William Blake

I Saw a Chapel

  • I saw a chapel all of gold
  • That none did dare to enter in,
  • And many weeping stood without,
  • Weeping, mourning, worshipping.
  •  
  • I saw a serpent rise between
  • The white pillars of the door,
  • And he forc’d and forc’d and forc’d,
  • Down the golden hinges tore.
  •  
  • And along the pavement sweet,
  • Set with pearls and rubies bright,
  • All his slimy length he drew
  • Till upon the altar white
  •  
  • Vomiting his poison out
  • On the bread and on the wine.
  • So I turn’d into a sty
  • And laid me down among the swine.
Poems. Ed. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1863.

Editor’s Note:

This and other poems were first published by Rossetti in his edition of Blake’s poems, which formed the second volume of Alexander Gilchrist’s posthumous Life of William Blake. It was edited from a notebook in Rossetti’s possession, now known as the Rossetti MS., containing a great number of sketches, draft poems, polemical prose, and miscellaneous writings, which Blake kept with him for many years.