|
48 "Justling together in the void, suspended by inward fires. "Impatience now no longer can endure. Distracted Luvah, 430 "Bursting forth from the loins of Enitharmon, Thou fierce Terror, "Go howl in vain! Smite, smite his fetters; smite, 0 wintry hammers! "Smite, Spectre of Urthona! Mock the fiend who drew us down "From heavens of joy into this deep. Now rage, but rage in vain" (K. I. 419-433) The song describes summer excess, which is not transformed into the wine and bread of Holy Communion. It inflames by its own excess and consumes itself in pursuit of ecstasy; as a result its winter is barren. On the limits of finite being established by the circle of destiny is Enion, whose energies of generation, thereby, are starved: At distance. Far in Night repell'd, in direful hunger craving, Summers & winters round revolving in the frightful deep. Enion, blind & age-bent, wept upon the desolate wind. CK. I. 442-444) Enion perceives the price that must be paid for such excess; life is bought by death: 445 Why does the Raven cry aloud and no eye pities her? 446 'Why fall the Sparrow & the Robin in the foodless winter? "Faint, shivering, they sit on leafless bush or frozen stone "Wearied with seeking food across the snowy waste, the little "Heart cold, and the little tongue consum'd that once in thoughtless joy 450 "Gave songs of gratitude to waving cornfields round their nest, CK. I. 445-450) Stimulated into motion and attraction by Luvah and Vala, life feeds on life; the strong feed off the weak, for summer's plenty is not saved for winter's scarcity. Unlike the regenerative cycle of Eden, in which |