From: blake-d-request@albion.com Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 1996 2:19 PM To: blake-d@albion.com Subject: blake-d Digest V1996 #121 ------------------------------ Content-Type: text/plain blake-d Digest Volume 1996 : Issue 121 Today's Topics: Hola Re: Hello to South Africa from somewhere near Boston/more Bluestockings Re: Hola, Espain. Bienvenido. Re: Lunar Island -Reply Re: Blake's alledged chauvinism Re: Lunar Island /more Bluestockings Re: We need more emoticons...:) Re: We need more emoticons...:) Re: /more Bluestockings Re: Van Morrison (was Re: ELP CD) Re: Lunar Island Re: /more Bluestockings Blake's post-apocalyptic vision Re: /more Bluestockings Re: /more Bluestockings introduction and query Re: /more Bluestockings Re: ELP CD -Reply Re: introduction and query Unidentified subject! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 19:38:10 +0100 From: "s.t.a.r.h.e.a.r.t." To: blake@albion.com Subject: Hola Message-Id: <3277A092.FF6@tinet.fut.es> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hola, amigos blakianos! I'm very happy since I have read some spanish=20 words on this mailing list. Excuse my bad english, I learned it just=20 reading bilingual spanish editions from Blake! I know another relathionships between Blake/music: 1. The FANTASTIC film "Dead Man", from Jim Jarmusch (1.995). it's a=20 blakean western on b/w, with Johny Depp as Blake reincarnate as a=20 cowboy!!. Music by Neil Young, the soundtrack is available and it=20 contains Blake lyrics readed for Johny Depp with the music of Neil=20 Young. Have anyone seen that magic film? 2. A rock music & poet & "astroarcheoligist": Julian Cope. His CD=20 "Jeovahkill" is fully blakean, with a quote in the sleeve "thine own=20 humanity learn to adore!" (from The Everlasting Gospel). You can get the=20 lyrics at=20 http://www.fsa.ulaval.ca:80/personnel/gaumondp/cope/p_lyric.html And in the CD "Fried", there is a "revisited" sad song tittled "Laughin=20 Boy", that I think derives from Blake "Laughing song" (Magic note: I went to London to see the exposition "WBlake and=20 patronage", in the Tate Gallery, and... mr. Cope was playing live in=20 London and I can't explain what I feel after that...) and 3. (excuse if this mail is so long!): a spanish rock group, "Heroes=20 del Silencio" (CD availables on all the world, EMI music). They made an=20 LP dedicated to blake: "El Esp=EDritu del Vino" (1992). Some samples: =20 excerpt from the song: "El Camino del Exceso" un hurac=E1n de palabras en la ronda a tabernas, orfe=F3n cotidiano, ent=F3name tu plan. salpica la sangre, de espuela enloquece. si no hay para=EDso, =BFd=F3nde revientas? es cierto: camino de exceso, fuente de saber un plato de desprecio ahoga el veneno mientras dure el dinero y dure el empe=F1o ladrillo a ladrillo quedan a=F1os despu=E9s si est=E1s dispuesto a afrontar la escena no es de William Blake =BFest=E1s dispuesto a devorar estrellas que sacien tu sed? =20 (translate): The Road of Excess a tempest of words from one tavern to another,=20 ordinary choir, sing your plan for me.=20 your blood is splashing you're losing temper.=20 if there is no paradise, where will you break down?=20 that's true:=20 road of excess, source of knowledge.=20 poison is always stifled by a dish of contempt.=20 as long as there is enough money and determination,=20 little by little, you will have some years left,=20 if you are ready to face the scene,=20 it doesn't belong to William Blake.=20 are you ready to gobble up the stars=20 and calm your thirst with them?=20 =20 excerpt from my favourite song "Sirena Varada" ("The Stranded Siren") (translated): sleep a bit longer.=20 your eyelids can't bear it any more.=20 and then disappointment comes=20 when the north wind doesn't seem to forgive=20 siren, go back to sea,=20 you're stranded on reality.=20 going through hallucinations=20 when heaven doesn't seem to hear.=20 dedicating a dream to you.=20 closing my eyes and feeling=20 the vast darkness,=20 devoted to a gleam,=20 like a maze of doubts.=20 and you try to get away from your nightmare,=20 and fly over your weariness=20 and then you're back on earth again.=20 our fear to go beyond the limits=20 of names, like a stranger,=20 shapes the spiral of defeat=20 and darkens so many flatteries.=20 sun, in the memory fades away... Magic note number 2: I was in the fantastic exposition "William Blake: visiones de mundos=20 eternos", that was made in Barcelona on may-june, with over 200 original=20 Blake pictures from many collections (The Tate, USA, Australia... if=20 someone want to get the catalog -in spanish and english-, e-mail me and=20 I will explain how to do it, it's edited by a cultural Foundation and is=20 very nice and cheap).... and I meet in the exposition mr. Enrique=20 Bunbury, the singer of "Heroes del Silencio" and author of these songs.