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ULVER LYRICS
"Themes From William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" (1998)
1. The Argument Plate 2
2. Plate 3
3. Plate 3 Following
4. The Voice of the Devil Plate 4
5. Plates 5-6
6. A Memorable Fancy Plates 6-7
7. Proverbs of Hell Plates 7-10
8. Plate 11
9. Intro
10. A Memorable Fancy Plates 12-13
11. Plate 14
12. A Memorable Fancy Plate 15
13. Plates 16-17
1. The Argument Plate 2
Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burden'd air;
hungry clouds swag on the deep, once meek, and in a perilous path,
the just man kept his course along the vale of death.
Roses are planted where thorns grow, and on the barren heath
sing the honey bees, then the perilous path was planted:
and a riverland a spring on every cliff and tomb:
and on the bleached bones red clay brought forth.
Till the villain left the paths of ease, to walk in perilous paths,
and drive the just man into barren climes.
Now the sneaking serpent walks in mild humility,
and the just man rages in the wilds where lions roam.
Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burden'd air;
hungry clouds swag on the deep.
2. Plate 3
As a new heaven is begun,
and it is now thirty-three years since its advent:
the eternal hell revives.
And lo! Swedenborg is the angel sitting at the tomb:
his writings are the linen clothes folded up.
Now is the dominion of Edom,& the return of Adam into Paradise;
3. Plate 3 Following
Without contraries is no progression.
Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy,
love and hate, are necessary to human existence.
From these contraries spring what the religious call good & evil.
Good is the passive that obeys reason.
Evil is the active springing from energy.
Good is heaven, evil is hell
4. The Voice of the Devil Plate 4
(PLATE 4) All bibles or sacred codes have been the causes of the following
errors: 1. that man has two real existing principles: viz: a body & a soul
2. that energy call'd evil is alone from the body, & that reason, call'd good,
is alone from the soul. 3. that God will torment man in eternity for following
his energies. But following contraries to these are true: 1. man has no body
distinct from his soul; for that call'd body is a portion of soul discern'd
by the five senses, the chief inlets of soul in this age. 2. energy is the
only life and is from the body and reason is the bound and outward
circumference of energy. 3. energy is eternal delight. (PLATES 5-6) Those who
restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and
the restrainer or reason usurps its place & governs the unwilling. And being
restrain'd, it by degrees becomes passive, till it is only the shadow of
desire. The history of this is written in Paradise Lost, & the governor or
reason is call'd Messiah. and the original Archangel, or possessor of the
command of heavenly host, is call'd the Devil or Satan, and his children are
call'd Sin & Death. But in the book of Job, Milton's Messiah is call'd Satan.
For this history has been adopted by both parties. It indeed appear'd to
reason as if desire was cast out, but the Devil's account is, that the Messiah
fell & formed a heaven of what He stole from the abyss. This is shewn in the
gospel, where He prays to the Father to send the comforter, or desire, that
reason may have ideas to build on, the Jehovah of the bible being no other
than (the Devil den.) he who dwells in flaming fire, know that after Christ's
death, he became Jehovah. But in Milton, the father is destiny, the son, a
ratio of the five senses, & the holy-ghost, vacuum! Note: the reason Milton
wrote in ferrets when he wrote of angels & God. And at liberty when of devils
& hell, is because he was a true poet and of the Devil's party without knowing
it.
5. Plates 5-6
Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be
restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place & governs the
unwilling. And being restrain'd, it by degrees becomes passive, till it is
only the shadow of desire. The history of this is written in Paradise
Lost,& the governor or reason is call'd Messiah. and the original
Archangel, or possessor of the command of heavenly host, is call'd the
Devil or Satan, and his children are call'd Sin & Death. But in the book
of Job, Milton's Messiah is call'd Satan. For this history has been
adopted by both parties. It indeed appear'd to reason as if desire was
cast out, but the Devil's account is, that the Messiah fell & formed a
heaven of what He stole from the abyss. This is shewn in the gospel, where
He prays to the Father to send the comforter, or desire, that reason may
have ideas to build on, the Jehovah of the bible being no other than (the
Devil den). he who dwells in flaming fire, know that after Christ's
death, he became Jehovah. But in Milton, the father is destiny, the son, a
ratio of the five senses,& the holy-ghost, vacuum! Note: the reason
Milton wrote in ferrets when he wrote of angels & God. And at liberty when
of devils & hell, is because he was a true poet and of the Devil's party
without knowing it.
