Background Image

...

Mock On, Mock On, Voltaire, Rousseau! Mock On, Mock On: 'tis All In Vain! You Throw The Sand Against The Wind, And The Wind Blows It Back Again. And Every Sand Becomes A Gem Reflected In The Beams Divine; Blown Back They Blind The Mocking Eye, But Still In Israel's Paths They Shine. The Atoms Of Democritus And Newton's Particles Of Light Are Sands Upon The Red Sea Shore, Where Israel's Tents Do Shine So Bright.

-William Blake

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Mock On, Mock On,

William Blake

...

Mock On, Mock On, Voltaire, Rousseau! Mock On, Mock On: 'tis All In Vain! You Throw The Sand Against The Wind, And The Wind Blows It Back Again. And Every Sand Becomes A Gem Reflected In The Beams Divine; Blown Back They Blind The Mocking Eye, But Still In Israel's Paths They Shine. The Atoms Of Democritus And Newton's Particles Of Light Are Sands Upon The Red Sea Shore, Where Israel's Tents Do Shine So Bright.

Views: 51817

Topic

More From William Blake

He Who Would Do Good To Another Must Do It In Minute Particulars.

Poetry Fettered, Fetters The Human Race. Nations Are Destroyed Or Flourish In Proportion As Their Poetry, Painting, And Music Are Destroyed Or Flourish.

'come Hither, My Boy, Tell Me What Thou Seest There?' 'a Fool Tangled In A Religious Snare.'

Love Is Weak When There Is More Doubt Than There Is Trust, But Love Is Most Strong When You Learn To Trust Even With All The Doubts. If A Thing Loves, It Is Infinite.

Dear Mother, Dear Mother, The Church Is Cold, But The Ale-house Is Healthy And Pleasant And Warm.

Eternity Is In Love With The Productions Of Time.

Oh! Why Was I Born With A Different Face? Why Was I Not Born Like The Rest Of My Race? When I Look,each One Starts! When I Speak, I Offend; Then Im Silent & Passive & Lose Every Friend. Then My Verse I Dishonour, My Pictures Despise, My Person Degrade & My Temper Chastise; And The Pen Is My Terror, The Pencil My Shame; All My Talents I Bury, And Dead Is My Fame. Im Either Too Low Or Too Highly Prized; When Elate I M Envy'd, When Meek Im Despis'd

Different Faces

There Is A Smile Of Love, And There Is A Smile Of Deceit, And There Is A Smile Of Smiles In Which These Two Smiles Meet.

Forgive What You Do Not Approve & Love Me For This Energetic Exertion Of My Talent

I Am Under The Direction Of Messengers From Heaven Daily And Nightly.

The Fox Condemns The Trap, Not Himself.

I Will Not Cease From Mental Fight Nor Shall My Sword Sleep In My Hand.

O Thou Who Passest Through Our Valleys In Thy Strength, Curb Thy Fierce Steeds, Allay The Heat That Flames From Their Large Nostrils! Thou, O Summer, Oft Pitchest Here Thy Golden Tent, And Oft Beneath Our Oaks Hast Slept, While We Beheld With Joy Thy Ruddy Limbs And Flourishing Hair.

Make Your Own Rules Or Be A Slave To Another Man's.

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.

I Am Going To That Country Which I Have All My Life Wished To See.

The Goddess Fortune Is The Devil's Servant, Ready To Kiss Any One's Ass.

The Sick Rose O Rose, Thou Art Sick. The Invisible Worm That Flies In The Night In The Howling Storm Has Found Out Thy Bed Of Crimson Joy, And His Dark Secret Love Does Thy Life Destroy.

Nature In Darkness Groans And Men Are Bound To Sullen Contemplation In The Night: Restless They Turn On Beds Of Sorrow; In Their Inmost Brain Feeling The Crushing Wheels, They Rise, They Write The Bitter Words Of Stern Philosophy And Knead The Bread Of Knowledge With Tears And Groans.

Without Contraries Is No Progression. Attraction And Repulsion, Reason And Energy, Love And Hate, Are Necessary To Human Existence.

The Pride Of The Peacock Is The Glory Of God.