=20 Just looking at the frontispice of "Visions of the Daughters of Albion",=20 he explained me that the Stranded Siren is, in fact, Oothoon, stranded=20 on the rocks of reality, with their dreams fade away on the sea: the=20 search of the Quadruple Vision. You can get the complet lyrics of Heroes del Silencio (in spanish and=20 english) at: http://hrz.uni-paderborn.de/~e91794/3elyrics.html Well, I hope that this long mail will not cause disturb on the spirit of=20 the list, because I'm not an expert on Blake, I'm only a fan!! I read=20 Blake everyday and dream of thir visions every night. Regrets from Spain=20 for all you people, and specially for Giles David (see his Home=20 Page!!!), y para Jose, que me ha ayudado a romper el hielo y atreverme a=20 enviar este humilde mail. Yours truly, Agustin from Tarragona, Spain avc@tinet.fut.es =20 For everything that lives is Holy! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 04:52:33 -0800 From: reillys@ix.netcom.com (susan p. reilly) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Hello to South Africa from somewhere near Boston/more Bluestockings Message-Id: <199610301252.EAA00515@dfw-ix5.ix.netcom.com> Hello in South Africa, Pam. I like your comments very much. In the (sort of) same general vein of subject: chauvanism, I offer the following additions to my list of female Blakean contemporaries who were, if not lettered, writing and in many cases publishing works of their own: Keeping in mind that Blake was born in 1757, and his future wife in 1762, we have Mary Robinson, b. 1758 Mary Wollstonecraft, b. 1759 Helen Maria Williams, b.1762 Joanna Baillee, b.1762 Ann Radcliffe, b. 1764 Maria Edgeworth, b.1767 Amelia Opie, b. 1769 and to crown all, Mary Lamb (I know, I know...) Anyway---just a few more examples of "lettered" female Romantics Susan Reilly ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 05:05:37 -0800 From: reillys@ix.netcom.com (susan p. reilly) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Hola, Espain. Bienvenido. Message-Id: <199610301305.FAA03682@dfw-ix4.ix.netcom.com> Excuse my Spanish! Thanks for an information-packed message, and welcome. S. Reilly ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 05:24:54 -0800 From: reillys@ix.netcom.com (susan p. reilly) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Lunar Island -Reply Message-Id: <199610301324.FAA02846@dfw-ix1.ix.netcom.com> Dear Pam, I am wondering if you can offer any annotative information on which characters stand for whom in "Island in the Moon." I have ordered up a reprint of Keynes's Complete Poetry and Prose and am looking forward to reading it. Whatever light can be shed on the satire will increase my enjoyment and understanding of the work. (Apparently Keynes does not offer much information here or John would not be asking???) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 08:47:21 -0500 (EST) From: "Avery F. Gaskins" To: Subject: Re: Blake's alledged chauvinism Message-Id: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Content-Type: Text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Dear Steve Perry, That's MR. Gaskins to you, or better yet Dr. Gaskins. My observations come from 38 years of reading Blake and Blake criticism. As to your drivel, read a little bit before you make such sweeping judgments. My politics are none of your business, but I can assure you I am no fan of Rush. Avery Gaskins ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 08:22:16 -0600 From: tomdill@wc.stephens.edu (TOM DILLINGHAM) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Lunar Island Message-Id: <96103008221631@wc.stephens.edu> Many have speculated about the "real" characters behind the comic caricatures in Blake's "Island in the Moon." The work (which stands in a tradition of satire with, for example., Swift's _Tale of A Tub_) is included in both Erdman's and Keynes's complete works volumes, and is also in Johnson and Grant's selected works from Norton. The latter is helpful in that the editors provide annotations that summarize the various efforts at identification of the figures satirized (saving the reader the trot through all those journals and books). Even without identifying the background figures, the targets of Blake's satire are obvious in context, at least as types. Tom Dillingham ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 09:06:11 -0600 From: jmichael@seraph1.sewanee.edu (J. Michael) To: blake@albion.com