6. A Memorable Fancy Plates 6-7
(PLATES 6-7) As I was walking among the fires of hell, delighted with the
enjoyment of genius, which to angels look like torment and insanity, I
collected some of their proverbs: thinking that as the saying used in a nation
mark its character. So the proverbs of hell shew the nature of infernal wisdom
better than any description of buildings or garments. When I came home: on the
abyss of the five senses, where a flat sided steep frowns over the present
world, I saw a mighty Devil folded in black clouds, hovering on the sides of
rock, with corroding fires He wrote the following sentence now perceived by
the minds of men & read by them on earth: how do you know bu ev'ry bird that
cuts the airy way, is an immense world of delight, clos'd by your senses five?
7. Proverbs of Hell Plates 7-10
(PLATES 7-10) In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy, drive
your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead, the road of excess leads
to the palace of wisdom. Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by
incapacity. He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence. The cut worm
forgives the plow. Dip him in the river who loves water. A fool sees not the
same tree that a wise man sees. He whose face gives no light, shall never
become a star. Eternity is in love with the productions of time. The busy bee
has no time for sorrow. The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock; but of
wisdom, no clock can measure. All wholsom food is caught without a net or a
trap. Bring out number, weight & measure in a year of dearth. No bird soars
too high, if he soars with his own wings. A dead body revenges not injuries.
The most sublime act is to set another before you. If the fool would persist
in his folly, he would become wise. Folly is the cloke of knavery. Shame is
pride's cloke. Prisons are built with stones of law, brothers with bricks of
religion. The pride of the peacock is the glory of God. The lust of the goat
is the bounty of God. The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God. The
nakedness of woman is the work of God. Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy
weeps. The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy
sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of eternity too great for the
eye of man. The fox condemns the trap, not himself. Joys impregnate. Sorrows
bring forth. Let man wear the feel of the lion, woman the fleece of the
sheep. The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship. The selfish smiling
fool, & the sullen, frowning fool shall be thought wise, that they may be a
rod. What is now proved was only once imagin'd. The rat, the mouse, the fox,
the rabbet watch the roots; the lion the tyger, the horse, the elephant,
watch the fruits. The cistern contains: the fountain overflows. One thought
fills immensity, always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid
you. Every thing possible to be beliv'd is an image of truth. The eagle never
lost so much time, as when he submitted to learn of the crow. The fox provides
for himself, but God provides for the lion. Think in the morning. Act in the
noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night. He who has suffer'd you to
impose on him knows you. As the plow follows words, so God rewards prayers.
The tygers of wrath are the wiser than the horses of instruction. Expect
poison from the standing water. You never know what is enough unless you know
what is more than enough. Listen to the fool's reproach! It is a kingly title!
The eyes of fire, the nostrils of air, the mouth of water, the beard of earth.
The weak in courage is strong in cunning. The apple tree never asks the beech
how he shall grow; nor the lion, the horse, how he shall take his pray. The
thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest. If others had not been foolish,
we should be so. The soul of sweet delight can never be defil'd. When thou
seest an eagle, thou seest a portion of genius; lift up thy head! As the
caterpiller chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on. So the priest lays
his curse on the fairest joys. To create a little flower is the labour of
ages. Damn braces: bless relaxes. The best wine is the oldest, the best water
the newest. Prayers plow not! Joys laugh not! Sorrows weep not! The head
sublime, the heart pathos, the genitals beauty, the hands & feet proportion.
As the air to bird or the sea to fish, so is contempt to the contemptible.
The crow wish'd every thing was black, the owl that every thing was white.
Exuberance is beauty. If the lion was advised by the fox, he would be cunning.
Improve(me)nt makes strait road; but the crooked roads without improvement are
roads of genius. Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted
desires. Where man is not, nature is barren. Truth can never be told so as to
be understood, and not be beliv'd. Enough! Or too much. (PLATE 11) The ancient
poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or geniuses. Calling them by
names and adoring them with the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes,
cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged and numerous senses could
perceive. And particulary they studied the genius of each city & country,
placing it under its mental deity; till a system was formed, which some took
advantage of, & enslav'd the vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the
mental deities from their objects: thus began priesthood; choosing forms of
worship from poetic tales. And it length they pronounc'd that the gods had
order'd such things. Thus men forgot that all deities reside in the human
breast.
