William Blake's Birthday Commemoration:
Innocence Must Be Organized!

Honoring the memory of
William Blake — Artist, Poet, Visionary, Revolutionary:
28 November 1757 - 12 August 1827


Unorganizd Innocence, An Impossibility
Innocence dwells with Wisdom but never with Ignorance

Inscription in the ms of The Four Zoas (p. 93) [Erdman, p. 697, 838]

* * *

They know not why they love nor wherefore they sicken & die
Calling that Holy Love: which is Envy Revenge & Cruelty
Which separated the stars from the mountains: the mountains from Man
And left Man, a little grovelling Root, outside of Himself.
Negations are not Contraries: Contraries mutually Exist:
But Negations Exist Not: Exceptions & Objections & Unbeliefs
Exist not: nor shall they ever be Organized for ever & ever:
If thou separate from me, thou art a Negation: a meer
Reasoning & Derogation from Me, an Objecting & cruel Spite
And Malice & Envy: but my Emanation, Alas! will become
My Contrary: O thou Negation, I will continually compell
Thee to be invisible to any but whom I please, & when
And where & how I please, and never! never! shalt thou be Organized
But as a distorted & reversed Reflexion in the Darkness
And in the Non Entity: nor shall that which is above
Ever descend into thee: but thou shalt be a Non Entity for ever
And if any enter into thee, thou shalt be an Unquenchable Fire
And he shall be a never dying Worm, mutually tormented by
Those that thou tormentest, a Hell & Despair for ever & ever.

From: Jerusalem, Chapter 1, Plate 17, lines 29-47 [Erdman, p. 162]


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