A Prophecy
The Guardian Prince of Albion burns in his nightly tent, Sullen fires across the Atlantic glow to America's shore: Piercing the souls of warlike men, who rise in silent night, Washington, Franklin, Paine and Warren, Gates, Hancock and Green; Meet on the coast glowing with blood from Albions fiery Prince. Washington spoke; Friends of America look over the Atlantic sea; A bended bow is lifted in heaven, and a heavy iron chain.
Descends link by link from Albions cliffs across the sea to bindBrothers and sons of America, till our faces pale and yellow; Heads deprest, voices weak, eyes downcast, hands work-bruis'd,Feet bleeding on the sultry sands, and the furrows of the whip.
Descend to generations that in future times forget.
The strong voice ceas'd; for a terrible blast swept over the heaving sea; The eastern cloud rent; on his cliffs stood Albions wrathful Prince A dragon form clashing his scales at midnight he arose, And flam'd red meteors round the land of Albion beneat.
His voice, his locks, his awful shoulders, and his glowing eyes, Appear to the Americans upon the cloudy night. Solemn heave the Atlantic waves between the gloomy nations, Swelling, belching from its deeps red clouds and raging Fires ! Albion is sick. America faints! enrag'd the Zenith grew.As human blood shooting its veins all round the orbed heaven Red rose the clouds from the Atlantic in vast wheels of blood And in the red clouds rose a Wonder o'er the Atlantic sea; Intense! naked! a Human fire fierce glowing, as the wedge.
Of iron heated in the furnace; his terrible limbs were fireWith myriads of cloudy terrors banners dark & towersSurrounded; heat but not light went thro' the murky atmosphere The King of England looking westward trembles at the vision Albions Angel stood beside the Stone of night, and saw The terror like a comet, or more like the planet redThat once inclos'd the terrible wandering comets in its sphere. Then Mars thou wast our center, and the planets three flew round Thy crimson disk; so e'er the Sun was rent from thy red sphere;
The Spectre glowd his horrid length staining the temple long With beams of blood; and thus a voice came forth, and shook the temple The morning comes, the night decays, the watchmen leave their stations; The grave is burst, the spices shed, the linen wrapped up; The bones of death, the cov'ring clay, the sinews shrunk and dry'd. Reviving shake, inspiring move, breathing! awakening! Spring like redeemed captives when their bonds & bars are burst; Let the slave grinding at the mill, run out into the field:Let him look up into the heavens and laugh in the bright air; Let the inchained soul shut up in darkness and in sighing,Whose face has never seen a smile in thirty weary years; Rise and look out, his chains are loose, his dungeon doors are open. And let his wife and children return from the opressors scourge; They look behind at every step & believe it is a dream. Singing.
The Sun has left his blackness, and has found a fresher morning And the fair Moon rejoices in the clear and cloudless night; For Empire is no more, and now the Lion and Wolf shall cease. In thunders ends the voice. Then Albions Angel wrathful burntBeside the Stone of Night; and like the Eternal Lions howlIn famine and war, reply'd. Art thou not Orc, who serpent-form'd Stands at the gate of Enitharmon to devour her children; Blasphemous Demon, Antichrist, hater of Dignities; Lover of wild rebellion, and transgresser of Gods Law; Why dost thou come to Angels eyes in this terrific form?
The terror answerd: I am Orc, wreath'd round the accursed tree: The times are ended; shadows pass the morning gins to break; The fiery joy, that Urizen perverted to ten commands, What night he led the starry hosts thro' the wide wilderness: That stony law I stamp to dust: and scatter religion abroad To the four winds as a torn book, and none shall gather the leaves; But they shall rot on desart sands, and consume in bottomless deeps; To make the desarts blossom, and the deeps shrink to their fountains, And to renew the fiery joy, and burst the stony roof.
That pale religious letchery, seeking Virginity, May find it in a harlot, and in coarse-clad honesty The undefil'd tho' ravish'd in her cradle night and morn: For every thing that lives is holy, life delights in life; Because the soul of sweet delight can never be defil'd. Fires inwrap the earthly globe, yet man is not consumd; Amidst the lustful fires he walks: his feet become like brass, His knees and thighs like silver, and his breast and head like gold. Sound! sound! my loud war-trumpets and alarm my Thirteen Angels! Loud howls the eternal Wolf! the eterna.
