Continuing with Allen’s reading from, and annotation of, William Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence”
AG: “Every Wolfs and Lions howl/Raises from Hell a human soul” – did you get that? – it doesn’t put it down in Hell, it raises it from Hell, (that is) the energy of the wolf’s and lion’s howl “Raises from Hell a Human Soul”, merely by their raw energy, the naked nature. And then the compliment of that is: “The wild deer wandring here and there/Keeps the Human Soul from Care”
(which, in a sort of simple-minded ecological context, makes perfect sense – which is that a State which has the space and the calm for a wild deer to wander “here and there”, obviously, has room for people to “wander here and there”, or is calm enough “to keep the human soul from care”.
“The Lamb misusd breeds Public Strife/And yet forgives the Butchers knife”
“The Bat that flits at close of Eve/Has left the Brain that wont Believe” – That is to say, the.. there’s a joke in there. I mean, he’s laying a trip on the bat as being, you know, sinister, a sinister creature, but the fear of the bat, actually, “flitting at close of eve/Has left the Brain that wont Believe”.
“The Owl that calls upon the night/Speaks the Unbelievers fright”
“He who shall hurt the little Wren/Shall never be beloved by Men” – It’s obvious – He who would hurt a little wren? Who’s gonna love him (laughs) – even better:“He who the Ox to wrath has movd/Shall never be by Woman lovd”
So, any guy so macho as to abuse an ox…
It’s crystal-clear. And yet, first inserted into the brain, they seem mysterious..
Student: They didn’t have any S & M at that time?
AG: “The wanton Boy who kills the Fly/Shall feel the spider’s enmity” – Of course, that’s speaking of the boy’s projection, having killed the fly, then he’s going to be, like, paranoic about nature and feel the spider’s enmity.
Student: Also the spider might have eaten that fly.
AG: Yes.. stealing, he’s stealing the spider-food. So the spider will be coming out at night and crawling all over his bed-clothes, looking for a fly
“He who torments the Chafers Sprite/Weaves a Bower in endless Night”
to be continued….
[Audio for the above can be heard here, starting at approximately fifteen-and-a-quarter minutes in and continuing until approximately eighteen-and-a-half minutes in]