| William Blake (1757–1827). The Poetical Works. 1908. | | | | Selections from ‘Jerusalem’ | | [Albion upon the Rock] |
| | (Jerusalem, f. 94, ll. 1–18.)
ALBION cold lays on his Rock; storms and snows beat round him, | |
| Beneath the Furnaces and the Starry Wheels and the Immortal Tomb; | |
| Howling winds cover him; roaring seas dash furious against him; | |
| In the deep darkness broad lightnings glare, long thunders roll. | |
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| The weeds of Death enwrap his hands and feet, blown incessant, | 5 |
| And wash’d incessant by the for-ever restless sea-waves, foaming abroad | |
| Upon the white Rock. England, a Female Shadow, as deadly damps | |
| Of the Mines of Cornwall and Derbyshire, lays upon his bosom heavy, | |
| Movèd by the wind in volumes of thick cloud returning, folding round | |
| His loins and bosom, unremovable by swelling storms and loud rending | 10 |
| Of enragèd thunders. Around them the Starry Wheels of their Giant Sons | |
| Revolve, and over them the Furnaces of Los and the Immortal Tomb, around, | |
| Erin sitting in the Tomb, to watch them unceasing night and day: | |
| And the Body of Albion was closèd apart from all Nations. | |
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| Over them the famish’d Eagle screams on bony wings, and around | 15 |
| Them howls the Wolf of famine; deep heaves the Ocean, black, thundering | |
| Around the wormy Garments of Albion, then pausing in deathlike silence. | |
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| Time was Finishèd! | | | | |
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