Блейк Уильям
«Песни Невинности и Опыта»

The stars, sun, moon, all shrink away, A desert vast without a bound, And nothing left to eat or drink, And a dark desert all around.

The honey of her infant lips, The bread and wine of her sweet smile, The wild game of her roving eye, Does him to infancy beguile;

For as he eats and drinks he grows Younger and younger every day; And on the desert wild they both Wander in terror and dismay.

Like the wild stag she flees away, Her fear plants many a thicket wild; While he pursues her night and day, By various arts of love beguil'd;

By various arts of love and hate, Till the wide desert planted o'er With labyrinths of wayward love, Where roam the lion, wolf, and boar.

Till he becomes a wayward Babe, And she a weeping Woman Old. Then many a lover wanders here; The sun and stars are nearer roli'd;

The trees bring forth sweet ecstasy To all who in the desert roam; Till many a city there is built, And many a pleasant shepherd's home.

But when they find the Frowning Babe, Terror strikes thro' the region wide: They cry 'The Babe! the Babe is born!' And flee away on every side.

For who dare touch the Frowning Form, His arm is withered to its root; Lions, boars, wolves, all howling flee, And every tree does shed its fruit.

And none can touch that Frowning Form, Except it be a Woman Old; She nails him down upon the rock, And all is done as I have told.

КОММЕНТАРИИ

ПУТЕМ ДУХОВНЫМ

Стихотворение "Путем Духовным" датируется 1799-1800 гг. и входит в так называемый "Манускрипт Пикеринга" (одну из не опубликованных при жизни блейковских рукописей, названную по имени первого владельца, издателя Бэзила Пикеринга). В этом стихотворении