| William Blake (1757–1827). The Poetical Works. 1908. | | | | Selections from ‘Jerusalem’ | | [Tirzah] |
| | (Jerusalem, f. 67, ll. 44–55.)
‘O THOU poor Human Form!’ said she. ‘O thou poor child of woe! | |
| Why wilt thou wander away from Tirzah, why me compel to bind thee? | |
| If thou dost go away from me, I shall consume upon these Rocks. | |
| These fibres of thine eyes, that usèd to beam in distant heavens | |
| Away from me, I have bound down with a hot iron: | 5 |
| These nostrils, that expanded with delight in morning skies, | |
| I have bent downward with lead, melted in my roaring furnaces | |
| Of affliction, of love, of sweet despair, of torment unendurable. | |
| My soul is seven furnaces; incessant roars the bellows | |
| Upon my terribly flaming heart; the molten metal runs | 10 |
| In channels thro’ my fiery limbs—O love! O pity! O fear! | |
| O pain! O the pangs, the bitter pangs of love forsaken!’ | | | | |
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