Subject: /more Bluestockings Message-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >Keeping in mind that Blake was born in 1757, and his future wife in >1762, we have > >Mary Robinson, b. 1758 >Mary Wollstonecraft, b. 1759 >Helen Maria Williams, b.1762 >Joanna Baillee, b.1762 >Ann Radcliffe, b. 1764 >Maria Edgeworth, b.1767 >Amelia Opie, b. 1769 > > >and to crown all, Mary Lamb (I know, I know...) Susan, are these lists meant to suggest that Blake could have married any of these women if he'd only set his sights a bit higher? It seems to me that class, money, and religion were the determining factors in marital choice at the time. The question someone raised in Blake's defense, "how many women of his class were literate at the time?", does not necessarily imply that *none* were, nor does it blame the women for the circumstances in which they lived. By the same token, even to rattle off a whole anthology of Romantic women writers does no more than cite exceptions to the rule. Forgive me if I'm missing your drift. Jennifer Michael ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 10:52:04 -0500 (EST) From: Leigh A Vrabel To: David Rollison Cc: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: We need more emoticons...:) Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Tue, 29 Oct 1996, David Rollison wrote: > Leigh A Vrabel wrote: > > > > Susan was correct...I was, to a large extent, teasing Avery, but > > then again, I am a hairsplitter...I want to debate the > > definitions of "lettered" and "lovable" until the cows come home (perhaps > > I should change tracks and become a linguist). In all seriousness, > > however, I do think that Kate (and granted, I know very little about her) > > must have had some cerebral capacity, or else Blake would not have been able > > to stand her. Wit and intellect do not always manifest themselves in > > scholarly endeavors. > > > > Leigh > Can we admit that sometimes wit & intellect do not manifest themselves > at all in scholarly endeavors? :) > David: *wry amused grin* Yes, I suppose I would have to agree with that...:) Although I have to wonder what you've been reading lately...:) Leigh ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 10:59:22 -0500 (EST) From: Leigh A Vrabel To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: We need more emoticons...:) Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Tue, 29 Oct 1996, Avery F. Gaskins wrote: > Leigh, > I never said Blake did not love her. It is possible for a chauvinist of > his age to love and still feel women have their place. Not my position but > that of many males of Blake's era. > Avery Gaskins > Avery: *laughing* All right...all right...I'll curb my instinct to begin dissecting Victorian (and pre-Victorian) definitions of love...just one thing, though: Given that the concept of marrying for love was still a relatively new-fangled idea in Blake's day, I think it's miraculous that he married K at all, lettered or otherwise...:) Leigh ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 08:08:50 -0800 From: reillys@ix.netcom.com (susan p. reilly) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: /more Bluestockings Message-Id: <199610301608.IAA29453@dfw-ix12.ix.netcom.com> The list was not meant to say anything of the sort (i.e., that Blake could or should have set his sights higher when considering a mate). It was only intended as a remedy to someone's suggestion that Blake had no choice but to marry an "unlettered" woman. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 11:13:14 -0500 (EST) From: Nelson Hilton To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Van Morrison (was Re: ELP CD) Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Wed, 30 Oct 1996, Albion Rose wrote: > An added note: by far the best rendition of Blake to modern music, is > that of Van Morrison on the CD entitled *Sense of Wonder*. I have > listened to this song for years and will do doubt continue to do so for > years to come. If you're referring to Morrison's version of "Let the Slave," it doesn't hold a candle to the original by Mike Westbrook, vocals by Phil Minton with Kate Westbrook, on _The Westbrook Blake_ (Original Records, 1980), IMHO. Nelson Hilton -=- English -=- University of Georgia -=- Athens Was ist Los? "Net of Urizen" or "Jerusalem the Web"? http://virtual.park.uga.edu/~wblake ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 08:14:22 -0800 From: reillys@ix.netcom.com (susan p. reilly) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Lunar Island Message-Id: <199610301614.IAA12671@dfw-ix1.ix.netcom.com> Thank you, Tom. I have hunted down the Norton