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Home  »  The Poetical Works by William Blake  »  If it is true what the Prophets write

William Blake (1757–1827). The Poetical Works. 1908.

Poems from the Rossetti MS.: Later Poems

If it is true what the Prophets write

IF it is true, what the Prophets write,

That the heathen gods are all stocks and stones,

Shall we, for the sake of being polite,

Feed them with the juice of our marrow-bones?

And if Bezaleel and Aholiab drew

What the finger of God pointed to their view,

Shall we suffer the Roman and Grecian rods

To compel us to worship them as gods?

They stole them from the temple of the Lord

And worshipp’d them that they might make inspirèd art abhorr’d;

The wood and stone were call’d the holy things,

And their sublime intent given to their kings.

All the atonements of Jehovah spurn’d,

And criminals to sacrifices turn’d.