<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=38301" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>A Prophecy</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Guardian Prince of Albion burns in his nightly tent,<br>Sullen fires across the Atlantic glow to America's shore:<br>Piercing the souls of warlike men, who rise in silent night,<br>Washington, Franklin, Paine & Warren, Gates, Hancock & Green;<br>Meet on the coast glowing with blood from Albions fiery Prince.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Washington spoke; Friends of America look over the Atlantic sea;<br>A bended bow is lifted in heaven, & a heavy iron chain t158<br>Descends link by link from Albions cliffs across the sea to bind<br>Brothers & sons of America, till our faces pale and yellow;<br>Heads deprest, voices weak, eyes downcast, hands work-bruis'd,<br>Feet bleeding on the sultry sands, and the furrows of the whip<br>Descend to generations that in future times forget.––</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The strong voice ceas'd; for a terrible blast swept over the heaving sea;<br>The eastern cloud rent; on his cliffs stood Albions wrathful Prince<br>A dragon form clashing his scales at midnight he arose,<br>And flam'd red meteors round the land of Albion beneath[.]<br>His voice, his locks, his awful shoulders, and his glowing eyes,</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Appear to the Americans upon the cloudy night.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Solemn heave the Atlantic waves between the gloomy nations,<br>Swelling, belching from its deeps red clouds & raging Fires!<br>Albion is sick. America faints! enrag'd the Zenith grew.<br>As human blood shooting its veins all round the orbed heaven<br>Red rose the clouds from the Atlantic in vast wheels of blood<br>And in the red clouds rose a Wonder o'er the Atlantic sea;<br>Intense! naked! a Human fire fierce glowing, as the wedge<br>Of iron heated in the furnace; his terrible limbs were fire<br>With myriads of cloudy terrors banners dark & towers<br>Surrounded; heat but not light went thro' the murky atmosphere</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The King of England looking westward trembles at the vision</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Albions Angel stood beside the Stone of night, and saw<br>The terror like a comet, or more like the planet red<br>That once inclos'd the terrible wandering comets in its sphere.<br>Then Mars thou wast our center, & the planets three flew round<br>Thy crimson disk; so e'er the Sun was rent from thy red sphere;<br>The Spectre glowd his horrid length staining the temple long<br>With beams of blood; & thus a voice came forth, and shook the temple</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The morning comes, the night decays, the watchmen leave their stations;<br>The grave is burst, the spices shed, the linen wrapped up;<br>The bones of death, the cov'ring clay, the sinews shrunk & dry'd.<br>Reviving shake, inspiring move, breathing! awakening!<br>Spring like redeemed captives when their bonds & bars are burst;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Let the slave grinding at the mill, run out into the field:<br>Let him look up into the heavens & laugh in the bright air;<br>Let the inchained soul shut up in darkness and in sighing,<br>Whose face has never seen a smile in thirty weary years;<br>Rise and look out, his chains are loose, his dungeon doors are open.<br>And let his wife and children return from the opressors scourge;<br>They look behind at every step & believe it is a dream.<br>Singing. The Sun has left his blackness, & has found a fresher morning<br>And the fair Moon rejoices in the clear & cloudless night;<br>For Empire is no more, and now the Lion & Wolf shall cease.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In thunders ends the voice. Then Albions Angel wrathful burnt<br>Beside the Stone of Night; and like the Eternal Lions howl<br>In famine & war, reply'd. Art thou not Orc, who serpent-form'd<br>Stands at the gate of Enitharmon to devour her children;<br>Blasphemous Demon, Antichrist, hater of Dignities;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Lover of wild rebellion, and transgresser of Gods Law;<br>Why dost thou come to Angels eyes in this terrific form?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The terror answerd: I am Orc, wreath'd round the accursed tree:<br>The times are ended; shadows pass the morning gins to break;<br>The fiery joy, that Urizen perverted to ten commands,<br>What night he led the starry hosts thro' the wide wilderness:<br>That stony law I stamp to dust: and scatter religion abroad<br>To the four winds as a torn book, & none shall gather the leaves;<br>But they shall rot on desart sands, & consume in bottomless deeps;<br>To make the desarts blossom, & the deeps shrink to their fountains,<br>And to renew the fiery joy, and burst the stony roof.<br>That pale religious letchery, seeking Virginity,<br>May find it in a harlot, and in coarse-clad honesty<br>The undefil'd tho' ravish'd in her cradle night and morn:<br>For every thing that lives is holy, life delights in life;<br>Because the soul of sweet delight can never be defil'd.<br>Fires inwrap the earthly globe, yet man is not consumd;<br>Amidst the lustful fires he walks: his feet become like brass,<br>His knees and thighs like silver, & his breast and head like gold.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sound! sound! my loud war-trumpets & alarm my Thirteen Angels!