critical edition and look forward to the annotated speculations on the "real" objects of Blake's satire in *Island in the Moon*--or, more precisely, others' ideas of them. This will, as you observed, save lots of page-flipping and running around. Susan ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 09:19:29 -0800 From: reillys@ix.netcom.com (susan p. reilly) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: /more Bluestockings Message-Id: <199610301719.JAA22853@dfw-ix2.ix.netcom.com> Jen, Just another thought on this Bluestocking thing ( I admit to now being addicted to this list, and it didn't take long) I understand and agree with your concerns about the plight of woman in Blake's time. I do, however, think it is time to celebrate the fact that recently, a great deal of work has been done by scholars to find and bring to light works by women authors I enumerate in my messages. As a sign of these changes, the latest critical Romantic reader I know of, Duncan Wu's, includes all these writers and more. But we are getting off the subject of Blake and some may take offense-- which brings me to a wrong I would like to address: How the heck did it come to pass that Avery became the villian of this small but far-flung community? I utterly fail to see that he was offensive in any way. Let's give him his due respect as professor, scholar, and author of works of Romantic criticism, and let's give and receive criticism in a professional and appropriate manner, and not allow our list to deteriorate into a Lord-of-the Flies debacle. How quickly, how easily, and how unfairly does one become an object of scorn. I'm half-expecting my turn at any time.... Perhaps we should all scour our editions of Blake to find appropriate passages on tolerance. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 14:21:25 EST From: Izak Bouwer To: blake@albion.com Subject: Blake's post-apocalyptic vision Message-Id: <9610301921.AA00508@izak.igs.net> In a description of one of his paintings of a Vision of the Last Judgment, Blake says(VLJ, K613, E544): *In Eternity Woman is the Emanation of Man; she has No Will of her own. There is no such thing in Eternity as a Female Will.* In order to get a perspective on this, one should note that he starts off this description by mentioning the visionary nature of his work, and states that *Mental Things are alone Real.* *The Hebrew Bible & the Gospel of Jesus are not Allegory, but Eternal Vision or Imagination of All that Exists.* He says that the *Persons* he depicts, such as Moses and Abraham, represent the *States Signified by those Names.* Both males and females are depicted. Of these states he says: *Man Passes on, but States remain for Ever; he passes thro* them like a traveller ... ,*; * ... these various States I have seen in my Imagination; when distant they appear as One Man, but as you approach they appear Multitudes of Nations.* The picture shows persons falling along the right side and rising along the left, with Jesus at the top and Hell at the bottom (where the Harlot is being burned - representing *the Eternal Consummation of Vegetable Life & Death with its Lusts*). The states, resulting from the *Combats of Truth & Error* therefore occur in a cycle, and Blake*s vision of the Last Judgment is that of a dynamic process of casting out error, and establishing (Eternal)truth. *All Life consists of these Two: Throwing off Error continually & receiving Truth Continually.* This cycle, as a cycle of *mental* states, pulls the narrative of the Bible into a circle. This cycle, in my opinion, is also that described in *The Mental Traveller.* The main characters are a male and female in interaction, the one waning as the other waxes, in continuous fashion, like the light and dark parts of the moon in its cycle. They are most readily identified with the spiritual and natural principles in Man, and the various states correspond to the extent to which each is manifested. The *full moon* represents the state of Eden, where there is no natural component (*in Paradise they have no Corporeal & Mortal Body* VLJ K616), while the *dark moon* represents the state of Hell. It is in this sense of personification only that Eden is all male, and the natural world female. In representing the Spirit as a Male, and Nature as a Female, Blake is of course following the traditions of *God the Father* (Jesus becomes the Father) and *Mother Earth.* However, this clearly does not mean that Blake did not consider women to be on a par with men. Of course not. He was a strong fighter for women*s rights, as we all know. He just used a certain symbolic system of thought, and had his doubts about this system, too. [*I have been tempted to burn my MSS but my wife wont let me.