occasion, it is as if the 'Visions were angry,' and hurried in stormy disorder before his rapt gaze, no longer to bless and teach, but to bewilder and confound.
The Preludium, and the two accompanying specimen pages, which give a portion of both words and design, will enable the reader to form some idea of the poem. There occurs in one of the latter an allusion to the Courts of Law at Westminster, which is a striking instance of that occasional mingling of the actual with the purely symbolic, before spoken of. Perhaps the broidery of spider's web which so felicitously embellishes the page, was meant to bear a typical reference to the same.
The 'nameless shadowy female,' with whose lamentation the poem opens, personifies Europe as it would seem; her head (the mountains) turbaned with clouds, and round her limbs, the 'sheety waters' wrapped; whilst Enitharmon symbolizes great mother Nature:—
Preludium.
The nameless shadowy female rose from out
The breast of Orc,
Her snaky hair brandishing in the winds of Enitharmon:
And thus her voice arose:
'O mother Enitharmon, wilt thou bring forth other sons?
'To cause my name to vanish, that my place may not be found?
'For I am faint with travel!
'Like the dark cloud disburdened in the day of dismal thunder.
'My roots are brandish'd in the heavens; my fruits in earth beneath,
'Surge, foam, and labour into life!—first born, and first consum'd,
'Consumed and consuming!
'Then why shouldst thou, accursed mother! bring me into life?
'I weep!—my turban of thick clouds around my lab'ring head;
'I fold the sheety waters as a mantle round my limbs.
'Yet the red sun and moon
'And all the overflowing stars rain down prolific pains.