Innate Ideas Are In Every Man, Born With Him; They Are Truly Himself. The Man Who Says That We Have No Innate Ideas Must Be A Fool And Knave, Having No Conscience Or Innate Science.

The Woman That Does Not Love Your Frowns Will Never Embrace Your Smiles.

More! More! Is The Cry Of A Mistaken Soul.

I Am In You And You In Me, Mutual In Divine Love.

For Everything That Lives Is Holy, Life Delights In Life.

Enlightenment Means Taking Full Responsibility For Your Life.

It Is Not Because Angels Are Holier Than Men Or Devils That Makes Them Angels, But Because They Do Not Expect Holiness From One Another, But From God Only.

Those Who Restrain Their Desires, Do So Because Theirs Is Weak Enough To Be Restrained.

Thought Provoking

Execution Is The Chariot Of Genius.

Come Live, And Be Merry, And Join With Me, To Sing The Sweet Chorus Of 'ha Ha He!

The World Of Imagination Is The World Of Eternity.

The Lust Of The Goat Is The Bounty Of God.

O Why Was I Born With A Different Face? Why Was I Not Born Like The Rest Of My Race?

Different Faces

The Fool Shall Not Enter Into Heaven Let Him Be Ever So Holy.

How Have You Left The Ancient Love That Bards Of Old Enjoyed In You! The Languid Strings Do Scarcely Move! The Sound Is Forced, The Notes Are Few!

When My Mother Died I Was Very Young, And My Father Sold Me While Yet My Tongue Could Scarcely Cry Weep Weep Weep Weep. So Your Chimneys I Sweep, And In Soot I Sleep.

To Generalize Is To Be An Idiot.

Thus Men Forgot That All Deities Reside In The Human Breast.

Painters Are Noted For Being Dissipated And Wild.

Mercy, Pity, And Peace, Are The World's Release.

Thou Fair-hair'd Angel Of The Evening, Now, Whilst The Sun Rests On The Mountains, Light Thy Bright Torch Of Love; Thy Radiant Crown Put On, And Smile Upon Our Evening Bed!

To Chloe's Breast Young Cupid Slily Stole, But He Crept In At Myra's Pocket-hole.

Wisdom Is Sold In A Desolate Marketplace Where None Can Come To Buy.

I Have Mental Joys And Mental Health, Mental Friends And Mental Wealth, I've A Wife That I Love And That Loves Me; I've All But Riches Bodily.

I Must Create A System Or Be Enslaved By Another Mans; I Will Not Reason And Compare: My Business Is To Create.

Great Things Are Done When Men And Mountains Meet.

Tyger! Tyger! Burning Bright In The Forests Of The Night, What Immortal Hand Or Eye Could Frame Thy Fearful Symmetry?

God Only Acts And Is, In Existing Beings Or Men.

There Is No Mistake So Great As The Mistake Of Not Going On.

Why Stand We Here Trembling Around, Calling On God For Help, And Not Ourselves, In Whom God Dwells?

Art Degraded, Imagination Denied.

To The Eyes Of The Man Of Imagination, Nature Is Imagination Itself.

Praises Reap Not! Joys Laugh Not! Sorrows Weep Not!

O God, Protect Me From My Friends, That They Have Not Power Over Me. Thou Hast Giv'n Me Power To Protect Myself From Thy Bitterest Enemies.

In The Universe, There Are Things That Are Known, And Things That Are Unknown, And In Between, There Are Doors.

The Errors Of A Wise Man Make Your Rule Rather Than The Perfections Of A Fool.

The World Of Imagination Is The World Of Eternity. It Is The Divine Bosom Into Which We Shall All Go After The Death Of The Vegetated [i.e. Mortal] Body. This World Of Imagination Is Infinite And Eternal, Whereas The World Of Generation Is Finite And Temporal. There Exist In That Eternal World The Eternal Realities Of Everything Which We See Reflected In This Vegetable Glass Of Nature.

The Vision Of Christ That Thou Dost See Is My Vision's Greatest Enemy . Both Read The Bible Day And Night, But Thou Read'st Black Where I Read White. His Seventy Disciples Sent Against Religion And Government .

Silent As Despairing Love, And Strong As Jealousy.

