Prefatory Note to 'The Golden Net '
The original version of 'The Golden Net' is found in the Rossetti MS. Book. There Blake's first draft, without title, is written in the lefthand column of p. 14, and, except for the omission of ll. 3 and 4—
'Alas for woe! alas for woe!
They cry, and tears for ever flow—'
coincides generally with the form in which he afterwards transcribed it into the smaller autograph collection, the source of the present text.
In this early draft Blake's first attempt at emendation was to indicate by marginal numbers, 1 to 9, prefixed to 11. 5-13 (MS. Book, 11. 3-1 1), that the couplet,
'They bore a net of golden twine
To hang upon the branches fine,'
was now meant to follow l. 2. The initial couplet was next deleted, and the opening passage twice re-written. The first revision is found below Blake's terminal line marking the end of the poem, and runs as follows:—
'Beneath the white thorn's lovely May,
Three Virgins at the break of day.
The one was clothed in flames of fire,
The other clothed in iron wire [sweet desire (1st rdg. del.)],
The other clothed in tears & sighs,
Dazzling bright before my eyes.'
This again was erased, Blake recommencing at the head of the next column:
'Beneath the white thorn's lovely May,
"Alas for wo! alas for wo! alas for wo!"
They cry, & tears for ever flow.'
Here the first line is left rimeless, Blake evidently omitting to recopy the second line of the couplet which he had already twice written —
'Three virgins at the break of day.'
A further change consisted in the deletion of ll. 11-14 (MS. Book, ll. 9-12), opposite to which are written:
'Wings they had that soft enclose [& when they chose {1st rdg. del.)']
Round their body when they chose,
They would let them down at will
Or make translucent '
This unfinished passage is also struck out.
In transcribing this poem into the Pickering MS., Blake omitted the line with which the poem originally began:
'Beneath the white thorn's lovely May,'
without which the reference to the 'branches' in l. 10 is meaningless. Rossetti restores this line, beginning the poem with the triplet:—
'Beneath a white thorn's lovely May
Three virgins at the break of day:—
"Whither, young man, whither away?"'
This is one of Blake's 'threefold' poems. See note to 'The Crystal Cabinet.'