Lion lashes his tail! America is darkned; and my punishing Demons terrified Crouch howling before their caverns deep like skins dry'd in the wind. They cannot smite the wheat, nor quench the fatness of the earth.They cannot smite with sorrows, nor subdue the plow and spade. They cannot wall the city, nor moat round the castle of princes.They cannot bring the stubbed oak to overgrow the hills.For terrible men stand on the shores, and in their robes I see Children take shelter from the lightnings, there stands Washington.
And Paine and Warren with their foreheads reard toward the eastBut clouds obscure my aged sight. A vision from afar!Sound! sound! my loud war-trumpets & alarm my thirteen Angels: Ah vision from afar! Ah rebel form that rent the ancient Heavens; Eternal Viper self-renew'd, rolling in cloudsI see thee in thick clouds and darkness on America's shore.Writhing in pangs of abhorred birth; red flames the crest rebellious And eyes of death; the harlot womb oft opened in vainHeaves in enormous circles, now the times are return'd upon thee, Devourer of thy parent, now thy unutterable torment renews.Sound! sound! my loud war trumpets and alarm my thirteen Angels! Ah terrible birth! a young one bursting! where is the weeping mouth?
And where the mothers milk? instead those ever-hissing jawsAnd parched lips drop with fresh gore; now roll thou in the clouds Thy mother lays her length outstretch'd upon the shore beneath. Sound! sound! my loud war-trumpets and alarm my thirteen Angels! Loud howls the eternal Wolf: the eternal Lion lashes his tail! Thus wept the Angel voice and as he wept the terrible blasts Of trumpets, blew a loud alarm across the Atlantic deep. No trumpets answer; no reply of clarions or of fifes, Silent the Colonies remain and refuse the loud alarm. On those vast shady hills between America and Albions shore; Now barr'd out by the Atlantic sea: call'd Atlantean hills: Because from their bright summits you may pass to the Golden worldAn ancient palace, archetype of mighty Emperies, Rears its immortal pinnacles, built in the forest of God By Ariston the king of beauty for his stolen bride, Here on their magic seats the thirteen Angels sat perturb'dFor clouds from the Atlantic hover o'er the solemn roof.
Fiery the Angels rose, and as they rose deep thunder roll'd Around their shores: indignant burning with the fires of Orc And Bostons Angel cried aloud as they flew thro' the dark night. He cried: Why trembles honesty and like a murderer, Why seeks he refuge from the frowns of his immortal station! Must the generous tremble and leave his joy, to the idle: to the pestilence!That mock him? who commanded this? what God? what Angel! To keep the gen'rous from experience till the ungenerous Are unrestraind performers of the energies of nature; Till pity is become a trade, and generosity a science, That men get rich by, and the sandy desart is giv'n to the strong What God is he, writes laws of peace, and clothes him in a tempest What pitying Angel lusts for tears, and fans himself with sighs.
What crawling villain preaches abstinence and wraps himselfIn fat of lambs? no more I follow, no more obedience pay. So cried he, rending off his robe and throwing down his scepter. In sight of Albions Guardian, and all the thirteen Angels Rent off their robes to the hungry wind, and threw their golden scepters Down on the land of America. indignant they descended Headlong from out their heav'nly heights, descending swift as fires Over the land; naked and flaming are their lineaments seenIn the deep gloom, by Washington and Paine and Warren they stood And the flame folded roaring fierce within the pitchy night Before the Demon red, who burnt towards America,In black smoke thunders and loud winds rejoicing in its terror Breaking in smoky wreaths from the wild deep, and gath'ring thickIn flames as of a furnace on the land from North to South What time the thirtee.
Governors that England sent conveneIn Bernards house; the flames coverd the land, they rouze they cry Shaking their mental chains they rush in fury to the sea To quench their anguish; at the feet of Washington down fall'nThey grovel on the sand and writhing lie, while allThe British soldiers thro' the thirteen states sent up a howl Of anguish: threw their swords and muskets to the earth and ran From their encampments and dark castles seeking where to hideFrom the grim flames; and from the visions of Orc; in sight Of Albions Angel; who enrag'd his secret clouds open'd From north to south, and burnt outstretchd on wings of wrath cov'ring The eastern sky, spreading his awful wings across the heavens.