I Asked A Thief To Steal Me A Peach: He Turned Up His Eyes. I Asked A Lithe Lady To Lie Her Down: Holy And Meek, She Cries. As Soon As I Went An Angel Came. He Winked At The Thief And Smiled At The Dame- And Without One Word Spoke Had A Peach From The Tree, And 'twixt Earnest And Joke Enjoyed The Lady.

Error Is Created; Truth Is Eternal.

The Eye Altering, Alters All.

The Mocker Of Art Is The Mocker Of Jesus.

For Everything Exists And Not One Sigh Nor Smile Nor Tear, One Hair Nor Particle Of Dust, Not One Can Pass Away.

I Wander Thro' Each Charter'd Street, Near Where The Charter'd Thames Does Flow, And Mark In Every Face I Meet Marks Of Weakness, Marks Of Woe. In Every Cry Of Every Man, In Every Infant's Cry Of Fear, In Every Voice, In Every Ban, The Mind-forg'd Manacles I Hear. How The Chimney-sweeper's Cry Every Black'ning Church Appalls; And The Hapless Soldier's Sigh Runs In Blood Down Palace Walls. But Most Thro' Midnight Streets I Hear How The Youthful Harlot's Curse Blasts The New Born Infant's Tear, And Blights With Plagues The Marriage Hearse.

Drive Your Cart And Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead.

All Futurity Seems Teeming With Endless Destruction Never To Be Repelled; Desperate Remorse Swallows The Present In A Quenchless Rage.

When The Doors Of Perception Are Cleansed, Men Will See Things As They Truly Are, Infinite.

Expect Poison From The Standing Water.

Little Fly, Thy Summer's Play My Thoughtless Hand Has Brushed Away. Am Not I A Fly Like Thee? Or Art Not Thou A Man Like Me? For I Dance And Drink And Sing, Till Some Blind Hand Shall Brush My Wing!

I Turn My Eyes To The Schools & Universities Of Europe And There Behold The Loom Of Locke Whose Woof Rages Dire, Washed By The Water-wheels Of Newton. Black The Cloth In Heavy Wreaths Folds Over Every Nation; Cruel Works Of Many Wheels I View, Wheel Without Wheel, With Cogs Tyrannic Moving By Compulsion Each Other: Not As Those In Eden, Which Wheel Within Wheel In Freedom Revolve, In Harmony & Peace.

No Bird Soars Too High If He Soars With His Own Wings.

To Cast Aside From Poetry, All That Is Not Inspiration

The True Method Of Knowledge Is Experiment.

Naught Can Deform The Human Race Like To The Armor's Iron Brace.

The Spirits Of The Air Live On The Smells Of Fruit; And Joy, With Pinions Light, Roves Round The Gardens, Or Sits Singing In The Trees.

The Foundation Of Empire Is Art And Science. Remove Them Or Degrade Them, And The Empire Is No More. Empire Follows Art And Not Vice Versa As Englishmen Suppose.

What Is Now Proved Was Once Only Imagined.

Then My Verse I Dishonor, My Pictures Despise, My Person Degrade And My Temper Chastise; And The Pen Is My Terror, The Pencil My Shame; And My Talents I Bury, And Dead Is My Fame.

God And His Priest And King,...make Up A Heaven Of Our Misery.

The Wrath Of The Lion Is The Wisdom Of God.

Dip Him In The River Who Loves Water.

And I Made A Rural Pen, And I Stained The Water Clear, And I Wrote My Happy Songs Every Child May Joy To Hear.

Sooner Strangle An Infant In Its Cradle Than Nurse Unacted Desires.

Pay Attention To Minute Particulars. Take Care Of The Little Ones. Generalization And Abstraction Are The Plea Of The Hypocrite, Scoundrel, And Knave.

Knowledge Of Ideal Beauty Is Not To Be Acquired. It Is Born With Us. Innate Ideas Are In Every Man, Born With Him; Theyare Truly Himself.

The Ruins Of Time Build Mansions In Eternity.

She Who Dwells With Me Whom I Have Loved With Such Communion, That No Place On Earth Can Ever Be Solitude To Me.

Embraces Are Comminglings From The Head Even To The Feet, And Not A Pompous High Priest Entering By A Secret Place.