*(Bentley: Blake Records, p.322)] In the Biblical story of creation woman is created from the side of man, and thus emanates from man. In this tradition, it is natural for Blake to represent the four Zoas as male and their Emanations as female. Izak Bouwer (... my wife made me write this) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 13:34:33 -0500 (EST) From: "Avery F. Gaskins" To: Subject: Re: /more Bluestockings Message-Id: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Content-Type: Text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Susan, I haven't sensed that I am considered a villian by the list, except for one person and I considered the source. I did sense that quite a few people didn't agree with my ideas concerning Blake and Kate, and that is what a list like this should be all about. We all learn a great deal when there is civil disagreement on the list. In retrospect, I think I could have chosen a better wordthan deliberate. What I saw was a young man whose ego had been severely bruised by having been jilted, and yes, the record does show that Kate was loving and supportive at a time he needed it most, which must have over- whelmed him to some degree. Still, his ability to read and her inability had to have given him a sense of superiority. I wish I could say these ideas were original with me, but the truth is that I am parroting what I learned from Russell Noyes years ago. Avery Gaskins ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 96 14:09:19 CST From: Mark Trevor Smith To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: /more Bluestockings Message-Id: <9610302011.AA11302@uu6.psi.com> On Wed, 30 Oct 1996 13:34:33 -0500 (EST) Avery F. Gaskins said: >whelmed him to some degree. Still, his ability to read and her inability had >to have given him a sense of superiority. I wish I could say these ideas were Contrariwise, her ability to cook and his inability to exist without her ministrations must have given her a sense of superiority. Poor William, he needs me so; he will die without me. > ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 15:25:55 -0500 From: Virginia DeMeres To: blake@albion.com Subject: introduction and query Message-Id: <3277B9D3.7857@rsad.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I teach at the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota Florida. My first "real" encounter with Blake occurred in a graduate course devoted to him and Shelley. I've lost some of my precise understanding of his symbol system but have never lost my fascination for it. Now I'm wanting to re-invigorate my knowledge so I can teach his lyrics with the depth of focus they deserve. Meanwhile, I also teach freshman composition and write some poems of my own. It's fun for me to embark on this electronic adventure--as I guess it was for all of you. My claim to membership is simply interest and the application of that interest to a course I'll teach next spring. The course, for artists completing the lit requirement for a BFA, will cover a number of genres, including all the Songs of Innocence and Experience. Since the students are artists, we'll certainly discuss the engraving-writing connection, which seems very contemporary. If anyone has information on brief introductions to his philosophy or good films--anything to supplement our reading--I'd love to hear about it. Perhaps some of you would be willing to correspond with my students about your interest in Blake and (I hope) theirs. Thanks, Virginia *)* ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 13:37:34 -0600 From: jmichael@seraph1.sewanee.edu (J. Michael) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: /more Bluestockings Message-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >Jen, > >Just another thought on this Bluestocking thing ( I admit to now >being addicted to this list, and it didn't take long) > >I understand and agree with your concerns about the plight of woman in >Blake's time. I do, however, think it is time to celebrate the fact >that recently, a great deal of work has been done by scholars to find >and bring to light works by women authors I enumerate in my messages. >As a sign of these changes, the latest critical Romantic reader I know >of, Duncan Wu's, includes all these writers and more. I agree absolutely--though the question of current anthologies is one that gets debated frequently on other lists, and I don't want to dwell on it here. With regard to Blake's view of women, though, I think the discussion of contemporary women writers has less to do with