Monday, November 09, 2009

Blake's Gospel

               The Everlasting Gospel (A portion)

          The Vision of Christ that thou dost see
          Is my vision's greatest enemy.
          Thine has a great hook nose like thine,
          Mine has a snub nose like to mine.
          Thine is the Friend of all Mankind;
          Mine speaks in parables to the blind.
          Thine loves the same world that mine hates;
          Thy heaven doors are my hell gates.
          Socrates taught what Meletus
          Loath'd as a nation's bitterest curse,
          And Caiaphas was in his own mind
          A benefactor to mankind.
          Both read the Bible day and night,
      But thou read'st black where I read white.

The rest of this poem is difficult for the new reader.
After about a dozen readings it may begin to yield more
and more meaning. In this respect Blake is much like the
Bible, and in fact Northrup Frye referred to him as a
'Bible soaked protestant'. His approach to the Bible is
arcane, but it will yield meanings that you never dreamed
of before.

 Taken from chapter 3 of the website

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