Et Cetera

MILTON by William Blake. verse 22:18

But others of the Sons of Los build Moments & Minutes & Hours 

And Days & Months & Years & Ages & Periods: wondrous buildings 

And every Moment has a Couch of Gold for soft repose, 

(A Moment equals a pulsation of the artery), 

And between every two Moments stands a Daughter of Beulah 

To feed the Sleepers on their Couches with maternal care. 

And every Minute has an azure Tent with silken Veils: 

And every Hour has a bright golden Gate carved with skill: 

And every Day & Night has Walls of brass & Gates of adamant, 

Shining like precious Stones & ornamented with appropriate signs: 

And every Month a silver paved Terrace builded high: 

And every Year invulnerable Barriers with high Towers: 

And every Age is Moated deep with Bridges of silver & gold: 

And every Seven Ages is Incircled with a Flaming Fire. 

Now Seven Ages is amounting to Two Hundred Years. 

Each has its Guard, each Moment, Minute, Hour, Day, Month & Year. 

All are the work of Fairy hands of the Four Elements: 

The Guard are Angels of Providence on duty evermore. 

Every Time less than a pulsation of the artery 

Is equal in its period & value to Six Thousand Years. 

FOR in this Period the Poet's Work is Done; and all the Great 

Events of Time start forth & are conceiv'd in such a Period, 

Within a Moment, a Pulsation of the Artery. 

The Sky is an immortal Tent built by the Sons of Los: 

And every Space that a Man views around his dwelling-place, 

Standing on his own roof, or in his garden on a mount 

Of twenty-five cubits in height, such space is his Universe: 

And on its verge the Sun rises & sets, the Clouds bow 

To meet the flat Earth & the Sea in such an order'd space.