| Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917. |
| |
| 61. To Thomas Butts |
| By William Blake (1757–1827) |
| |
| TO my friend Butts I write | |
| My first vision of light, | |
| On the yellow sands sitting. | |
| The sun was emitting | |
| His glorious beams | 5 |
| From Heaven’s high streams. | |
| Over sea, over land, | |
| My eyes did expand | |
| Into regions of air, | |
| Away from all care; | 10 |
| Into regions of fire, | |
| Remote from desire; | |
| The light of the morning | |
| Heaven’s mountains adorning: | |
| In particles bright, | 15 |
| The jewels of light | |
| Distinct shone and clear. | |
| Amaz’d and in fear | |
| I each particle gazèd, | |
| Astonish’d, amazèd; | 20 |
| For each was a Man | |
| Human-form’d. Swift I ran, | |
| For they beckon’d to me, | |
| Remote by the sea, | |
| Saying: ‘Each grain of sand, | 25 |
| Every stone on the land, | |
| Each rock and each hill, | |
| Each fountain and rill, | |
| Each herb and each tree, | |
| Mountain, hill, earth, and sea, | 30 |
| Cloud, meteor, and star, | |
| Are men seen afar.’ | |
| I stood in the streams | |
| Of Heaven’s bright beams, | |
| And saw Felpham sweet | 35 |
| Beneath my bright feet, | |
| In soft Female charms; | |
| And in her fair arms | |
| My Shadow I knew, | |
| And my wife’s Shadow too, | 40 |
| And my sister, and friend. | |
| We like infants descend | |
| In our Shadows on earth, | |
| Like a weak mortal birth. | |
| My eyes, more and more, | 45 |
| Like a sea without shore, | |
| Continue expanding, | |
| The Heavens commanding; | |
| Till the jewels of light, | |
| Heavenly men beaming bright, | 50 |
| Appear’d as One Man, | |
| Who complacent began | |
| My limbs to enfold | |
| In His beams of bright gold; | |
| Like dross purg’d away | 55 |
| All my mire and my clay. | |
| Soft consum’d in delight, | |
| In His bosom sun-bright | |
| I remain’d. Soft He smil’d, | |
| And I heard His voice mild, | 60 |
| Saying: ‘This is My fold, | |
| O thou ram horn’d with gold, | |
| Who awakest from sleep | |
| On the sides of the deep. | |
| On the mountains around | 65 |
| The roarings resound | |
| Of the lion and wolf, | |
| The loud sea, and deep gulf. | |
| These are guards of My fold, | |
| O thou ram horn’d with gold!’ | 70 |
| And the voice faded mild; | |
| I remain’d as a child; | |
| All I ever had known | |
| Before me bright shone: | |
| I saw you and your wife | 75 |
| By the fountains of life. | |
| Such the vision to me | |
| Appear’d on the sea. | |
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