An oratorio based on the prophetic writings of William Blake.
In Eden, great Eternity, all things are one,
And they converse together in visionary forms dramatic.
Here dwell Albion the Universal Man, and Jerusalem
His emanation, city of his soul. For every particular form gives forth
Its own peculiar light, and the form is the Divine Vision,
And the light is his garment. This is Jerusalem in every Man.
And Jerusalem is called Liberty among the children of Albion.
Four mighty ones are in every Man:
Urizen, Luvah, Tharmas, Los
(Urthona was his name in Eden)—
Albion sickens at their strife.
A perfect unity cannot exist
But from universal brotherhood.
Urizen petrifies the human imagination into rock and sand,
Luvah is cast into the furnaces of affliction.
From Albion’s loins are fled all peoples and nations of the earth;
Their eyes, their ears, nostrils, and tongues roll outward;
They behold what is within now seen without;
The moon fled with a cry, the sun with streams of blood.
Albion sinks into death, Jerusalem lies in ruins.
I turn my eyes to the schools & universities of Europe
And there behold the loom of Locke, whose woof rages dire
Washed by the water-wheels of Newton, black the cloth
In heavy wreathes folds over every nation; cruel works
Of many wheels I view, wheel without wheel, with cogs tyrannic
Moving by compulsion each other: not as those in Eden, which
Wheel within wheel in freedom revolve in harmony and peace.
Nations are destroy’d or flourish in proportion
As their poetry, painting, and music are destroy’d or flourish!
Only Los, artisan of eternity, keeps the divine vision,
And hammers at his mighty anvil rebuilding Eden.
Los took his globe of fire to search the interiors of Albion’s
Bosom, in all the terrors of friendship, entering the caves
Of despair and death . . . . “I rest not from my eternal task,
To open the eternal worlds, to open the immortal eyes
Of Man inwards into the worlds of thought: into eternity
Ever expanding in the bosom of God, the Human Imagination!”
The blow of his hammer is justice, the swing of his hammer, mercy;
The force of Los’s hammer is eternal forgiveness.
And Los stood & cried to the Labourers of the Vintage in voice of awe:
Thou seest the Constellations in the deep & wondrous Night:
They rise in order and continue their immortal courses
Upon the mountains & in vales with harp & heavenly song,
With flute & clarion, with cups & measure filled with foaming wine:
These are the sons of Los, & these the Labourers of the Vintage;
Thou seest the gorgeous clothed Flies that dance & sport in summer
Upon the sunny brooks & meadows; every one the dance
Knows in its intricate mazes of delight artful to weave:
Each one to sound his instruments of music in the dance,
To touch each other & cross & change & return:
These are the Children of Los; thou seest the Trees on mountains:
The wind blows heavy, loud they thunder through the darksom sky
Uttering prophecies & speaking instructive words to the sons
Of men:
10a. these are the Sons of Los! These are the Visions of Eternity,
But we see only as it were the hem of their garments
When with our vegetable eyes we view these wond’rous visions.
10b. If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is, infinite!
Albion cold lies on his rock; storms and snows beat round him.
Los hammers, sighing like the bellows of his furnaces:
“I care not! the swing of my hammer shall measure the starry round!”
Time was finished! Albion rose;
He takes his bow, then chooses out his arrows of flaming gold,
Compelling Urizen to his furrow, Tharmas to his sheepfold,
And Luvah to his loom. Urthona he beheld mighty labouring at
His anvil, the great spectre Los unwearied labouring and weeping.
Therefore the Sons of Eden praise Urthona in songs
Because he kept the Divine Vision in time of trouble.
And they conversed together in visionary forms dramatic, which bright
Redounded from their tongues in thunderous majesty, in visions
In new expanses, creating space, creating time according to
The wonders divine of human imagination! I saw
All living creatures starry and flaming with every colour,
Lion, tyger, horse, elephant, eagle, dove, fly, worm—all humanize:
All human forms identified, even tree, metal, earth, and stone,
Going forth and returning wearied into the planetary lives
Of years, months, days and hours. And I heard
The name of their emanations: they are named Jerusalem!
Text adapted by Leonard Trawick from the writings of William Blake.
Text copyright © 2005 by Leonard Trawick. Used by permission.