YCBA Collections Search

Inscribed in orange ink, upper right: "86"

Lettered inside image: "I see thy Form, O lovely mild Jerusalem, Wing'd with Six Wings | In the opacous Bosom of the Sleeper, lovely Three fold | In Head & Heart & Reins, three Universes of love & beauty. | Thy forehead bright: Holiness to the Lord: with Gates of pearl | Reflects Eternity beneath thy azure wings of feathery down, | Ribb'd delicate & cloth'd with feather'd gold & azure & purple, | From thy white shoulders shadowing, purity in holiness! | Thence feather'd with soft crimson of the ruby bright as fire | Spreading into the azure Wings which like a canopy | Bends over thy immortal Head, in which Eternity dwells. | Albion, beloved Land! I see thy mountains & thy hills | And valleys & thy pleasant Cities, Holiness to the Lord. | I see the Spectres of thy Dead, O Emanation of Albion. | Thy Bosom white, translucent, cover'd with immortal gems, | A sublime ornament not obscuring the outlines of beauty, | Terrible to behold for thy extreme beauty & perfection: | Twelve-fold, here all the Tribes of Israel I behold | Upon the Holy Land: I see the River of Life & Tree of Life, | I see the New Jerusalem descending out of Heaven | Between thy Wings of gold & silver feather'd, immortal, | Clear as the rainbow, as the cloud of the Sun's tabernacle. | Thy Reins cover'd with Wings translucent, sometimes covering | And sometimes spread abroad, reveal the flames of holiness, | Which like a robe covers, & like a Veil of Seraphim | In flaming fire unceasing burns from Eternity to Eternity. | Twelvefold I there behold Israel in her Tents. | A Pillar of a Cloud by day: a Pillar of fire by night | Guides them: there I behold Moab & Ammon & Amalek. | There Bells of silver round thy knees living articulate | Comforting sounds of Jove & harmony, & on thy feet | Sandals of gold & pearl, & Egypt & Assyria before me, | The Isles of Javan, Philistea, Tyre & Lebanon. | Thus Los sings upon his Watch, walking from Furnace to Furnace. | He siezes his Hammer every hour : flames surround him as | He beats; seas roll beneath his feet, tempests muster | Around his head, the thick hail stones stand ready to obey | His voice in the black cloud, his Sons labour in thunders | At his Furnaces; his Daughters at their Looms sing woes. | His Emanation separates in milky fibres agonizing | Among the golden Looms of Cathedron, sending fibres of love | From Golgonooza with sweet visions for Jerusalem, wanderer. | Nor can any consummate bliss without being Generated | On Earth, of those whose Emanations weave the loves | Of Beulah for Jerusalem & Shiloh, in immortal Golgonooza, | Concentering in the majestic form of Erin in eternal tears, | Viewing the Winding Worm on the Desarts of Great Tartary, | Viewing Los in his shudderings, pouring balm on his sorrows: | So dread is Los's fury, that none dare him to approach | Without becoming his Children in the Furnaces of affliction. | And Enitharmon like a faint rainbow waved before him, | Filling with Fibres from his loins which redden'd with desire | Into a Globe of blood beneath his bosom, trembling in darkness | Of Albion's clouds: he fed it, with his tears & bitter groans | Hiding his Spectre in invisibility from the timorous Shade | Till it became a separated cloud of beauty, grace & love, | Among the darkness of his Furnaces dividing asunder till | She separated stood before him, a lovely Female weeping, | Even Enitharmon separated outside, & his Loins closed | And heal'd after the separation: his pains he soon forgot, | Lured by her beauty outside of himself in shadowy grief. | Two Wills they had: Two Intellects: & not as in times of old. | Silent they wander'd hand in hand like two Infants wand'ring | From Enion in the desarts, terrified at each others beauty, | Envying each other yet desiring, in all devouring Love."