Blake, The Rout of the Rebel Angels, 1806
Rouse up, O Young Men of the New Age!
Set your foreheads against the ignorant hirelings!
For we have hirelings in the Camp, the Court, and the University,
Who would, if they could, for ever depress mental, and prolong corporeal war.
[Painters! on you I call. Sculptors! Architects!
Suffer not the fashionable fools to depress your powers
By the prices they pretend to give for contemptible works,
Or the expensive advertising boasts that they make of such works:]
Believe Christ and His Apostles
That there is a class of men whose delight is in destroying.
[We do not want either Greek or Roman models
If we are but just and true to our own Imaginations,
Those Worlds of Eternity in which we shall live for ever, in Jesus our Lord.]
William Blake, from the "Preface" of Selections from Milton
No comments:
Post a Comment