Let The Men Do Their Duty & The Women Will Be Such Wonders; The Female Life Lives From The Light Of The Male: See A Man's Female Dependants, You Know The Man.

When Nations Grow Old The Arts Grow Cold And Commerce Settles On Every Tree

Mysteries Are Not To Be Solved. They Eye Goes Blind When It Only Wants To See Why.

Desperate Remorse Swallows The Present In A Quenchless Rage.

The Atoms Of Democritus And Newton's Particles Of Light Are Sands Upon The Red Sea Shore, Where Israel's Tents Do Shine So Bright.

Pride Is A Personal Commitment. It Is An Attitude Which Separates Excellence From Mediocrity.

What Seems To Be, Is, To Those To Whom It Seems To Be, And Is Productive Of The Most Dreadful Consequences To Those To Whom It Seems To Be, Even Of Torments, Despair, Eternal Death.

A Fool Sees Not The Same Tree That A Wise Man Sees.

My Silks And Fine Array, My Smiles And Languished Air, By Love Are Driv'n Away And Mournful Lean Despair Brings Me Yew To Deck My Grave: Such End True Lovers Have.

Everything To Be Imagined Is An Image Of Truth.

Can I See Another's Woe, And Not Be In Sorrow Too? Can I See Another's Grief, And Not Seek For Kind Relief?

Men Are Admitted Into Heaven Not Because They Have Curbed Or Governed Their Passions, But Because They Have Cultivate Their Understandings.

Angels Are Happier Than Men And Devils, Because They Are Not Always Prying After Good And Evil In One Another, And Eating The Tree Of Knowledge For Satan's Gratification.

My Mother Bore Me In The Southern Wild, And I Am Black, But O! My Soul Is White; White As An Angel Is The English Child, But I Am Black As If Bereaved Of Light.

To Some People A Tree Is Something So Incredibly Beautiful That It Brings Tears To The Eyes. To Others It Is Just A Green Thing That Stands In The Way.

For The Eye Altering Alters All; The Senses Roll Themselves In Fear And The Flat Earth Becomes A Ball.

May God Us Keep From Single Vision And Newton's Sleep.

Fun I Love, But Too Much Fun Is Of All Things The Most Loathsome. Mirth Is Better Than Fun, And Happiness Is Better Than Mirth.

I Rest Not From My Great Task! | To Open The Eternal Worlds, | To Open The Immortal Eyes Of Man | Inwards Into The Worlds Of Thought; | Into Eternity, Ever Expanding | In The Bosom Of God, | The Human Imagination

They Who Forgive Most Shall Be Most Forgiven.

Without Contraries There Is No Progression.

Celebrate Your Existence!

Christ's Crucifix Shall Be Made An Excuse For Executing Criminals.

The Nakedness Of Woman Is The Work Of God.

When Sir Joshua Reynolds Died All Nature Was Degraded

God Keep Me From The Divinity Of Yes And Nothe Yea Nay Creeping Jesus, From Supposing Up And Down To Be The Same Thing As Allexperimentalists Must Suppose.

For I Dance And Drink And Sing, Till Some Blind Hand Shall Brush My Wing. If Thought Is Life And Strength And Breath And The Want Of Thought Is Death Then Am I A Happy Fly If I Live Or If I Die

One Thought Fills Immensity.

On No Other Ground Can I Sow My Seed Without Tearing Up Some Stinking Weed.

You Never Know What Is Enough Unless You Know What Is More Than Enough.

Thought Provoking

The Vision Of Christ That Thou Dost See Is My Vision's Greatest Enemy.

[l]et Light Rise From The Chambers Of The East, And Bring The Honey'd Dew That Cometh On Waking Day. O Radiant Morning.

Does The Eagle Know What Is In The Pit Or Wilt Thou Go Ask The Mole? Can Wisdom Be Put In A Silver Rod, Or Love In A Golden Bowl?

Rhetoric Completes The Tools Of Learning. Dialectic Zeros In On The Logic Of Things, Of Particular Systems Of Thought Or Subjects. Rhetoric Takes The Next Grand Step And Brings All These Subjects Together Into One Whole.

