77

340 So saying in deep sobs he languish'd till dead he

also fell.

Night passed, & Enitharmon, e'er the dawn, returned

in bliss.

She sang O'er Los reviving him to Life: his groans were terrible;

But thus she sang:

"I sieze the sphery harp. I strike the strings.

(K. II. 340-343)

Los' visionary memory of Eden stands in inverse contrast to his present experience: "I know thee not as once I knew thee in those blessed fields/ Where memory wishes to repose among the flocks of Tharmas." Enitharmon is bound by the impotent life/death cycle of the first universe, and so her lyric combines symbols of harmony and generation in a deluded denial of the ideal state of Eden.

Although a eulogy on love, Enitharmon's lyric inversely relates love with death:

"At the first sound the Golden sun arises from the

deep

345 "And shakes his awful hair,

"The Eccho wakes the moon to unwind her silver locks,

"The golden sun bears on my song

"And nine bright spheres of harmony rise round the fiery king.

"The joy of woman is the death of her most best

beloved

350 "Who dies for Love of her

"In torments of fierce jealousy "pangs of adoration" "The Lovers' night bears on my song

"And the nine spheres rejoice beneath my powerful controll.

"They sing unceasing to the notes of my immortal

hand.

355 "The solemn, silent moon

"Reverberates the living harmony upon my Limbs,

"The birds & beasts rejoice & play,

"And every one seeks for his mate to prove his inmost joy.

"Furious & terrible they sport & rend the nether deeps;

360 "The deep lifts up his rugged head,

"And lost in infinite hum[m]ing wings vanishes with a cry.