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Home  »  The Poetical Works by William Blake  »  To Tirzah

William Blake (1757–1827). The Poetical Works. 1908.

Songs of Experience

To Tirzah

WHATE’ER is born of mortal birth

Must be consumèd with the earth,

To rise from generation free:

Then what have I to do with thee?

The sexes sprung from shame and pride,

Blow’d in the morn; in evening died;

But Mercy chang’d death into sleep;

The sexes rose to work and weep.

Thou, Mother of my mortal part,

With cruelty didst mould my heart,

And with false self-deceiving tears

Didst bind my nostrils, eyes, and ears;

Didst close my tongue in senseless clay,

And me to mortal life betray:

The death of Jesus set me free:

Then what have I to do with thee?