William Blake

The Grey Monk (excerpts)

"I die, I die!" the Mother said, "My children die for lack of bread. What more has the merciless Tyrant said? " The Monk sat down on the stony bed. The blood red ran from the Grey Monk's side, His hands and feet were wounded wide, His body bent, his arms and knees Like to the roots of ancient trees. His eye was dry; no tear could flow: A hollow groan first spoke his woe. He trembled and shudder'd upon the bed; At length with a feeble cry he said: "When God commanded this hand to write In the studious hours of deep midnight, He told me the writing I wrote should prove The bane of all that on Earth I lov'd. My Brother starv'd between two walls, His Children's cry my soul appalls; I mock'd at the rack and griding chain, My bent body mocks their torturing pain. Thy father drew his sword in the North, With his thousands strong he marched forth; Thy Brother has arm'd himself in steel To avenge the wrongs thy Children feel. But vain the Sword and vain the Bow, They never can work War's overthrow. The Hermit's prayer and the Widow's tear Alone can free the World from fear. For a Tear is an intellectual thing, And a Sigh is the sword of an Angel King, And the bitter groan of the Martyr's woe Is an arrow from the Almighty's bow. The hand of Vengeance found the bed To which the Purple Tyrant fled; The iron hand crush'd the Tyrant's head And became a Tyrant in his stead. " NOTES Form: aabb 1. This poem was first published by Rossetti in his edition in Gilchrist's Life of William Blake, 1863. It was edited from a MS. in fair draft written by Blake probably during his stay at Felpham (1800-3), and later known as the Pickering MS. , from a Mr. B. J. Pickering who bought it and published an edition of it, more accurate than Rossetti's, in 1866. Another poem closely related to this forms part of the introduction to the third part of Jerusalem. 5. side. Like St. Francis, the founder of the order of grey monks, the monk carries the stigmata or five wounds of Christ. 17. Brother starv'd: a reference to the story of Ugolino in Dante's Inferno, xxxiii, frequently alluded to and illustrated by Blake.