DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31843#0152
ENGRAVED DESIGNS OF WILLIAM BLAKE
certainly to be indicated, whether with archers astride them or not.
The drawing is so arbitrary that it is even doubtful whether it is the
horse or the man that is winged. Damon takes it to be the man.
The significance of the design is equally conjectural. (On p. 97 of
Jerusalem there is a Fourfold Vision of the Four Zoas, each drawing
his bow at once.)
419. Page 40. At the right of the text, a springing vine. A woman
gathers grapes, and above, a man stands on a branch, looking up.
420. Page 41. A gigantic figure (Hyle) seated with head bowed on his
knees and hair streaming to the ground. From his knees a scroll
hangs over left, and a small nude figure is reading it, On it is written
in reversed script:
Each Man is in his Spectre’s power
Until the arrival of that hour
When his Humanity awake
And cast his Spectre into the Lake.
421. Page 42. In the right marg'in, seven nude figures stand on each
other's shoulders; the topmost, a woman, plucks a great cluster of
grapes.
422. Page 43. The text is on a cloud, showing glimpses of sky, right.
A woman kneels with hands uplifted.
423. Page 44. Above, an ark with wings borne over the waves,
followed by two angels, Below the text, a serpent which tails into
leaves.
424. Page 45. A nude female figure flies away with arms outstretched
over the sea, leaving a male form enmeshed in the net she has cast
over him, and shooting out fibres from his limbs. Around and below
the text is the under-sea world with fishes and water-snakes. The
upper design seems to illustrate the lines on p. 87, where Los cries to
Enitharmon:
“ O lovely Enitharmon ! I behold thy graceful forms
Moving beside me till intoxicated with the woven labyrinth
Of beauty and perfection, my wild fibres shoot in veins
Of blood thro' all my nervous limbs : soon overgrown in roots
I shall be closed from thy sight. Seize therefore in thy hand
The small fibres as they shoot around me.”
132
certainly to be indicated, whether with archers astride them or not.
The drawing is so arbitrary that it is even doubtful whether it is the
horse or the man that is winged. Damon takes it to be the man.
The significance of the design is equally conjectural. (On p. 97 of
Jerusalem there is a Fourfold Vision of the Four Zoas, each drawing
his bow at once.)
419. Page 40. At the right of the text, a springing vine. A woman
gathers grapes, and above, a man stands on a branch, looking up.
420. Page 41. A gigantic figure (Hyle) seated with head bowed on his
knees and hair streaming to the ground. From his knees a scroll
hangs over left, and a small nude figure is reading it, On it is written
in reversed script:
Each Man is in his Spectre’s power
Until the arrival of that hour
When his Humanity awake
And cast his Spectre into the Lake.
421. Page 42. In the right marg'in, seven nude figures stand on each
other's shoulders; the topmost, a woman, plucks a great cluster of
grapes.
422. Page 43. The text is on a cloud, showing glimpses of sky, right.
A woman kneels with hands uplifted.
423. Page 44. Above, an ark with wings borne over the waves,
followed by two angels, Below the text, a serpent which tails into
leaves.
424. Page 45. A nude female figure flies away with arms outstretched
over the sea, leaving a male form enmeshed in the net she has cast
over him, and shooting out fibres from his limbs. Around and below
the text is the under-sea world with fishes and water-snakes. The
upper design seems to illustrate the lines on p. 87, where Los cries to
Enitharmon:
“ O lovely Enitharmon ! I behold thy graceful forms
Moving beside me till intoxicated with the woven labyrinth
Of beauty and perfection, my wild fibres shoot in veins
Of blood thro' all my nervous limbs : soon overgrown in roots
I shall be closed from thy sight. Seize therefore in thy hand
The small fibres as they shoot around me.”
132