<br>Loud howls the eternal Wolf! the eternal Lion lashes his tail!<br>America is darkned; and my punishing Demons terrified<br>Crouch howling before their caverns deep like skins dry'd in the wind.<br>They cannot smite the wheat, nor quench the fatness of the earth.<br>They cannot smite with sorrows, nor subdue the plow and spade.<br>They cannot wall the city, nor moat round the castle of princes.<br>They cannot bring the stubbed oak to overgrow the hills.<br>For terrible men stand on the shores, & in their robes I see<br>Children take shelter from the lightnings, there stands Washington<br>And Paine and Warren with their foreheads reard toward the east<br>But clouds obscure my aged sight. A vision from afar!<br>Sound! sound! my loud war-trumpets & alarm my thirteen Angels:<br>Ah vision from afar! Ah rebel form that rent the ancient<br>Heavens; Eternal Viper self-renew'd, rolling in clouds<br>I see thee in thick clouds and darkness on America's shore.<br>Writhing in pangs of abhorred birth; red flames the crest rebellious<br>And eyes of death; the harlot womb oft opened in vain<br>Heaves in enormous circles, now the times are return'd upon thee,<br>Devourer of thy parent, now thy unutterable torment renews.<br>Sound! sound! my loud war trumpets & alarm my thirteen Angels!<br>Ah terrible birth! a young one bursting! where is the weeping mouth?<br>And where the mothers milk? instead those ever-hissing jaws<br>And parched lips drop with fresh gore; now roll thou in the clouds</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thy mother lays her length outstretch'd upon the shore beneath.<br>Sound! sound! my loud war-trumpets & alarm my thirteen Angels!<br>Loud howls the eternal Wolf: the eternal Lion lashes his tail!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thus wept the Angel voice & as he wept the terrible blasts<br>Of trumpets, blew a loud alarm across the Atlantic deep.<br>No trumpets answer; no reply of clarions or of fifes,<br>Silent the Colonies remain and refuse the loud alarm.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">On those vast shady hills between America & Albions shore;<br>Now barr'd out by the Atlantic sea: call'd Atlantean hills:<br>Because from their bright summits you may pass to the Golden world<br>An ancient palace, archetype of mighty Emperies,<br>Rears its immortal pinnacles, built in the forest of God<br>By Ariston the king of beauty for his stolen bride,</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Here on their magic seats the thirteen Angels sat perturb'd<br>For clouds from the Atlantic hover o'er the solemn roof.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Fiery the Angels rose, & as they rose deep thunder roll'd<br>Around their shores: indignant burning with the fires of Orc<br>And Bostons Angel cried aloud as they flew thro' the dark night.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He cried: Why trembles honesty and like a murderer,<br>Why seeks he refuge from the frowns of his immortal station!<br>Must the generous tremble & leave his joy, to the idle: to the pestilence!<br>That mock him? who commanded this? what God? what Angel!<br>To keep the gen'rous from experience till the ungenerous<br>Are unrestraind performers of the energies of nature;<br>Till pity is become a trade, and generosity a science,<br>That men get rich by, & the sandy desart is giv'n to the strong<br>What God is he, writes laws of peace, & clothes him in a tempest<br>What pitying Angel lusts for tears, and fans himself with sighs<br>What crawling villain preaches abstinence & wraps himself<br>In fat of lambs? no more I follow, no more obedience pay.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So cried he, rending off his robe & throwing down his scepter.<br>In sight of Albions Guardian, and all the thirteen Angels<br>Rent off their robes to the hungry wind, & threw their golden scepters<br>Down on the land of America. indignant they descended<br>Headlong from out their heav'nly heights, descending swift as fires<br>Over the land; naked & flaming are their lineaments seen<br>In the deep gloom, by Washington & Paine & Warren they stood<br>And the flame folded roaring fierce within the pitchy night<br>Before the Demon red, who burnt towards America,<br>In black smoke thunders and loud winds rejoicing in its terror</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Breaking in smoky wreaths from the wild deep, & gath'ring thick<br>In flames as of a furnace on the land from North to South</div><div style="margin:10px 0">What time the thirteen Governors that England sent convene<br>In Bernards house; the flames coverd the land, they rouze they cry<br>Shaking their mental chains they rush in fury to the sea<br>To quench their anguish; at the feet of Washington down fall'n<br>They grovel on the sand and writhing lie, while all</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The British soldiers thro' the thirteen states sent up a howl<br>Of anguish: threw their swords & muskets to the earth & ran<br>From their encampments and dark castles seeking where to hide<br>From the grim flames; and from the visions of Orc; in sight<br>Of Albions Angel; who enrag'd his secret clouds open'd<br>From north to south, and burnt outstretchd on wings of wrath cov'ring<br>The eastern sky, spreading his awful wings across the heavens;<br>Beneath him roll'd his num'rous hosts, all Albions Angels camp'd<br>Darkend the Atlantic mountains & their trumpets shook the valleys<br>Arm'd with diseases of the earth to cast upon the Abyss,<br>Their numbers forty millions, must'ring in the eastern sky.