Page:Works of William Blake; poetic, symbolic, and critical (1893) Volume 2.djvu/45

THE MENTAL TRAVELLER.

1.

I travelled through a land of men,

A land of men and women, too,

And saw and heard such dreadful things

As cold earth-wanderers never knew.

2.

For there the babe is born in joy

That was begotten in dire woe,

Just as we reap in joy the fruit

That we in bitter tears did sow.

3.

And if the babe is born a boy

He's given to a woman old

Who nails him down upon a rock,

Catches his shrieks in cups of gold.

4.

She binds iron thorns about his head,

She pierces both his hands and feet,

She cuts his heart out at his side

To make it feel both cold and heat.

5.

Her fingers number every nerve,

Just as a miser counts his gold ;

She lives upon his shrieks and cries,

And she grows young as he grows old.

6.

Till he becomes a bleeding youth,

And she becomes a virgin bright ;

Then he rends up his manacles

And binds her down for his delight.

7.

He plants himself in all her nerves,

Just as a husbandman his mould,

And she becomes his dwelling-place

And garden fruitful seventyfold.

8.

An aged shadow, soon he fades,

Wandering round an earthly cot,

Full filled all with gems and gold

Which he by industry has got.