Source of the text - William Blake, Facsimile of the Original Outlines Before Colouring of the Songs of Innocence and of Experience. London: Bernard Quaritch, 1893.
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 & Pride
Blow’d in the morn; in evening died;
But Mercy chang’d Death into Sleep;
The Sexes rose to work & weep.
Thou Mother of my Mortal part
With cruelty didst mould my Heart,
And with false self-deceiving tears
Didst bind my Nostrils, Eyes, & 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?
Source of the text - The Poetical Works of William Blake, ed. John Sampson. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1905.
TJB: Blake spurns Tirzah, earthy black-widow-type who traps us in bodies; & celebrates a neoplatonistic heaven. In which land is poetry written?
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