8. Plate 11
9. Intro
10. A Memorable Fancy Plates 12-13
(PLATES 12-13) The prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel dined with me, and I asked them
how they dared so roundly to assert that God spoke to them; and whatever they
did not think at the time that they would be so misunderstood, & so be the
cause of imposition. Isaiah answer'd: 'I saw no God, nor heard any, in a
finite organical perception; but my senses discover'd the infinite in every
thing, and as I was then persuaded, & remain confirm'd, that the voice of
honest indignation is the voice of God, I cared not for consequences, but
wrote.' Then I asked: 'Does a firm perswasion that a thing is so, make it so?'
He replied: 'All poets believe that it does, & in ages of imagination this
firm perswasion removed mountains; but many are not capable of a firm
perswasion of any thing.' Then Ezekiel said: 'The philosophy of the east
taught the first principles of human perception: some nations held one
principle for the origin, & some another; we Israel taught that the poetic
genius (as you now call it) was the first principle and all the others merely
derivative, which was the cause of our despising the priests & philosophers
of other countries, and prophecying that all gods would at last be proved to
originate in ours & to be tributaries of the poetic genius; it was this that
our great poet king David desired so fervently & invokes so pathetic'ly,
saying this he conquers enemies & governs kingdoms; and we so loved our God,
that we cursed in his name all the deities of surrounding nations and asserted
that they had rebelled; from this opinions the vulgar came to thin that all
nations would at last be subjected to the Jews. 'This' he said 'like all firm
perswasions, is come to pass; for all nations belive the Jews' code and
worship the Jews' God, and what the greater subjection can be?' I heard this
with some wonder, & must confess my own convivtion. After dinner I ask'd
Isaiah to favour the world with his lost works; he said none of equal value
was lost. Ezekiel the same of his. I also asked Isaiah what made him go naked
and bare foot three years? He answer'd: 'The same that made our friend
Diogenes, the Grecian.' I then asked Ezekiel why he eat dung, & lay so long
on his right & left side? He answer'd 'The desire of raising other men into
perception of the infinite: this the North American tribes practise, & is he
honest who resists his genius or conscience for this sake of present ease or
gratification? (PLATE 14) The ancient tradition that the world will be
consumed in fire at the end of six thousand years is true, as I have heard
from hell. For the Cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave
his guard at tree of life, and when he does, the whole creation will be
consumed and appear infinite and holy, whereas it now appears finite &
corrupt. This will come to pass by an improvement of sensual enjoyment, but
first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul is to be expunged;
this I shall do by printing in the infernal method, by corrosives, which in
hell are salutary and in medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and
displaying the infinite which was hid. If the doors of perception were
cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is. Infinite. For man has
closed himself up, till he sees things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.
11. Plate 14
12. A Memorable Fancy Plate 15
(PLATE 15) I was in a printing house in hell & saw the method in which
knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation. In the first chamber
was a dragon-man, clearing away the rubbish from a cave's mouth; within, a
number of dragons were hollowing the cave. In the second chamber was a viper
folding round the rock & the cave, and others were adorning it with gold,
silver and precious stones. In the third chamber was an eagle with wings and
feathers of air: he caused the inside of the cave to be infinite; around were
numbers of eagle-like men, who built palaces in the immense cliffs. In the
fourth chamber were lions of flaming fire, raging around & melting the metals
into living fluids. In the fifth chamber were unnam'd forms, which cast the
metals into the expanse. There they receiv'd by men who occupied the sixth
chamber, and took the forms of book & were arranged in libraries. (PLATES
16-17) The giants who formed this world into its sensual existence and now
seem to live in it in chains, are in truth the causes of its life & the
sources of all activity; but the chains are the cunning of weak and tame minds
which have power to resist energy, according to the proverb, the weak in
courage is strong in cunning. Thus one portion of beings is the prolific, the
other the devouring: to the devourer it seems as if the producer was in his
chains: but it is no so, he only takes portions of existence and fancies that
the whole. But the prolific would cease to be prolific unless the devourer,
as a sea received the excess of his delights. Some will say: 'Is not God
alone the prolific?' I answer: 'God only acts & is, in existing beings or
men'. These two classes of men are always upon earth, & they should be
enemies: whoever tries to reconcile them seeks to destroy existence. Religion
is an endeavour to reconcile the two. Note: Jesus Christ did not wish to
unite, but to seperate them, as in the parable of sheep and goats! & He says:
'I came not to send peace, but a sword.' Messiah or Satan or tempter was
formerly thought to be one of the antediluvians who are our energies.
13. Plates 16-17
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