The Eye Sees More Than The Heart Knows.

Father, O Father! What Do We Here In This Land Of Unbelief And Fear?

When The Stars Threw Down Their Spears, And Watered Heaven With Their Tears, Did He Smile His Work To See? Did He Who Made The Lamb Make Thee?

Some Will Say, Is Not God Alone The Prolific? I Answer, God Only Acts & Is, In Existing Beings Or Men.

The Vision Of Christ That Thou Dost See, Is My Vision's Greatest Enemy. 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.

It Is An Easy Thing To Talk Of Patience To The Afflicted.

My Brother Starv'd Between Two Walls,his Children's Cry My Soul Appalls

Nothing Is Real Beyond Imaginative Patterns Men Make Of Reality.

Then Cherish Pity, Lest You Drive An Angel From Your Door.

Innocence And Experience

When A Sinister Person Means To Be Your Enemy, They Always Start By Trying To Become Your Friend.

Nothing Can Be More Contemptible Than To Suppose Public Records To Be True.

But To Go To School In A Summer Morn, O! It Drives All Joy Away; Under A Cruel Eye Outworn, The Little Ones Spend The Day In Sighing And Dismay.

The Imagination Is Not A State: It Is The Human Existence Itself.

Innocence Dwells With Wisdom, But Never With Ignorance.

Christianity Is Art And Not Money. Money Is Its Curse.

Bring Me An Axe And Spade, Bring Me A Winding-sheet; When I My Grave Have Made Let Winds And Tempests Beat: Then Down I'll Lie As Cold As Clay. True Love Doth Pass Away!

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.

Like A Fiend In A Cloud, With Howling Woe, After Night I Do Crowd, And With Night Will Go; I Turn My Back To The East, From Whence Comforts Have Increased; For Light Doth Seize My Brain With Frantic Pain.

The Best Wine Is The Oldest, The Best Water The Newest.

For Where'er The Sun Does Shine, And Where'er The Rain Does Fall, Babe Can Never Hunger There, Nor Poverty The Mind Appall.

The Glory Of Christianity Is To Conquer By Forgiveness.

Christian Inspirational

Do What You Will This Life's A Fiction, And Is Made Up Of Contradiction.

The Man Who Never Alters His Opinions Is Like Standing Water, And Breeds Reptiles Of The Mind.

Tools Were Made And Born Were Hands, Every Farmer Understands.

The Most Sublime Act Is To Set Another Before You.

I See Through My Eyes, Not With Them.

Through My Eyes

We Are Here To Learn To Endure The Beams Of Love

And We Are Put On Earth A Little Space, That We May Learn To Bear The Beams Of Love.

The Whole Business Of Man Is The Arts, & All Things Common.

Imagination Is The Real And Eternal World Of Which This Vegetable Universe Is But A Faint Shadow.

Each Man Is Haunted Until His Humanity Awakens.

Joy And Woe Are Woven Fine.

If Others Had Not Been Foolish, We Should Be So.

Rome & Greece Swept Art Into Their Maw & Destroy'd It; A Warlike State Never Can Produce Art. It Will Rob & Plunder & Accumulate Into One Place, & Translate & Copy & Buy & Sell & Criticize, But Not Make.

I Myself Do Nothing. The Holy Spirit Accomplishes All Through Me.

I Give You The End Of A Golden String, Only Wind It Into A Ball, It Will Lead You In At Heaven's Gate Built In Jerusalem's Wall.

He Who Has Few Things To Desire Cannot Have Many To Fear.

He Loves To Sit And Hear Me Sing, Then, Laughing, Sports And Plays With Me; Then Stretches Out My Golden Wing, And Mocks My Loss Of Liberty.

The Angel That Presided O'er My Birth Said, 'little Creature, Formed Of Joy And Mirth, Go Love Without The Help Of Any Thing On Earth'.

Colouring Does Not Depend On Where The Colours Are Put, But On Where The Lights And Darks Are Put, And All Depends On Form And Outline, On Where That Is Put.

Everything Is Beautiful In Its Own Way. Exuberance Is Beauty.

To Generalize Is To Be An Idiot. To Particularize Is The Alone Distinction Of Merit. General Knowledge Are Those Knowledge That Idiots Possess.

