The Invocation

William Blake

Earth's Answer

 Earth raised up her head
 From the darkness dread and drear,
 Her light fled,
 Stony, dread,
 And her locks covered with grey despair.
 
'Prisoned on watery shore,
 Starry jealousy does keep my den
 Cold and hoar;
 Weeping o're,
 I hear the father of the ancient men.
 
'Selfish father of men!
 Cruel, jealous, selfish fear!
 Can delight,
 Chained in night,
 The virgins of youth and morning bear?
 

'Does spring hide its joy,
 When buds and blossoms grow?
 Does the sower
Sow by night,
 Or the plowman in darkness plough?
 
'Break this heavy chain,
 That does freeze my bones around!
 Selfish, vain,
 Eternal bane,
 That free love with bondage bound.'

The Invocation

 Daughters of Beulah! Muses who inspire the Poet's Song,
Record the journey of immortal Milton thro' your realms
Of terror and mild moony lustre, in soft Sexual delusions
Of varièd beauty, to delight the wanderer, and repose
His burning thirst and freezing hunger! Come into my hand,
By your mild power descending down the nerves of my right arm
From out the portals of my Brain, where by your ministry
The Eternal Great Humanity Divine planted His Paradise,
And in it caus'd the Spectres of the Dead to take sweet form
In likeness of Himself. Tell also of the False Tongue, vegetated
Beneath your land of Shadows, of its sacrifices and
Its offerings; even till Jesus, the image of the Invisible God,
Became its prey; a curse, an offering, and an atonement
For Death Eternal, in the Heavens of Albion, and before the Gates
Of Jerusalem his Emanation, in the Heavens beneath Beulah!