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Tree Swallow

Monday, November 14, 2016

The marriage of heaven and hell

William Blake -The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with Sun (1805)

The Argument. 

Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burdend air; 
Hungry clouds swag on the deep 
Once meek, and in a perilous path, 
The just man kept his course along 
The vale of death. 
Roses are planted where thorns grow.
And on the barren heath 
Sing the honey bees. 
Then the perilous path was planted: 
And a river, and a spring 
On every cliff and tomb;
And on the bleached bones 
Red clay brought forth. 
Till the villain left the paths of ease,
To walk in perilous paths, and drive 
The just man into barren climes. 
Now the sneaking serpent walks 
In mild humility. And the just man rages in the wilds 
Where lions roam.

Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burdend air; Hungry clouds swag on the deep.

first stanza, The marriage of heaven and hell - William Blake, 1794

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