# Jerusalem. The Emanation of the Giant Albion/Plate 18

Written and etched 1804-1820. Source: Blake: The Complete Poetry & Prose (David. V. Erdman) In the internet: www.blakearchive.org
[ PLATE 18 ]
* From every-one of the Four Regions of Human Majesty,
* There is an Outside spread Without, & an Outside spread Within
* Beyond the Outline of Identity both ways, which meet in One:
* An orbed Void of doubt, despair, hunger, & thirst & sorrow.
* 5 Here the Twelve Sons of Albion, join'd in dark Assembly,
* Jealous of Jerusalems children, asham'd of her little-ones
* (For Vala produc'd the Bodies. Jerusalem gave the Souls)
* Became as Three Immense Wheels, turning upon one-another
* Into Non-Entity, and their thunders hoarse appall the Dead
* 10 To murder their own Souls, to build a Kingdom among the Dead
* Cast! Cast ye Jerusalem forth! The Shadow of delusions!
* The Harlot daughter! Mother of pity and dishonourable forgiveness
* Our Father Albions sin and shame! But father now no more!
* Nor sons! nor hateful peace & love, nor soft complacencies
* 15 With transgressors meeting in brotherhood around the table,
* Or in the porch or garden. No more the sinful delights
* Of age and youth and boy and girl and animal and herb,
* And river and mountain, and city & village, and house & family.
* Beneath the Oak & Palm, beneath the Vine and Fig-tree.
* 20 In self-denial!—But War and deadly contention, Between
* Father and Son, and light and love! All bold asperities
* Of Haters met in deadly strife, rending the house & garden
* The unforgiving porches, the tables of enmity, and beds
* And chambers of trembling & suspition, hatreds of age & youth
* 25 And boy & girl, & animal & herb, & river & mountain
* And city & village, and house & family. That the Perfect,
* May live in glory, redeem'd by Sacrifice of the Lamb
* And of his children, before sinful Jerusalem. To build
* Babylon the City of Vala, the Goddess Virgin-Mother.
* 30 She is our Mother! Nature! Jerusalem is our Harlot-Sister
* Return'd with Children of pollution, to defile our House,
* With Sin and Shame. Cast! Cast her into the Potters field.
* Her little-ones, She must slay upon our Altars: and her aged
* Parents must be carried into captivity, to redeem her Soul
* 35 To be for a Shame & a Curse, and to be our Slaves for ever
* So cry Hand & Hyle the eldest of the fathers of Albions
* Little-ones; to destroy the Divine Saviour; the Friend of Sinners,
* Building Castles in desolated places, and strong Fortifications.
* Soon Hand mightily devour'd & absorb'd Albions Twelve Sons.
* 40 Out from his bosom a mighty Polypus, vegetating in darkness,
* And Hyle & Coban were his two chosen ones, for Emissaries
* In War: forth from his bosom they went and return'd.
* Like Wheels from a great Wheel reflected in the Deep.
* Hoarse turn'd the Starry Wheels, rending a way in Albions Loins
* 45 Beyond the Night of Beulah. In a dark & unknown Night,
* Outstretch'd his Giant beauty on the ground in pain & tears:

## Notes

* ↑ 18:32 Potters field -- The term comes from Matthew 27:3-8 in the New Testament of the Bible, in which Jewish priests take 30 pieces of silver returned by a remorseful Judas: Then Judas, who betrayed him, seeing that he was condemned, repenting himself, brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and ancients, saying: "I have sinned in betraying innocent blood." But they said: "What is that to us? Look thou to it." And casting down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed, and went and hanged himself with a halter. But the chief priests, having taken the pieces of silver, said: "It is not lawful to put them into the corbona, because it is the price of blood." And after they had consulted together, they bought with them the potter's field, to be a burying place for strangers. For this the field was called Haceldama, that is, the field of blood, even to this day. (Douay-Rheims Bible) The site referred to in these verses is traditionally known as Akeldama, in the valley of Hinnom, which was a source of potter's clay. Obviously, such a strip-mining site would not then be good for agriculture and might as well become a graveyard for those who could not be buried in an orthodox cemetery. This may be the origin of the name.
* ↑ 18:36 cry Hand] revised crudely copy B to criest ?Thou