| William Blake (1757–1827). The Poetical Works. 1908. | | | | Selections from ‘Jerusalem’ | | [A Female Will] |
| | (Jerusalem, f. 34, ll. 25–35.)
WHAT may Man be? who can tell? But what may Woman be, | |
| To have power over Man from Cradle of corruptible Grave? | |
| There is a Throne in every Man: it is the Throne of God. | |
| This, Woman has claim’d as her own; and Man is no more: | |
| Albion is the Tabernacle of Vala and her Temple, | 5 |
| And not the Tabernacle and Temple of the Most High. | |
| O Albion! why wilt thou create a Female Will, | |
| To hide the most evident God in a hidden covert, even | |
| In the shadows of a Woman and a secluded Holy Place, | |
| That we may pry after him as after a stolen treasure, | 10 |
| Hidden among the Dead and murèd up from the paths of Life? | | | | |
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