Help with Preludium to Europe

[Dark Muse]

Can somebody please help me understand what this poem is about. I would be intrested to know as I am a fan of most of Blakes work, and I found the imagery and wording in this poem rather intresting, but I do not understand what is suppose to be symbolizing or refering to.


The nameless shadowy female rose from out the breast of Orc,
Her snaky hair brandishing in the winds of Enitharmon;
And thus her voice arose:

"O mother Enitharmon, wilt thou bring forth other sons?
To cause my name to vanish, that my place may not be found,
For I am faint with travail,
Like the dark cloud disburden'd in the day of dismal thunder.

My roots are brandish'd in the heavens, my fruits in earth beneath
Surge, foam and labour into life, first born and first consum'd!
Consumed and consuming!
Then why shouldst thou, accursed mother, bring me into life?

I wrap my turban of thick clouds around my lab'ring head,
And fold the sheety waters as a mantle round my limbs;
Yet the red sun and moon
And all the overflowing stars rain down prolific pains.

Unwilling I look up to heaven, unwilling count the stars:
Sitting in fathomless abyss of my immortal shrine
I seize their burning power
And bring forth howling terrors, all devouring fiery kings,

Devouring and devoured, roaming on dark and desolate mountains,
In forests of eternal death, shrieking in hollow trees.
Ah mother Enitharmon!
Stamp not with solid form this vig'rous progeny of fires.

I bring forth from my teeming bosom myriads of flames,
And thou dost stamp them with a signet; then they roam abroad
And leave me void as death.
Ah! I am drown'd in shady woe and visionary joy.

And who shall bind the infinite with an eternal band?
To compass it with swaddling bands? and who shall cherish it
With milk and honey?
I see it smile, and I roll inward, and my voice is past."

She ceased, and roll'd her shady clouds
Into the secret place.

[FacialFracture]

Okay, I'm not that familiar with Blake, nor am I very fond of him, so I'm sure others will chip in with more useful information...but here's what I've got:

This poem is a section from a series of engravings, which, taken together, were titled Europe, A Prophecy. As far as I can figure, the Preludium is about the birth of Europe--before people, before society, before enlightenment. The forces that brought Europe into being--in both the natural and the spiritual senses--have been given bodies and characters by Blake ("the nameless shadowy female"; "Enitharmon", who was a spirit of unformed, or abstract space), and the first person voice within the piece might be Europe itself describing its/her/his own birth (which would explain referencing abstract space as "mother").

Because of Blake's religious bent, I'm inclined to think that some amount of the unpleasant view of elements of nature ("howling terrors", "the red sun and moon", mentions of "prolific pain") could refer to a pre-Christian, pagan world. Also, I can't be sure, but I think that the second-to-last paragraph contains some biblical allusions--I just can't grasp far enough into my memory to prove it.

I could be completely off-base, but that's what I got from it.

[Dark Muse]

Ahh ok, it probaly would have made more sense to me if I had the poem more in context it with the others, but I had just come acorss it stand alone. But yes that does makes sense.