English Poetry
William Blake
1757-1827, English poet, artist and engraver. London.
"In pain [man] labours in his universe, screaming in birds over the deep, and howling in the wolf over the slain..."
'Listen, I will tell thee what is done in the caverns of the grave... As the seed waits eagerly watching for its flower and fruit, [and] anxious its little soul looks out into the clear expanse to see if hungry winds are abroad with their invisible army, so Man looks out in tree and herb and fish and bird and beast... He touches the remotest pole, and in the center weeps that man should labour and sorrow, and learn and forget, and return to the dark valley whence he came, to begin his labours anew. In pain he sighs, in pain he labours in his universe, screaming in birds over the deep, and howling in the wolf over the slain, and moaning in the cattle...
Excerpt from William Blake's long poem The Four Zoas from: Keynes, Geoffrey, 1966. Blake: The Complete Writings. Oxford University Press.
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