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In the flames stood & view'd the armies drawn out in the sky<br>Washington Franklin Paine & Warren Allen Gates & Lee:<br>And heard the voice of Albions Angel give the thunderous command:<br>His plagues obedient to his voice flew forth out of their clouds<br>Falling upon America, as a storm to cut them off<br>As a blight cuts the tender corn when it begins to appear.<br>Dark is the heaven above, & cold & hard the earth beneath;<br>And as a plague wind fill'd with insects cuts off man & beast;<br>And as a sea o'erwhelms a land in the day of an earthquake;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Fury! rage! madness! in a wind swept through America<br>And the red flames of Orc that folded roaring fierce around<br>The angry shores, and the fierce rushing of th'inhabitants together:<br>The citizens of New-York close their books & lock their chests;<br>The mariners of Boston drop their anchors and unlade;<br>The scribe of Pensylvania casts his pen upon the earth;<br>The builder of Virginia throws his hammer down in fear.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then had America been lost, o'erwhelm'd by the Atlantic,<br>And Earth had lost another portion of the infinite,<br>But all rush together in the night in wrath and raging fire<br>The red fires rag'd! the plagues recoil'd! then rolld they back with fury</div><div style="margin:10px 0">On Albions Angels; then the Pestilence began in streaks of red<br>Across the limbs of Albions Guardian, the spotted plague smote Bristols</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And the Leprosy Londons Spirit, sickening all their bands:<br>The millions sent up a howl of anguish and threw off their hammerd mail,<br>And cast their swords & spears to earth, & stood a naked multitude.<br>Albions Guardian writhed in torment on the eastern sky<br>Pale quivring toward the brain his glimmering eyes, teeth chattering<br>Howling & shuddering his legs quivering; convuls'd each muscle & sinew<br>Sick'ning lay Londons Guardian, and the ancient miter'd York<br>Their heads on snowy hills, their ensigns sick'ning in the sky</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The plagues creep on the burning winds driven by flames of Orc,<br>And by the fierce Americans rushing together in the night<br>Driven o'er the Guardians of Ireland and Scotland and Wales<br>They spotted with plagues forsook the frontiers & their banners seard<br>With fires of hell, deform their ancient heavens with shame & woe.<br>Hid in his caves the Bard of Albion felt the enormous plagues.<br>And a cowl of flesh grew o'er his head & scales on his back & ribs;<br>And rough with black scales all his Angels fright their ancient heavens<br>The doors of marriage are open, and the Priests in rustling scales<br>Rush into reptile coverts, hiding from the fires of Orc,<br>That play around the golden roofsin wreaths of fierce desire,<br>Leaving the females naked and glowing with the lusts of youth</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For the female spirits of the dead pining in bonds of religion;<br>Run from their fetters reddening, & in long drawn arches sitting:<br>They feel the nerves of youth renew, and desires of ancient times,<br>Over their pale limbs as a vine when the tender grape appears</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Over the hills, the vales, the cities, rage the red flames fierce;<br>The Heavens melted from north to south; and Urizen who sat<br>Above all heavens in thunders wrap'd, emerg'd his leprous head<br>From out his holy shrine, his tears in deluge piteous<br>Falling into the deep sublime! flag'd with grey-brow'd snows<br>And thunderous visages, his jealous wings wav'd over the deep;<br>Weeping in dismal howling woe he dark descended howling<br>Around the smitten bands, clothed in tears & trembling shudd'ring cold.<br>His stored snows he poured forth, and his icy magazines<br>He open'd on the deep, and on the Atlantic sea white shiv'ring.<br>Leprous his limbs, all over white, and hoary was his visage.<br>Weeping in dismal howlings before the stern Americans<br>Hiding the Demon red with clouds & cold mists from the earth;<br>Till Angels & weak men twelve years should govern o'er the strong:<br>And then their end should come, when France reciev'd the Demons light.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Stiff shudderings shook the heav'nly thrones! France Spain & Italy,<br>In terror view'd the bands of Albion, and the ancient Guardians<br>Fainting upon the elements, smitten with their own plagues</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They slow advance to shut the five gates of their law-built heaven<br>Filled with blasting fancies and with mildews of despair<br>With fierce disease and lust, unable to stem the fires of Orc;<br>But the five gates were consum'd, & their bolts and hinges melted<br>And the fierce flames burnt round the heavens, & round the abodes of men</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=William+Blake">William Blake</a> from <i>America a Prophecy</i><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=38301" data-title="A Prophecy de William Blake" data-description="The Guardian Prince of Albion burns in his nightly tent,/Sullen fires across the Atlantic glow to America's shore:/Piercing the souls of warlike men, who rise in silent night,/Washington, Franklin, Paine & Warren, Gates, Hancock & Green;/Meet on t..."></div> </div> </div>

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