Page:The Poems of William Blake (Shepherd, 1887).djvu/181

 
The Rhine was red with human blood;
The Danube roll'd a purple tide:
On the Euphrates Satan stood,
And over Asia stretch'd his pride.
 
He wither'd up sweet Zion's hill
From every nation of the earth;
He wither'd up Jerusalem's gates,
And in a dark land gave her birth.
 
He wither'd up the human form,
By laws of sacrifice for sin;
Till it became a mortal worm;
But oh! translucent all within.

The Divine vision still was seen,
Still was the human form divine,
Weeping in weak and mortal clay—
O Jesus, still the form was thine.

And thine the human face, and thine
The human hands and feet and breath,
Entering thro' the gates of birth,
And passing thro' the gates of death.

And oh thou Lamb of God, whom I
Slew in my dark self-righteous pride,
Art thou returned to Albion's land,
And is Jerusalem thy bride?