Struggling In My Father's Hands, Striving Against My Swaddling Bands, Bound And Weary, I Thought Best To Sulk Upon My Mother's Breast.

O Winter! Bar Thine Adamantine Doors: The North Is Thine; There Hast Thou Build Thy Dark, Deep-founded Habitation. Shake Not Thy Roofs, Nor Bend Thy Pillars With Thine Iron Car.

The Hand Of Vengeance Found The Bed To Which The Purple Tyrant Fled The Iron Hand Crush'd The Tyrant's Head And Became Tyrant In His Stead.

The Cut Worm Forgives The Plow.

He Who Wants, But Doesn't Act, Is A Pest.

When Thou Seest An Eagle, Thou Seest A Portion Of Genius; Lift Up Thy Head!

The Stolen And Perverted Writings Of Homer & Ovid, Of Plato & Cicero, Which All Men Ought To Contemn, Are Set Up By Artifice Against The Sublime Of The Bible

Commerce Is So Far From Being Beneficial To Arts, Or To Empire, That It Is Destructive Of Both, As All Their History Shows, For The Above Reason Of Individual Merit Being Its Great Hatred. Empires Flourish Till They Become Commercial, And Then They Are Scattered Abroad To The Four Winds.

Come O'er The Eastern Hills, And Let Our Winds Kiss Thy Perfumed Garments; Let Us Taste Thy Morn And Evening Breath; Scatter Thy Pearls Upon Our Love-sick Land That Mourns For Thee.

Improvement Makes Strait Roads, But The Crooked Roads Without Improvement, Are Roads Of Genius.

Joys Impregnate. Sorrows Bring Forth.

It Is The Greatest Of Crimes To Depress True Art And Science.

The Naked Women's Body Is A Portion Of Eternity Too Great For The Eye Of Man.

Art Is The Tree Of Life. Science Is The Tree Of Death.

Why Cannot The Ear Be Closed To Its Own Destruction? Or The Glistening Eye To The Poison Of A Smile?

The Fool Who Persists In His Folly Will Become Wise.

For Mercy Has A Human Heart Pity, A Human Face: And Love, The Human Form Divine, And Peace, The Human Dress.

God Forbid That Truth Should Be Confined To Mathematical Demonstration!

Kill Not The Moth Nor Butterfly, For The Last Judgement Draweth Nigh.

My Mother Groaned, My Father Wept, Into The Dangerous World I Leapt.

The Ignorant Insults Of Individuals Will Not Hinder Me From Doing My Duty To My Art

I Am More Famed In Heaven For My Works Than I Could Well Conceive. In My Brain Are Studies & Chambers Filled With Books & Pictures Of Old, Which I Wrote And Painted In Ages Of Eternity Before My Mortal Life; And Whose Works Are The Delight & Study Of Archangels. Why, Then, Should I Be Anxious About The Riches Or Fame Of Mortality?

Man Has No Body Distinct From His Soul; For That Called Body Is A Portion Of Soul Discerned By The Five Senses, The Chief Inlets Of Soul In This Age.

Truth Can Never Be Told So As To Be Understood And Not Be Believed.

God Is The Poetic Genius In Each Of Us.

Pity Would Be No More, If We Did Not Make Somebody Poor. Mercy No More Could Be, If All Were Happy As We.

He Who Sees The Infinite In All Things Sees God.

I Was Angry With My Friend: I Told My Wrath, My Wrath Did End. I Was Angry With My Foe: I Told It Not, My Wrath Did Grow.

Man Has Closed Himself Up, Till He Sees All Things Thro' Narrow Chinks Of His Cavern.

Excessive Sorrow Laughs. Excessive Joy Weeps.

How Do You Know But Ev’ry Bird That Cuts The Airy Way, Is An Immense World Of Delight, Clos’d By Your Senses Five?

He Who Kisses Joy As It Flies By Will Live In Eternity's Sunrise.

A Truth That's Told With Bad Intent Beats All The Lies You Can Invent.

He Who Loves His Enemies Betrays His Friends; This Surely Is Not What Jesus Meant.

Trending Author

Bruce Jay Friedman

Category