Beneath him roll'd his num'rous hosts, all Albions Angels camp'd Darkend the Atlantic mountains and their trumpets shook the valleysArm'd with diseases of the earth to cast upon the Abyss,Their numbers forty millions, must'ring in the eastern sky.In the flames stood and view'd the armies drawn out in the sky Washington Franklin Paine and Warren Allen Gates and Lee: And heard the voice of Albions Angel give the thunderous command: His plagues obedient to his voice flew forth out of their cloudsFalling upon America, as a storm to cut them offAs a blight cuts the tender corn when it begins to appear. Dark is the heaven above, and cold and hard the earth beneath;And as a plague wind fill'd with insects cuts off man and beast; And as a sea o'erwhelms a land in the day of an earthquake; Fury! rage! madness! in a wind swept through America And the red flames of Orc that folded roaring fierce aroundThe angry shores, and the fierce rushing of th'inhabitants together: The citizens of New-York close their books and lock their chests; The mariners of Boston drop their anchors and unlade; The scribe of Pensylvania casts his pen upon the earth; The builder of Virginia throws his hammer down in fear. Then had America been lost, o'erwhelm'd by the Atlantic, And Earth had lost another portion of the infinite, But all rush together in the night in wrath and raging fire The red fires rag'd! the plagues recoil'd! then rolld they back with fury On Albions Angels; then the.
Pestilence began in streaks of red Across the limbs of Albions Guardian, the spotted plague smote Bristols And the Leprosy Londons Spirit, sickening all their bands: The millions sent up a howl of anguish and threw off their hammerd mail, And cast their swords and spears to earth, and stood a naked multitude. Albions Guardian writhed in torment on the eastern sky Pale quivring toward the brain his glimmering eyes, teeth chatteringHowling and shuddering his legs quivering; convuls'd each muscle and sinew Sick'ning lay Londons Guardian, and the ancient miter'd York Their heads on snowy hills, their ensigns sick'ning in the sky The plagues creep on the burning winds driven by flames of Orc, And by the fierce Americans rushing together in the night Driven o'er the Guardians of Ireland and Scotland and WalesThey spotted with plagues forsook the frontiers and their banners seardWith fires of hell, deform their ancient heavens with shame and woe. Hid in his caves the Bard of Albion felt the enormous plagues. And a cowl of flesh grew o'er his head and scales on his back and ribs; And rough with black scales all his Angels fright their ancient heaven.
The doors of marriage are open, and the Priests in rustling scalesRush into reptile coverts, hiding from the fires of Orc, That play around the golden roofsin wreaths of fierce desire, Leaving the females naked and glowing with the lusts of youthFor the female spirits of the dead pining in bonds of religion;Run from their fetters reddening, and in long drawn arches sitting: They feel the nerves of youth renew, and desires of ancient times, Over their pale limbs as a vine when the tender grape appears Over the hills, the vales, the cities, rage the red flames fierce; The Heavens melted from north to south; and Urizen who sat Above all heavens in thunders wrap'd, emerg'd his leprous headFrom out his holy shrine, his tears in deluge piteousFalling into the deep sublime! flag'd with grey-brow'd snows And thunderous visages, his jealous wings wav'd over the deep; Weeping in dismal howling woe he dark descended howling Around the smitten bands, clothed in tears and trembling shudd'ring cold. His stored snows he poured forth, and his icy magazines He open'd on the deep, and on the Atlantic sea white shiv'ring. Leprous his limbs, all over white, and hoary was his visage. Weeping in dismal howlings before the stern Americans Hiding the Demon red with clouds and cold mists from the earth; Till Angels and weak men twelve years should govern o'er the strong: And then their end should come, when France reciev'd the Demons light. Stiff shudderings shook the heav'nly thrones! France Spain and Italy, In terror view'd the bands of Albion, and the ancient Guardians Fainting upon the elements, smitten with their own plagues They slow advance to shut the five gates of their law-built heaven Filled with blasting fancies and with mildews of despair With fierce disease and lust, unable to stem the fires of Orc; But the five gates were consum'd, and their bolts and hinges melted And the fierce flames burnt round the heavens, and round the abodes of men.
