Allen Ginsberg’s 1978 Naropa lecture on William Blake’s The Four Zoas continues from here
AG: Well, let’s jump a little because it’s getting on late. I really would like to see if I could zap through this.
But we’ve got to dwell on this pretty (part). Now the pure poetry comes. So this is the humor of Orc seeing into the secrets of nature and body life and natural joys. Let’s see now:
“… a flame/ Of circling fire unceasing plays to feed them with life..” – (His limbs. To feed his limbs with life) – “… & bring/The virtues of the Eternal worlds ten thousand thousand spirits/ Of life lament around the Demon going forth & returning/At his enormous call they flee into the heavens of heavens/ And back return with wine & food. Or dive into the deeps/To bring the thrilling joys of sense to quell his ceaseless rage/ His eyes the lights of his large soul contract or else expand/ Contracted they behold the secrets of the infinite mountains/The veins of gold & silver & the hidden things of Vala/Whatever grows from its pure bud or breathes a fragrant soul/Expanded they behold the terrors of the Sun & Moon/The Elemental Planets & the orbs of eccentric fire/His nostrils breathe a fiery flame. his locks are like the forests/Of wild beasts there the lion glares the tyger & wolf howl there/And there the Eagle hides her young in cliffs & precipices/ His bosom is like starry heaven expanded all the stars/Sing round. there waves the harvest & the vintage rejoices. the Springs/Flow into rivers of delight. there the spontaneous flowers/Drink laugh & sing. the grasshopper the Emmet & the Fly/The golden Moth builds there a house & spreads her silken bed..”
“His loins inwove with silken fires are like a furnace fierce..” -(So he’s going through puberty. It’s like a kid’s imagination. Actually there’s a little paraphrase of pubescent discovery of bugs and birds and lions and bees and stars and infinity of the universe and senses thrilling with messengers).
So then, but then as it….
Student: That passage that you just read, is that Orc‘s sort of psychology..
AG: Is that what?
Student: That passage.
AG: That’s Orc. That’s Orc chained down, but Orc, (or) rebellion, chained down into a body. So it’s actually about the body, in a way. It’s about the spirit expanding, the energy spirit expanding as in puberty, you know, coming out of the daydreamy sleepiness of nine years old, ten years old, eleven years old, twelve years old. Sort of the stirrings and shoots in the loins – “the loins inwove with silken fires” – and then looking out into the world and seeing all the birds and bees. This is the story of the birds and bees – the sexual universe wakening.
But then there’s another passage. It’s followed by (a passage where) it’s as if Los becomes the world itself.
“His loins inwove with silken fires..” – (That’s page sixty-two, line (thirty-two) page three- thirty-five) – “His loins.” – “As the strong Bull in summer time when bees sing round the heath/ Where the herds low after the shadow..” – (that’s really nice – “Where the herds low after the shadow.” – the herds of cows going into the shadow of trees to get out of the heat of the summer – and “bees sing round the heath” – “Minute particulars”. Very precisely observed minute particulars in all of this. With all this cosmic poetic expansion, there always is this grounded detail – “No ideas but in things”. “The natural object is always the adequate symbol”.
“… the herds low after the shadow & after the water spring/The numrous flocks cover the mountain & shine along the valley/His knees are rocks of adamant & rubie & emerald…’ – (R-U-B-I-E) – “..adamant & rubie & emerald/Spirits of strength in Palaces rejoice in golden armour/Armed with spear & shield they drink & rejoice over the slain/Such is the Demon such his terror in the nether deep…” – (It gets back to the political war (and) revolutionO
Now, Los and Enitharmon return to that place where they were going to build the city of Golgonooza – return back to those genitals in a way.
“Felt all the sorrow Parents feel. they wept towards one another/And Los repented that he had chaind Orc upon the mountain/ And Enitharmons tears prevaild parental love returnd”
So – “…They rose/At midnight hasting to their much beloved care”- (Orc) – “Nine days they traveld thro the Gloom of Enthuthon Benithon” – (The body. A forest of error in Ulro – formlessness surrounding the city of art, according to various commentators. We’ve had Enthuthon Benithon – Intuition – beneath).
Ostriker says what follows here:
“… when they came to the dark rock & to the spectrous cage” – (that’s the skull again) – “Lo the young limbs had strucken root into the rock & strong/Fibres had from the Chain of Jealousy inwove themselves’ – (They can’t even get the boy free anymore or they can’t free that fiery rebellion from its material connection – fibrous connection — with the rock and..) – “Nor all Urthonas strength nor all the power of Luvahs Bulls” – (Nor all the king’s horses, nor all the king’s men can get Orc free from the internalization of the repression that’s been laid on him. Internalized repression is how Alicia Ostriker interprets this chain of jealousy becoming fibers and weaving themselves in swift vegetation round the rock and cave. Also, it’s the nerves and blood vessels, so that you can’t free this creature from its skull and bones and nervous system any longer.
So imagination and spiritual beauty repent that they had chained Orc upon the solidified mountain of meat, let us say, or upon the material universe – bound him down (and) said, “You can’t be a rebel, you’ve got to be a human being in human form” You can’t be anything you want. You can’t just be undifferentiated fiery energy. We’ll put you into a human shape.
So it relates to that little poem (“Infant Sorrow”)
“My mother groand! my father wept./Into the dangerous world I leapt:/Helpless, naked, piping loud;/ Like a fiend hid in a cloud…” – How does it go: “..Bound and weary….”
Student: “I thought best…”.
AG: “Struggling in my mother’s swaddling bands..
Student: “Struggling in my fathers hands”
AG: Struggling in my fathers hands/ Bound in my mothers swaddling bands..(“Striving against my swaddling bands“) – ‘Bound and weary I thought best..” – To rest..
Student: “To sulk upon my mothers….
AG: To sulk upon my mothers breast” – (to sulk on the breast of Mother Nature)
Student: That’s interesting because (in) that picture of Orc …
AG: Yeah.
Student: I guess, Enitharmon here is very breast conscious.
AG: Yeah.
Student: It’s sort of like a….
AG: Well, it is that image that he got big by drinking her milk.
Student: Yeah.
AG: The milk of Enitharmon.
Student: (Yeah, it’s there), even though he’s a little bit old for that.
AG: Orc got (or) revolution got big by drinking the milk of spiritual beauty. You know, the imagination of how beautiful it would be. (The) Utopian revolution. So he’s embracing the breast there. And that’s why, getting all the milk and beauty, the imagination of Los gets a bit freaked out.
Student: What’s that name of that (poem you just read)?
AG: “Infant Sorrow” which you can find on page … do you know that one, Roberta (sic)? Have you heard that? That’s one of the most famous of Blake’s little poems. So I’ll find it. I’ll find you the …
Student: It’s interesting….
AG: … page twenty-eight
Student: ..(and reminiscent) of a much longer poem in another book, too.
AG: Yeah. It’s page eighty . We won’t go to it. I just had it. But if you want to note it it’s on page twenty-eight, if you want to find it.
So, they travel through the gloom of Entuthon Benithon, but they already bound Los down. Imagination and Spiritual Beauty had already bound Los down into the limits of a mortal body, and now they’re stuck with it, from jealousy. It was a chain of jealousy that did it. Well, then what happens? Going on, because we don’t have much time….
tape ends here but will resume
Audio for the above can be heard here, beginning at approximately eighty-three-and-three-quarter minutes in and concluding at approximately ninety-three minutes in