his own marriage and more to do with how his view of the feminine may have been influenced by his exposure to those writers (many of whom were much better known in their own time than Blake was). To tie this thread to the one on _The Island in the Moon_, Zachary Leader's book _Reading Blake's Songs_ has an opening chapter on the intellectual circles that were debating questions of education and childhood, including many "bluestockings" such as Hannah More and Anna Laetitia Barbauld. Some of these figures, according to Leader, are recognizable in _The Island_. Jennifer Michael ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 16:01:08 -0500 (EST) From: me To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: ELP CD -Reply Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII how do I get off this list ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 15:06:15 -0600 From: jmichael@seraph1.sewanee.edu (J. Michael) To: vdemers@mailnews.rsad.edu Cc: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: introduction and query Message-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Virginia, In teaching Blake's lyrics to students who are themselves artists, you'll have an enviable opportunity to give the designs equal and complementary consideration. If you're looking for secondary material, your students would probably be interested in WJT Mitchell's _Blake's Composite Art_ and Jean Hagstrum's _William Blake: Poet and Painter_, which present different views of the relationship between the verbal and visual art. Other good sources on the visual art include Morris Eaves's _William Blake's Theory of Art_ and his more recent book, _The Counter-Arts Conspiracy_. But then there's also Joseph Viscomi's _Blake and the Idea of the Book_, which details the physical aspects of the process. Gosh, I could go on and on . . . . Of course, many of these books would be too expensive for students to buy individually (although Mitchell and Hagstrum are both available in paperback, if they're still in print). If your students have Web access, you should also check out Nelson Hilton's web site, where they can see the _Songs_ in all the different sequences in which it appeared. Jennifer Michael ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 15:35:12 -0500 (EST) From: dpvintin@acpub.duke.edu (Giles David) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Unidentified subject! Message-Id: <199610302035.PAA02605@argus.acpub.duke.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable The company that enjoy sweet communion on this list were so helpful to me in the hymn wot I wrote (Aaggh! Not that nutty songster with his dreadful Jerusalem pistache again! I hear you say)...that it seems only fit and fair to send the final version. I am indebted to the wit of the caustics amongst you, as much as to the wisdom of the crones. Don't be alarmed. I know full well I'm an unruly intruder, crossing over from the land of liturgics to plunder and make mayhem before your very eyes. I'm going to unsubscribe very soon...promise! But before I do, I thought you might be interested to know that I've now received about ten requests to use this song (one as far afield as New Zealand). OK - so it'll never cut the mustard with professional Blake acolytes, but hell, it's travelling, getting sung, and shaking a cobweb or two. Mock on, mock on if ye will. I'll throw my doggerel inya face, cos there's a wind out there that's catchin it and givin' it some grace. =20 'Truth Unseen' (Jerusalem DLM) And can it be that in our time, =09 We fathom out the truth unseen? =09 Yet has all meaning flown away, And left a space where truth has been? And did the dream of life divine, Shine once so bright, now cease to thrill? And shall faith build its fortress high Above earth's deep confusion still? Bring me the verb of blazing grace! Bring me the noun as yet unknown! Bring me a sign! O life, retrace - Bring flame from which all life is thrown! I shall not rest from question's frown, Nor answer smile, 'til earth embrace, 'Til every fear is broken down, And earth sees glory's hidden face. Now this the wisdom, this the song, This is the hope shall free our age; For this the way all journey long, Released from ancient scripture's page. The truth indwells! And grace invades! A voice invites - Come, hope inhale! Come earth, live now as Christ's own breath, Christ's presence shines beneath earth's veil. =A9 1996 Giles David (Feisty Doggerel.Publ) ............................................................................= .=20 -------------------------------- End of blake-d Digest V1996 Issue #121 **************************************