watry Eccho's woke!
Bright Souls [Elements] of vegetative life, budding and blossoming
Stretch
PAGE 14
Stretch their immortal hands to smite the gold & silver Wires
And with immortal Voice soft warbling fill all Earth & Heaven.
With doubling Voices & loud Horns wound round wounding
Cavernous dwellers fill'd the enormous Revelry, Responsing!
And Spirits of Flaming fire on high, govern'd the mighty Song.
And This the Song! Sung at The fFeast of Los & Enitharmon
The Mountain Ephraim calld out to the mountain Zion: Awake O Brother Mountain
Let us refuse the Plow & Space, the heavy Roller & spiked
Harrow. burn all these Corn fields, throw down all these fences
Fattend on Human blood & drunk with wine of life is better far {Interlineal erasures throughout this stanza. GD}
Than all these labours of the harvest & the vintage. See the river
Red with the blood of Men. swells lustful round my rocky knees
My clouds are not the clouds of verdant fields & groves of fruit
But Clouds of Human Souls.
my nostrils drink the lives of mMen
[[line]]
The Villages Lament. they ? faint outstretchd upon the plain
Wailing runs round the vValleys from the Mill & from the Barn
But most the polishd Palaces dark silent bow with dread {"Dark" written on top of "? weak. "GD}
Hiding their books & pictures. underneath the dens of Earth
The Cities send to one another saying My sons are Mad
With wine of cruelty. [[Let us ? light]] Let us plat a Scourge O Sister City
cChildren are nourishd for the Slaughter; once the Child was fed
With Milk; but wherefore now are Children fed with blood
PAGE 15 {This page appears to be a later insert by Blake, for it was not numbered in his original sequence. A note in the hand of Edward J. Ellis appears at the top of the manuscript page: "(a separate sheet: It cannot be placed as its sequel is missing. ) E. J. E. -1891" and beside this: "Perhaps it is all an insertion designed to preceed 'Enion blind & age bent wept upon the desolate wind,-(373 in the 1st printed numbering-suggestion of Mr F G Fleay 1904". GD}
The Horse is of more value than the Man. The Tyger fierce
Laughs at the Human form.
And Los & Enitharmon sat in discontent & scorn
The Nuptial Song arose from all the thousand thousand spirits {A strike line through "thousand thousand spirits" is erased, the phrase replaced with "orbits high" which is then erased and replaced with "demons by the thousands out of a golden cloud [illegible text]" which runs into the margin. GD}
Over the joyful Earth & Sea, and ascended into the Heavens {It looks as though a strike line crossing out this line has been erased. GD}
For Elemental Gods their thunderous Organs blew; creating
Delicious Viands. Demons of Waves their watry Eccho's woke!
Bright Souls [Elements] of vegetative life, budding and blossoming
Stretch
PAGE 14
Stretch their immortal hands to smite the gold & silver Wires
And with immortal Voice soft warbling fill all Earth & Heaven.
With doubling Voices & loud Horns wound round wounding
Cavernous dwellers fill'd the enormous Revelry, Responsing!
And Spirits of Flaming fire on high, govern'd the mighty Song.
And This the Song! Sung at The fFeast of Los & Enitharmon
The Mountain Ephraim calld out to the mountain Zion: Awake O Brother Mountain
Let us refuse the Plow & Space, the heavy Roller & spiked
Harrow. burn all these Corn fields, throw down all these fences
Fattend on Human blood & drunk with wine of life is better far {Interlineal erasures throughout this stanza. GD}
Than all these labours of the harvest & the vintage. See the river
Red with the blood of Men. swells lustful round my rocky knees
My clouds are not the clouds of verdant fields & groves of fruit
But Clouds of Human Souls.
my nostrils drink the lives of mMen
[[line]]
The Villages Lament. they ? faint outstretchd upon the plain
Wailing runs round the vValleys from the Mill & from the Barn
But most the polishd Palaces dark silent bow with dread {"Dark" written on top of "? weak. "GD}
Hiding their books & pictures. underneath the dens of Earth
The Cities send to one another saying My sons are Mad
With wine of cruelty. [[Let us ? light]] Let us plat a Scourge O Sister City
cChildren are nourishd for the Slaughter; once the Child was fed
With Milk; but wherefore now are Children fed with blood
PAGE 15 {This page appears to be a later insert by Blake, for it was not numbered in his original sequence. A note in the hand of Edward J. Ellis appears at the top of the manuscript page: "(a separate sheet: It cannot be placed as its sequel is missing. ) E. J. E. -1891" and beside this: "Perhaps it is all an insertion designed to preceed 'Enion blind & age bent wept upon the desolate wind,-(373 in the 1st printed numbering-suggestion of Mr F G Fleay 1904". GD}
The Horse is of more value than the Man. The Tyger fierce
Laughs at the Human form.
