| William Blake (1757–1827). The Poetical Works. 1908. | | | | Selections from ‘The Four Zoas’ | | [The Tillage of Urizen] |
| | (Four Zoas, Night IX, II. 290–306.)
THEN seiz’d the sons of Urizen the plough: they polish’d it | |
| From rust of ages: all its ornament of gold and silver and ivory | |
| Re-shone across the field immense, where all the nations | |
| Darken’d like mould in the divided fallows, where the weed | |
| Triumphs in its own destruction. They took down the harness | 5 |
| From the blue walls of Heaven, starry, jingling, ornamented | |
| With beautiful art, the study of Angels, the workmanship of Demons, | |
| When Heaven and Hell in emulation strove in sports of glory. | |
| The noise of rural work resounded thro’ the heavens of heavens: | |
| The horse[s] neigh from the battle, the wild bulls from the sultry waste, | 10 |
| The tigers from the forests, and the lions from the sandy deserts. | |
| They sing; they seize the instruments of harmony; they throw away | |
| The spear, the bow, the gun, the mortar; they level the fortifications; | |
| They beat the iron engines of destruction into wedges; | |
| They give them to Urthona’s sons. Ringing, the hammers sound | 15 |
| In dens of death, to forge the spade, the mattock, and the axe, | |
| The heavy roller to break the clods, to pass over the nations. | | | | |
|
|
