Rouze up O Young Men of the New Age! set your foreheads against the ignorant Hirelings! For we have Hirelings in the Camp, the Court, & the University: who would if they could, for ever depress Mental & prolong Corporeal War. Painters! on you I call! Sculptors! Architects! Suffer not the fash[i]onable Fools to depress your powers by the prices they pretend to give for contemptible works or the expensive advertizing boasts that they make of such works; believe Christ & his Apostles that there is a Class of Men whose whole delight is in Destroying. We do not want either Greek or Roman Models if we are but just & true to our own Imaginations, those Worlds of Eternity in which we shall live for ever; in Jesus our Lord.
And did those feet
in ancient time,
Walk upon Englands
mountains green:
And was the holy
Lamb of God,
On Englands pleasant
pastures seen!
And did the Countenance
Divine,
Shine forth upon
our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem
builded here,
Among these dark
Satanic Mills?
Bring me my Bow
of burning gold:
Bring me my Arrows
of desire:
Bring me my Spear:
O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot
of fire!
I will not
cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword
sleep in my hand:
Till we have
built Jerusalem,
In Englands green
& pleasant Land.
Would to God that all the Lords people were Prophets.
Numbers XI. ch
29 v.
from the The Digital
Blake Text Project, Department of English, University of Georgia
an electronic edition of THE COMPLETE POETRY AND PROSE
OF WILLIAM BLAKE
NEWLY REVISED EDITION, 1988
EDITED BY David V. Erdman